I am using a Sony Vaio but cannot connect to the internet. My wireless network shows up with excellent strength and sometimes says that I am connected to the internet but when I try to load a page, it comes back saying I am not connected. I am running three other laptops on this network and none have any problem connecting to the internet. The one I am having a problem with is a Sony vaio, it used to work fine and just stopped working, I also noticed that if it is plugged in, it will charge for a little bit and then say it is not charging. I am not sure if this is connected to the other problem, but thought I would mention it.

The following solution is a basic generic description and will vary dependent on your current set up on your router:

Identify your MAC address on your wireless card - go to the wireless card properties and under the MAC address settings (generally found under General) note this down.

Check that the driver being used for the wireless card is the most up to date (the driver date will be on the properties tab) and then visit
Support Intel

for the most recent driver date and download this and install it.

Next download from the Intel web site the wireless management software

Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network ConnectionÂ*Intel® PROSet/Wireless Network Connection Software [WIRELESS_TIC_131935_V10.5.2.0_XP32.EXE]

This software will replace Windows management software for the wireless connection. Download and install this software.

Now use the software to access your router. Under the router maintenance / set up screen (I am not sure what this will look like for everyones routers) go to the MAC filtering rule and type in the MAC address for your wireless card. FYI just make sure this hasnt changed on installation of the new driver!!

Make sure you have MAC filtering then enabled.

Next check that the following is set up on the router:

DHCP server is on and enabled (this will automatically assign IPs)
Also make sure the IP address pool is big and not just for one computer - your IP address pool should be from something like 198.128.2.1 (or slight variant on that - the most important bit is the last number) - to something 198.128.2.100 - this means it will assign IPs to 100 computers.

Check that the properties for the wireless card (back on the PC) are also set for DHCP.

Delete any old wireless listings on the network listing - this will have old info on WEP/WPA keys - you can delete (REMOVE) a wireless network from your list of preferred networks.

Running the INTEL software to access the wireless router should now be working fine and connect and add in the WEP/WPA key. May I suggest using WPA-PSK as it works better and is more secure.

Ok well I hope that helps some of you - apologies if it doesn't. Key thing is that Windows cant seem to manage the INTEL card correctly under security over wireless.

All the best!

Totally lame sounding but I have no idea of where to look for the mac address. I looked under network properties and there is no mac address listed. I guess i need this to start! Thanks

There are a number of ways to find the MAC Address of your Wireless Access Point.

First, a MAC Address (MAC address - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) is essentially unique identifier for any device with a network adapter. It will look something like this "12-34-56-78-9A-BC". Each "octet" should have two characters.

There are a number of ways to find the MAC address of your Access Point.

1) A lot of the manufacturers will print the MAC Address on the bottom of the router. Flip it over and see if its there.

2) You can log into most Access Points and they will display it typically under something like the "Wireless" section of the Administrative tool

3) If those fail or you can't find it, you can use software like NetStumbler (NetStumbler.com) for Windows or iStumbler (iStumbler 98) for Mac. These tools will show you a list of all of the nearby Wireless Access Points with their SSID, MAC Address and a few other properties. Mark down the MAC Address associated with your Access Point.

NOTE: Most Wireless Access Points have two MAC Addresses -- one for the wireless adapter and one for the internal network adapter. Typically the wireless adapter will be the higher number. So if you see two and don't know which is which, go with the higher one.