Laptop Wireless issue

[David]

I have a quandary.

I bought a used Dell E6410 laptop for my oldest daughter to use for her writing.

The laptop is decent. Some of the specs are the following: Windows 7 Pro, i5 Core (3rd Generation processor) 4GB Ram, and 250 Gb hard drive. It also came with Office 2010...

Anyways, I am having issues connecting the laptop to my wireless "guest account". The laptop sees the guest signal but after you try to connect to it, it states that it cannot connect.

There is a GREAT signal, it is maxed out, and my router has plenty of open guest connections and for guest access.

All my other devices can connect to the guest account without any issues, they way I have it set up. But this laptop can not.

My router (Cisco E4200) has two "accounts", a guest account (it acts like a motel/hotel wifi) and my home account.

For my home account I have security measures in place, such as the following: Not broadcasting the SSID on the 2.4 and 5 GHz channels, Mac filtering (only allowing certain MAC addresses on my network), and of course WPA2/WPA mixed code.

Now I did take the laptop to other locations to test other wifi networks and it can connect to some. So I know the wireless card does function.

So I took it back to my home and disabled the MAC filtering, and broadcasted the signals on my home account and then entered the WPA2/WPA key when prompted to and it DID connect.

I do not know why it would not connect to my guest account though? I do not want it connected to the internet/home account most of the time and was planning on only connecting once and while on the guest account to perform updates.

What can be the issue?

The wireless card is Broadcom Half BCM943224HMS Wifi Card. Any help would be nice. Thanks.

[Hermskii]

While I'm really good now at wireless stuff I can't answer this. I don't see what is wrong.

[David]

My only thought on this is if the wifi card in the laptop is "bad"....?

What I mean is that my guest account is broadcasted on the 2.4 GHz.

My home account is broadcasted on both 2.4 and 5 GHz.

What if the wifi card can see the 2.4 GHz signal but can not connect to it because the card itself is faulty. But when I allow it to connect to my home account it connects fine, but that is only because it connects on the 5 GHz channel..............

I do not know. I am thinking about getting another wifi card or adapter and use that and see what happens.

[Hermskii]

If you are willing, try this:

Disable your Wireless Mac Filter.

Now, go to Start, Control Panel, Network and Sharing Center, Manage wireless networks.

Select and delete everything listed there.

Now try to connect to the network you can't connect to.

If you can now connect Turn your Wireless MAC Filter back on and connect again.

If you can't connect when you turn your Wireless MAC Filter back on consider that maybe you used the letter O instead on a number zero or the number zero instead of the letter O or even worse that maybe you typo'd that MAC address. If you only have one wireless router and the MAC filter is on and you connected to it in any way wireless then you like don't have any typos now that I think about it.

I used to use the wireless mac filter but it really did become a pain to maintain when family would show up and want to connect their phones and laptops and other gizmos so I finally stopped using it. Just use the WPA2 personal and be happy.

[David]

I tried what you suggested and it still did not work. For a short time while the MAC filter was disabled, I was able to connect to the guest account (1 time) but it did not have internet access...

I bought another wireless mini-card on eBay and I will try that. We will see what happens.

[Dr.Flay]

I usually temporarily set the router to be open with no password.
This will rule out or confirm an issue with the encryption.

If it connects, try a different key system.

Have you updated with the latest Broadcom driver ?
If so, have a look through its own config tool.
Both the driver install and Windows updates will have the various key systems, but sometimes there is a miss-match or missing/broken one.

Hmmm, this shows a Dell own-brand or intel WiFi
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-e6410/pd
I see there are 2 versions,
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/ ... 0/diagnose
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/ ... g/diagnose

The diagnostics and support sections should help.
Make sure the Dell system software is up to date and it should be able to select all the correct updates.

This little tool may also help you see what is going on.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html

[David]

Well I got another wifi card to see if that will fix the issue

And after I installed the card, and got the newest driver from Intel I got a surprise

can not start.png

So I uninstalled the driver, I went to Dell and downloaded their driver but had the same error "This device cannot start. (Code 10)." I even went to Microsoft updates but that did not find anything.

Mannnnnnnnnnnn. This laptop is a lemon. I say that because not only the wifi is having issues but it does not charge the battery when plugged in. I bought a new charger and it did charge for a short time but it does not charge anymore. So I also bought a new battery and I am waiting for that tomorrow when it arrives but if it goes as well as the charger, and wifi card, it should prove to be a waste of money. Too bad. The laptop is ideal for what I bought it for. Perfect size, great specs, but ......it is not working like it should be.

[Hermskii]

Something is real wrong and I doubt it is the device or maybe so but maybe an infection or something is doing this to you.

[Dr.Flay]

Not sounding good is it
It could be as simple as a broken switch.
Most laptops have a sliding switch to enable/disable the wifi.
Do you see a light go on or off when you use it ?

The battery may need you to have the Dell battery software installed.
Do you have "Quickset" installed ?
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/glob ... l=en&cs=29
http://www.dell.com/support/Article/us/ ... N291565/EN

[David]

Well I contacted the eBay seller and told him of the wifi, battery, and of the charging issue. He stated that he will take this laptop back and send me another just like it.

So that was nice to hear. Like I said, the laptop is the perfect size, weight, good speed, memory, hard drive space. Just would like it to work.

So I tip my hat to the seller. P.S. I had already left him positive feedback prior to discovering the issues.

[David]

Well,

After it is all said and done, I did what Herm suggested, I turned off the mac filter. I still have the signal/broadcast disabled and still have it encrypted with a password.

What I did after was to connect the laptop to my main account, not the guest account, But I used the "Parental" control feature on my router and disabled the internet from that laptop. She will have use of the printers and such, just no internet unless I want her to have it.

And for the ease of it, I downloaded an app to my smart phone so I can enable/disable the wifi to the laptop or any other device on my network.

Screenshot_2015-02-13-12-33-25.png

So I guess ..... it is figured out for what I need it for.

[Hook]

WOW that just boggles my mind.
All my kids are grown and out of the house, so glad I don't have to deal with today's media.