Hey Guys,

I bought an Acer netbook a couple of years ago (on Craigslist, go figure) and one problem i've always had with it was the wireless internet on it. I've always been able to establish a connection to a wireless router nearby, i'm just unable to connect to my web browser or any other web applications.

On the other hand, I can hardwire into a modem/router and internet works fine. I've formatted the hard drive and everything a while back and have had a work laptop so it hasen't been vital but i'm tired of it just sitting around gathering dust.

I'm not sure the exact model number but it's from a few years back and has the same specs as this model: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AOD150-1165-10-1-Inch-Sapphire-Blue/dp/B001QFZFS0

5/25/2012 10:23:55 AM

Driver issue?
Bad wireless card?

5/25/2012 10:32:32 AM

put ubuntu on a usb drive and run it in live mode (dont install it).

then see if the wireless works.

then you know if its a bad card or wrong driver in windows.

5/25/2012 11:50:24 AM

get the model number of the chipset, uninstall the driver, download the latest driver from the manufacturer's website, and try that

if it still doesn't work, wait until this airlink "nub" wireless-N adapter goes on sale for $10 (it does at least once a month, check slickdeals) and use it: http://www.meritline.com/airlink101-awll5088-wireless-n-ultra-mini-usb-adapter---p-45923.aspx

5/25/2012 12:00:20 PM

when you connect the work laptop to the router (wirelessly) can you browse the web, etc?

5/25/2012 12:54:21 PM

What wireless encryption standard are you using? Its possible the chipset+driver does not support the particular encryption standard you are using. You can test for this by switching it to something basic like WPA temporarily and seeing if it works.

Had this issue with one of my cheap laptops I got a while back - wireless would connect but not actually work whenever I used anything besides WPA. The solution was a usb wifi adapter which did support better encyrption methods.

[Edited on May 25, 2012 at 1:26 PM. Reason : as]

5/25/2012 1:25:04 PM

Well i'm posting from it now. Apparently it must of been encryption issue, it still doesn't work on my neighbors router but it works fine on my new home office router.

5/27/2012 1:32:59 PM

Quote :

"must of been"

:'(

[Edited on May 27, 2012 at 4:28 PM. Reason : look of disapproval didn't work :'(]

5/27/2012 4:27:33 PM

You might want to try driver updates directly from Acer (they don't always appear in windows update for a number of reasons - that is it will not nescessarily find the newest or best driver for your device particularly if the manufacturer hasn't published it to them.)

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers

Make sure you download the right ones for your OS and the correct wireless driver (there may be 3 or 4 different ones listed for - at least one for each of the manufacturers of that part.)

I suggest this might help because the Aetheros brand wifi adapter with the basic drivers (and often the latest ones which windows update will retreive) will produce the exact problem you were describing with the older drivers. If the part is an aetheros brand wifi chipset and you're running Windows XP, then updating to the latest XP drivers for that will very likely solve the problem.

If drivers don't fix the problem then you might still have another option, but it's not particularly convenient if you want to use the laptop on other networks all that often. In most cases I have seen with this the system is able to handle the actual encryption and communicate with the router just fine with one exception - it fails during one of the stages of DHCP. I've found that on most but not all systems where this happens and when driver updates do not solve it, you can work around the problem by manually assigning an IP adress; problem is that you'd have to change your settings around quite often when using different wireless a networks.

Procedure assuming XP:
Configure the stronger WPA/WPA2 encrytpion again on your router
Click start - open "control panel"
Click "classic view" and then "network connections"
Right click on your wireless adapter and click "disable" (optional - simplifies information)
Connect computer by ethernet cable to router LAN port
Verify you can browse the web
Click Start (or windows button depending on OS version)
Click run if in xp (or just click search field in Win 7)
Type "cmd" and hit enter
At command prompt type ipconfig /all
Note IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, DNS server
Disconnect ethernet cable
Go back to control panel -> network connections
Right click on your disabled wifi adapter and select "enable"
Right click on wifi adapter and select properties
Select IP Protocol/IPv4 Protocol and then click properties
Click "use the following IP address" and "use the following DNS server"
Fill out subnet, DNS Server (only need primary), and Default gateway exactly as you noted them
For your IP address, fill it out as it was above EXCEPT the last three numbers
-Try XXX.XXX.XXX.157 - this will usually be safe
Click ok, close out open windows and click accept/yes/save when prompted
Possibly reboot computer

When going to other networks, go back to where you entered the IP address information and click obtain automatically and give it a try. If its compatible you'll be good, if not then you can try something similar to what you see above (you can repeat the process for obtaining information on any other computer that's successfully connected without mucking around with disconnecting/reconnecting them and manage to chose an unassigned/out-of-range IP address). It might not work on some networks at all (depending on configuration) and it's tedious to have to change settings with each new network. So really if driver updates don't work - get a decent relatively new USB wifi adapter that works with your OS.

An explanation - layman-ish:

When I've seen this problem, almost universally the communications log on the router look something like this:

*Router hears computer basically shout "hey, I'm here talk to me" (DHCPDISCOVER)
*Router router basically says "hey, I hear you - here's my address and here's yours; need anything else?" (DHCPOFFER)
*Router waits for a bit but the computer never responds (timeout waiting for DHCPREQUEST)

The end result is that - for whatever reason - the client (in this case, your computer) fails to interpret or send one of the messages that are part of the router assigning it an IP adress and giving it the information that ultimately tells your computer how to resolve website URL addresses (like say... google.com) into the numerical address it needs so the router can actually send requests over the internet to those sites. So when your browser tries to go to "google.com" your computer basically says "don't know where that is" because it doesn't know of any DNS (domain name server) to ask - information your router would normally tell it through DHCP.

In most of these cases - since the failure is so specific - manually configuring the information on the problematic client will solve the problem in most home networks. As long as you configure the correct Gateway, Subnet, DNS Server, and an IP adress within an acceptable range that is not assigned - nor likely to be assigned - to another machine then it will usually work. Basically if you give the computer most of the information the router would have given it in the first place and don't create a conflict, this will serve to bypass the whole failure to properly get that information in the first place.

[Edited on May 28, 2012 at 5:42 AM. Reason : being bolder and more rambly]

5/28/2012 5:41:45 AM

Here are a couple better DNS servers to use (Comodo Secure DNS):
8.26.56.26
8.20.247.20

If you have more spots, consider using the old servers too:
156.154.70.22
156.154.71.22

5/28/2012 1:48:04 PM