[marmaduke]

I have downloaded and installed all the drivers from Dells website that I thought I could use. Right now, I have a yellow question mark next to "Network Controller." I have no idea which driver this could be as no description matched it.

Also, as far as I can tell, my Wi-fi is working. But it will not connect to a network. It can detect the Wi-fi signal in the area. When I use the password to connect. All I get is "acquiring network". And it just sits there. It will also not recognize the IP address. Any ideas? Using XP Pro. Mini 9 has a Broadcom card.

[rrfranczak3]

didnt your mini come with a drivers disk?.......also check on your router and make sure that the ip address on your mini is enabled....to check your mini ip address go to start and run and then and type "ipconfig /all" and that will list your mini ip address, subnet, and default gateway...should be something like 192.168.1.10x and 255.255.255.0 and 192.168.1.1....also check your DNS addresses that usually causes an problem also....check the DNS on your router and the mini

drivers link:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...nConsent=False

PS. go into device manager and uninstall what you have already before loading the drivers

[ScottLott]

I'm having an identical problem as the original poster. My Dell Mini 9 almost won't connect to specific wireless networks. Some of them it works fine, some of them it doesnt like for some reason. And the networks it DOESN'T like to work on have multiple wireless devices working flawlessly on that network, so it's not a router problem.

Each and every time I attempt to connect I get the yellow warning "limited or no connectivity". It's because the DHCP on the router is not assigning an IP address to the wireless card. As far as I can tell, it has something to do with the WPA encryption as I don't have a problem connecting to unsecured networks.

I have tried updating the firmware on my router, updating the drivers for the Wireless Card (this includes trying dells drivers as well as broadcom manufacturer drivers), resetting the internal wireless card and cleaning it's copper contacts, and even using the broadcom wireless utility to connect to networks(Interestingly, the Broadcom wireless application WON'T work, it tells me that the "internal configuration is incorrect". I checked the model number on the NIC card I have on the inside and it's the one that ships with Dell Mini 9's, so I don't know what to expect.)

I've ran a few live linux distros and each of them does NOT have a problem connecting, so it's specific to Windows XP with encrypted networks, atleast as far as I can tell.

Finally, I WAS able to get a temporary work around by manually assigning my wireless card an IP address in the network configuration settings. But even THAT stops working after a restart/a few hours. I've been in computer repair for 5 years and I've never seen a glitch like this avoid repair so thoroughly. I'm ready to just re-install Windows XP and/or rage quit.

[ScottLott]

The DHCP server just failed across my entire network....all of my computers are set to static IP's now. Seems like it was the router all along, time to buy a new one.

[rrfranczak3]

Originally Posted by ScottLott

The DHCP server just failed across my entire network....all of my computers are set to static IP's now. Seems like it was the router all along, time to buy a new one.

I think that static IP's are the way to go anyway, otherwise you have no control......all seven of my systems have static IP's this way I can control when they are allowed to logon and access the internet.....my sons laptops and my office servers all have internet access turning off at midnight and do not re-enable until 9am the next morning...this keeps them from staying on the internet all night long.....and if they piss me off they have NO ACCESS what so ever...with dynamic/random IP's you have virtually no control since the machine is grabbing whatver IP address is available at the time usually the next in line ie. 103,104,105..etc...now I know when each machine is on and can limit their access and of course 192.168.1.1 is password protected also.....and I have everything over 108 turned off completely so they cant even change the IP's

PS. my boys are 18 and 21, and the 18yr old is a little hacker just like his dad (lol), while the 21yr old is happy if it turns on when he depresses the power button...