I have wireless internet on my laptop, why is "LAN unplugged"?

Question

I have wireless internet on my laptop. Everything was working fine until yesterday when I tried to go to a website and it pops up saying Internet could not open the page. I look on the bottom of my screen and there are two computers with a red X in between. It says the LAN is unplugged... but how could it be if its wireless!? My desktop is working perfectly fine.

I'm pretty sure I checked my firewall, but Norton is confusing. Please help me!!

Answer 1

Your LAN is a local area network - to get this message to stop coming up go into your network connections under the start menu.  there shoiuld be one labeled "Local Area Connection" and you should disable this.  It should not effect your wireless - that should have its own spot on the list and its status should be "connected."

Answer 2

The LAN unplugged is just telling you that your laptop doesn't have a wired cable plugged into it.  That is normal.

The concern would be the red X through your wireless connection.  You aren't connected to any wireless signal.  Try moving closer to your wireless router and see if it reconnects.  If not right click on that wireless icon and select View Available Networks to see wireless networks to connect to...

Answer 3

If it says LAN is unplugged it means that LAN is enabled. Here is what you should do:

Go to start>settings>control panel>network connections.

It should show one or more icons for LAN connections and one Icon for wireless. Right click the wireless icon and click "enable".

Also, if you disable your LAN connection it will get rid of that annoying pop up at the bottom of you screen.

Answer 4

LAN and Wireless are actually 2 separate things.  LAN is wired, and wireless, obviously, is not.  Your computer will tell you that your Local Area Network (LAN) cable is unplugged, even if you're connected to your network wirelessly.  If you're having issue connecting wirelessly, try restarting your laptop.  If this does not resolve, try unplugging your wireless router for about a minute and plug it back in.  This typically resolves most issues.