Windows 7 Network connection problems - wireless & home networks

Has the Acer Laptop been connected (wirelessly) to this router before, or is it a new laptop (or new for this network)? It could be a few things - the first thing that comes to mind is that MAC address security is enabled on this router for wireless connections.

Every device on the internet (or in a local area network) has a specific address associated with it called a MAC address. Your router has the ability to restrict access to the wireless network to only MAC addresses that you specify. This access security is separate from any encryption or security keys you may have also set up.

If MAC address security is set up, and the MAC address of the wireless card in your laptop is not on the list of allowed addresses - you will not be able to connect to the router wirelessly - even if you're entering the correct key.

To check on your router to see if this feature is enabled - you'll need to open a web browser and enter your router's IP address into the address bar (not sure what that address is - to find it you can follow the instructions below).

Once you have the IP addresss of the router and have entered it into the address bar - you may be prompted for a username/password to log into the router. If so - you'll need to enter it to proceed . If not - you'll be presented with the router's main configuration page.

To find out if MAC address security is enabled on your router - click on Wireless Lan Setup from the main screen - then click on Access Control from the Wireless Lan Setup menu.

If it is enabled - you can either disable it, or you can add the MAC address of the wireless card in your Acer to list of allowed addresses. Instructions for finding out the MAC address of your wireless card are below also.

Hope this helps. Not sure what else could be going on, but this may solve the problem for you.

How to find out your router's IP address and the MAC address of your wireless card....

Connect the Acer to the router with an ethernet cable.
Click the Start Orb (lower left corner of screen usually)
When the Menu appears enter in the letters "cmd" (without quotes) into the "Search Programs and Files" box.
Press Enter
You will now have a command prompt window on the screen. At the prompt type in "ipconfig /all" (without quotes) and press Enter.

A bunch of stuff will scroll by on the screen - you may have to scroll up to see it all

You're looking for two things here really. Since the Ethernet card is the only card connected to the router - that's where we need to look for the router's IP address. Scroll up or down until you see the entry for your ethernet card. It will probably have the words "Ethernet Adapter" in front of it, followed by the type of card (Nvidia, Broadcom, etc.).

Look for the default gateway entry under the Ethernet card. You should see an IP address (192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, etc.). This is the IP address of your router - make a note of it and use it in the instructions above.

The MAC address of your wireless card is also here somewhere - scroll up or down until you see an entry for your wireless card. Chances are it will have the words Wireless Adapter or something like that in front of it. Underneath that entry you'll see the Physical Address of the card (in the format 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-). This is the MAC address of the wireless card. Make a note of it and enter it into the access control portion of the wireless config page on your router as described above (if MAC addresss security is enabled and you decide you want to keep it that way).