I have an old Vista 17 inch Gateway P-6822 Laptop. Since upgrading to a new WiFi Modem in the house, the Laptop does not "see" the Wi Fi Signal. It can see other modems from the neighbours. I have no choice but to connect it using an ethernet cable. I have already downloaded the "Latest" wireless Lan driver from the product website dated 2013 but that did not help. I am not sure if its a security issue. Is there any way to fix this problem?
Thank you for your reply. The modem I have is a Cisco EPC3928S EuroDocsis 3.0 2-PORT Voice Gateway. I have checked the radio settings and they show 802.11, B/G/N/Mixed. Router mode IPv4. Wireless security WPA or WPA2-Personal.
After fiddling about I found the problem was that the radio was set to channel 13 which the laptop could not pick up. When I set it to channel 11 or less the laptop could see the modem.
Now the other problem I have is that when I try to connect to the WiFi network my laptop will not allow me to type more than 8 digits in the password field. When I try to type more digits there is an alarm. My modem password has 10 digits.
Thank you very much for this information. So if I understand correctly, this will enable me to connect the older laptop to the wifi network using only an 8 digit password. Is that correct?
Thank you for your continued support. The only think I can find on the Router setup is under the WPS setup (Screenshot attached). I am not sure if that is what you mean.
I have checked the laptop's Intel WiFi adapter properties in device manager, and I can't find any options there to extend the password to more than 8 digits. I don't think Vista has any problems allowing passwords more than 8 digits. I think that the problem is because this is an older laptop WiFi adapter running WPA security (not WPA2) which only allows an 8 digit password. I cannot see a WPA2 option in the settings. My laptop has some but not all of the options mentioned in this link:
Actually, the laptop belongs to my father in law. He does not have internet and gives it to me every 2 or 3 months to update some programmes. So I had to return it yesterday. I will do some more tests the next time around. The simplest solution I think is to just reduce the router password to 8 digits and then adjust all the other devices in the house. Then hopefully, the laptop will connect to the WiFi network.
As I understand it, you can use a password longer than 8 characters as long as the password is comprised of a mix of letters and digits. I mention this because you said your password is in "digits."
Thank you both for your replies. The Laptop does not allow a password more than 8 characters including mixed numbers and letters (upper & lower case). When I try to type the 9 th character an alarm sounds on the laptop. I believe the reason is because it has an older Intel WiFi adapter that only supports the older WPA security. I can't see anything in device manager to change it.
Townsbg, thank you for the suggestions. I would like to try them when my father-in-law gives me the laptop again for the next updates due in 2-3 months. If all else fails, I could change the password on the router to an 8 digit one.
I really appreciate all the help I have received. It has helped me to carry on searching for solutions and I have made some progress.
I think that it is trying to us the wifi protected setup since it is enabled on your router and that is why Windows will only allow 8 digits since the pin shown in your screenshot is 8 digits. I think if you had used that pin it would have worked.
Yesterday my father-in law returned the laptop so I could fix a sticky power switch. That fix was easy. So I had a chance to fiddle with the wifi again.
I used the WPA password shown in the screenshot and it connected without any problems! So in summary two things were necessary to solve this issue.
1- Switch the modem from radio channel 13 to channel 11 so the laptop could "see" the WiFi signal.
2- Use the default 8 digit WPA password shown in the screenshot of the modem setup. Interestingly, all the other devices in the house use a longer WPA2 password. The laptop has an Intel WPA WiFi adapter with a password with a maximum of 8 characters.
Thanks again for helping me to solve this issue. I could not have done this by myself.
