WiFi dongle not starting on laptop.

[dave.m]

The dongle is from Seven day Shop at £5.99.
Tony

Usually, wireless adaptors and cards retail from £20 upwards to £55, so for £5.99, I would not expect too much from your adaptor.

What make and model of Router do you have? The thing that is plugged into your phone line and your computers are either wired into it or are connected wirelessly. It should have about four or five small lights that flash intermittantly.

If the laptop came with Win95 and was upgraded, it only means the software was upped, the hardware is still Win 95 or Morris Minor 1000 and not the latest BMW, so don't expect too much from it, including connecting wirelessly as newer computers do automatically.

dave

[scot-canuck]

Is this >> http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product ... _id=101163 the one you bought Tony?

Share your printer, fax, internet and files easily between users within the network.

Wireless-g is now the home user standard for wireless networking, most current internet conections are around the 1mb-2mb speeds and this 54mb wireless adapter is easily capable of that and much more!

Specifications:

Wireless Lan 11g USB Adapter
IEEE 802.11g
USB 1.1 / 2.0
IEEE 802.11g Supports: 6, 9, 12, 24, 36, 48, 54MBps

Network Types: Infastructure or Ad-Hoc (peer to peer)
Authorisation: Open, Shared Key, Automatic, WPA, WPA PSK, WPAZ, WPAZ PSK
Encription: WEP, TKIP, AES or disabled

System Requirements:

200mhz or Higher CPU
Memory: 64MB or above (128MB+ recommended)
Microsoft Windows ME/2000/XP, supports windows Vista using the windows vista network tool and not the software provided.
Linux Kernel 2.4.20 or above

If so then it wont work because the adapter needs Me or better (frankly anything would be better than Me though)

Dave:
I'll disagree with you there, it depends on where you buy, that dongle is 802.11g and therefore being phased out, so therefore on sale plus 7dayshop are usually quite sharp on pricing.However I will agree that the age of the hardware will be a problem.

What sort of processor does the laptop have Tony?
If the laptop is just used for net surfing then installing Xubuntu might be the best idea, or even plain Ubuntu but its really dependant on the speed of the processor in the laptop.

[msward]

If the laptop had a wired connection use a homeplug no drivers or anything, you are wired but i assume you will problerbly plug the laptop in to the main anyway.

[chat_to_rich]

If you still want to use a USB wireless adapter, first determine your version of Windows 98, whether it's plain 98, or 98SE, see here for details http://support.microsoft.com/kb/158238 Next do a Google shopping search for adapters that support 98 or 98SE, e.g.

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en& ... CCUQrQQwAA

If you've only got 98, make sure the adapter is listed as supporting 98, it's probably not worth risking one that says 98SE if you've only got 98.

[gas4you]

Tony, just buy the poor kid a new win 7 laptop.

They cheap as chips these days, even for a tight old bugger like you