Wireless internet problems, local area connection cable?

Question

I'm in my dorm at college where I get wi-fi. However, it just started signing in and out of the internet. When I diagnose the problem, one of 3 things come up. The most recent was that a local area cable needed to be plugged in. I don't have one!!! Also, when it signs me out, my two computers that tell me if I'm connected to the internet tell me there are networks available, but when I go to connect, there is nothing there. I have an HP Pavilion dv6607 nr entertainment notebook pc, and yes, there wireless button is set to 'on'. Thanks in advance for your help!!

Answer 1

Let's dissect this problem one symptom at a time:

S1) You are using Wi-Fi at the dorm, but it suddenly started logging you on/off the internet connection.

S2) Local Area network cable unplugged error message

S3) networks are available, but you can't connect to them. You didn't indicate what the signal strength was, but let's say they were fair to poor.

A1) Wireless laptops and devices can act as wireless clients or wireless hosts (access points). A misconfigured laptop set up with the wi-fi's SSID but configured for "Adhoc" mode (Adhoc is also used for peer-to-peer wirelsee between two compuers or two networks) will broadcast the same SSID. Your computers see this and perhaps see a better signal - so they sign off the current network and attempt to sign-in on the "better" network ( probably see a beacon frame and are forced to disconnect). Your laptop is probably set to auto-connect to the dorm's Wi-Fi SSID - thus you see a sign off followed by a sign-on and loss of internet. Don't discount the possibility that someone has set up a rogue access point to steal your login credentials...

A2) As another poster replied, go to your network connections and disable the wired connection - it can be re-enabled when you need it.

A3) Wireless range is limited because both end-points have to have a strong enough signal to conduct communications. However, signals continue to travel beyond their useable range and will register as an available network. However they are too far away for your laptop to connect - the problem you are seeing.

If you are on a Vista system, get a copy of vistumbler and install it. It will show a listing of wireless APs your laptop can see and it will show signal strengths. If you are not on vista, get netstumbler - same deal.

9/1 - Go into your network places ( Manage network connections in Vista) and disable the wired ethernet connection. You can always turn it on again if you use a cable to connect. Update your posting to indicate if that has changed any symptoms.

Answer 2

1) the reason for the "cable is unpugged" message is that youhave your ethernet connection enabled.  If the message bothers you, disable the connection.  Otherwise ignore the message.  (You know that you're using a wireless connection, so there's no cable plugged into the ethernet jack, so the message is a bit unneeded.)

2) Talk to the IT people - the possible reasons for your problems (and you most likely have 2 separate problems) are too numerous to diagnose over a medium like this.