Member Avatar for Member #110055

Myself and 3 housemates recently had broadband installed and are using a netgear wireless router to connect 2 laptops and 2 desktops to the router. So far we have successfully managed to connect the two desktops and one laptop but are having problems with the other.

We have managed to connect it through the ethernet cable but dont seem to be able to get the laptop to find the router. One of the problems seems to be that the wirless network card on the laptop os only scanning channel 10 for a frequency, however the router is set to channel 11.

Can anyone help with any suggestions with how to fix the above or with anything else that may be wrong?

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Dani AI

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Short troubleshooting checklist that fills gaps from the replies (and follows up on ): many problems come from driver/utility, radio/regulatory limits, encryption or DHCP rather than a physical cable fault. Try these targeted checks in order.

  1. Quick local checks — ensure the laptop wireless is enabled (hardware switch or Fn key), disable any vendor wireless utility so the OS manages the adapter, and power-cycle the router and laptop. Remove the saved wireless profile on the laptop and rescan.

  2. Driver, firmware and utilities — update the laptop wireless driver from the vendor support site and update the router firmware. If the laptop uses an older vendor utility, test with the OS wireless manager instead; conflicting managers commonly hide networks or change mode.

  3. Radio/channel and encryption compatibility — older adapters or region settings sometimes cannot see networks on certain wireless channels or when the router is using modern-only encryption modes. Temporarily set the router to a broadly compatible wireless mode and channel (or Auto), and try temporarily removing security (for a short test) to rule out encryption mismatch and profile problems. Re-enable security immediately after testing.

  4. Network stack and DHCP — connect by Ethernet (if available) and confirm the router responds, then on the laptop run:

    ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh wlan show networks
netsh wlan show drivers

    Look for the adapter reporting supported bands and visible SSIDs. If DHCP fails, try a short static IP on the laptop in the router subnet to test connectivity.

  5. Other checks — disable MAC filtering on the router, verify SSID broadcast, and check power-management settings that turn the adapter off.

If these do not fix it, post the laptop OS version, the exact wireless adapter model string as shown by netsh wlan show drivers, and the router firmware version so suggestions can be specific to driver or regulatory issues.

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Member Avatar for DMR

* Give us the make/model of the NIC and laptop.
* Make sure the NIC's connection type is set to "Infrastructure" or "Access Point" rather than "Peer-to-Peer".

Member Avatar for Member #110055

The Laptop is an IBM thinkpad and the NIC is an IBM 128bit hi speed Wifi Card. I think the connection type is set to residential gateway.

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