Laptop Wireless Internet issue

Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 Laptop. For some reason, i can't seem to get connected to the internet. I know that it's probably an issue with my laptop because I've tried other laptops with my internet and it works. This is what it does: As soon as I log onto my laptop, I can get connected to my wireless internet. However, after about 3-5 minutes online, I lose connection to my wireless and then I can't reconnect to my wireless internet anymore. I've tried connecting my laptop to 2 different wireless networks at 2 different locations and it does the same thing, so that's why I'm assuming that the problem is my laptop and not my internet, because like I said before, other laptops do work. If anybody can help, I sure would appreciate it. Thanks.

Hi Alex.

Open Device Manager and tell me what kind of network devices you have listed under Network Adapters.

Click on Start then Run, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter or click GO.
Click on the + next to Network Adapters.

Post results here please.

Edit: Once we know what type of wireless device you have, you can download the latest driver from here: Drivers & Downloads for Inspiron 8200

Network Adapters: 1394 Net Adapter 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (3C905C-TX Compatible) TrueMobile 1180 Internal 802.11b Mini PCI Card

Okay. Go to teh Dell website I gave you the link for. Expand Network and download the driver for TrueMobile 1180 Internal 802.11b Mini PCI Card

Install it, reboot and you should have wireless access again.

Well, I downloaded the drive and I rebooted but I still can't get wireless access. I had wireless access for a couple of minutes, just enough time to download the driver but now it says that I don't have wireless access. Anything else that I can do?

Make sure Windows is managing your wireless network.

• Open Services (Start then Run, type services.msc and press Enter)
• Double click on Wireless Zero Configuration
• Set Startup type to Automatic
• Click the Start button to start the service
• Click Apply then OK
• Open Network Connections.
• Right click on Wireless Network Connection, select Properties.
• Click the Wireless Networks tab and check the "Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings" box.
• Click OK.

You should have the Wireless Network icon in the system area of the Taskbar. Right click on it and select View available networks or similar words. Pick your network and click on the Connect button.

Well, I tried exactly what you told me to but I still can't get connected. When I try to connect to my wireless network, it just pops up the Wireless network connection box and tries to establish a connection, but it just doesn't connect.

Alex, in your previous post you said I downloaded the drive and I rebooted, this may be implied but did you install the driver after downloading it?

Can you take your laptop to another location that has free wireless access, like a coffe shop, Library or even McDonalds? See if it will connect there.

Also, please run ipconfig /all from a command prompt:

Click on Start then Run and paste the following into the Run box, exactly as show, including double quotes:

cmd /c "ipconfig /all > postme.txt & ping yahoo.com >> postme.txt & notepad postme.txt & del postme.txt"

and press ENTER.

A file will open in Notepad. Please copy and paste the contents here. Close the Notepad window and the file will be deleted and the Command Prompt window will also close.

This is what came up when i typed in the run box Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : I8200XP2-0E1756 Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : gateway.2wire.net Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway.2wire.net Description . . . . . . . . . . . : TrueMobile 1180 Internal 802.11b Mini-PCI Card Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-90-4B-B0-C6-33 Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.66 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, March 22, 2010 7:48:45 PM Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, March 23, 2010 7:48:45 PM Pinging yahoo.com [69.147.125.65] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=113ms TTL=51 Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=129ms TTL=51 Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=128ms TTL=51 Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=128ms TTL=51 Ping statistics for 69.147.125.65: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 113ms, Maximum = 129ms, Average = 124ms

You are getting a valid IP address from the router and you do have a working internet connection, at least you did when you ran the ipconfig and ping commands.

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.66

Pinging yahoo.com [69.147.125.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=113ms TTL=51
Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=129ms TTL=51
Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=128ms TTL=51
Reply from 69.147.125.65: bytes=32 time=128ms TTL=51

This also indicates your DNS server(s) are working correctly as they resolved yahoo.com to it's correct IP address.

Try deleting the Wireless device from Device Manager then rebooting so XP re-detects the device and reloads the drivers for it, see if htta fixes the problem.

Also, can you connect with an Ethernet cable rather than wireless?