No wireless connection windows xp. Connecting a Windows XP computer to a Wi-Fi network

Providing your home with a Wi-Fi network is the best way to solve the problem of access to world wide web all your devices. But at the same time there are some difficulties with the setup wireless network. Especially often, problems are faced by owners of computers with an operating system that has already lost official support from Microsoft. For example, in Windows XP it is much more difficult to correctly configure it than in laptops with Windows 7, 8 and 10. How to set up WiFi on Windows XP is described in detail in the instructions below.

Where to begin?

If the user has a question: “How to properly configure wireless WiFi network on his laptop with the Windows XP operating system,” then first of all he needs to install drivers that ensure the correct functioning of the Wi-Fi adapter. This device is usually already built into the laptop by the manufacturer, but if it is not, you can purchase it separately and connect it to your PC. Then, in order to be able to connect to WiFi, install the appropriate software by downloading it from the official resource of the equipment manufacturer.

If the laptop already has an adapter installed, then usually the list of PC components includes a special CD with a software. If such a disk is missing or irretrievably lost, the user is recommended to open the manufacturer’s page on the Internet and install drivers for the Wi-Fi device from there and network card for Windows XP. After installing the software, you can safely start connecting and start searching for available WiFi.

How to connect WiFi?

Typically, there is a physical switch for the Wi-Fi adapter on the laptop body, or this function is performed by a key on the keyboard with the “WiFi” symbol. After turning on Wi-Fi in Windows XP, a network icon will appear in the system tray, on which you need to double-click with the left mouse button. Next, in the menu that appears, click on “Search for wireless networks.” A list of networks will appear. Among them, you need to find out yours and connect to it by entering the access code and login.

If it is not possible to connect using the method described above, you must perform the following sequential steps:

In the connection properties you can activate the connection in automatic mode. For users who need to constantly have a connection to the Internet after starting the laptop, this function will save time each time performing the above steps manually.

Note: sometimes users do not find the Wi-Fi switch on the laptop body or the corresponding key. In this case, you can enable the adapter through the device manager. To this end, the following steps must be taken:

  1. Call the context menu from the “My Computer” icon;
  2. Next, click on the “Properties” line;
  3. Then click “Device Manager”, where you can find and activate the Wi-Fi device.

Although WiFi setup Windows XP is a little more confusing compared to modern operating systems, but with the right skills, the user completes the entire process in just a few minutes. It should be noted that in this unfortunately outdated system, confusion is caused by various service packs supporting different security protocols. For example, if the user has SP2 installed on his laptop, then there is no support for “WPA2”, but only WPA functions. Therefore, if difficulties arise, it is recommended to pay attention to the modification of the system and the name of the security protocol used by the wireless access point.

How to set up a connection?

Sometimes it is necessary to configure the connection settings on a PC with Windows XP, because it often happens that even after carefully following all the above steps in the manual, the user still cannot connect to the Internet from his laptop, i.e. his PC is not connected to global network.


User's instructions for Wi-Fi in Windows XP

Having successfully connected to a wireless network and surfed the Internet, to further save battery power battery laptop, sometimes you need to be able to turn off Wi-Fi. To do this you need to do the following:

  1. Call the context menu on the WiFi icon in the system tray;
  2. Next, click on the “Disable” line.

Power wireless signal significantly depends on many external factors, for example, ceilings, sources of electromagnetic radiation, walls, large equipment, distance, etc.

Exist special applications with indication of WiFi reception power in specific numerical values, for example, 60 or 40 dBm. To be able to operate normally on a global network, this value must be less than 50 dBm.

The most common reasons why Wi-Fi does not work on a laptop with Windows XP

With absence WiFi connections on a laptop with Windows XP, the following conclusions can be drawn:



Hello everyone! Today I will tell you how to set up wifi on a laptop. Setting up wi-fi on a laptop is not a difficult task. The first thing you need to find out is whether the device supports this function. Modern laptops are already equipped with a wi-fi module, but some manufacturers still produce devices without wi-fi support, but these are mostly cheap models.

If your laptop is not equipped with a wi-fi module, you need to get a special adapter. To understand whether there is laptop wi-fi, just carefully inspect the device body. Typically, manufacturers put a sticker under the keyboard or at the bottom of the case, which indicates the presence of wi-fi.


In addition, the wi-fi symbol is also located on the function button of the keyboard, which is responsible for turning on the module. The button should be used together with the Fn key.

Turning on Wi-Fi on a laptop

  • If it's Acer brand, then the keys will be Fn and F3. You will see the connection manager appear, where you will need to enable wi-fi or Bluetooth.

  • On Asus devices The buttons will be Fn and F2. A connections icon will appear, where you need to select wi-fi or Bluetooth.

  • Laptops with Toshiba brand require pressing the Fn and F8 keys. Further actions are similar.

  • For Samsung The key combination will be: Fn and F12.

To identify the key to turn on wi-fi, the antenna-shaped icon will help you. If pressing the buttons does not turn on wi-fi, there may be several reasons for this:

  1. incorrect operation of the operating system;
  2. driver problem or conflicts;
  3. viruses, about that.

The problem is usually solved by reinstalling the drivers or .

What if the laptop does not have a wi-fi module?

Connection to a point wi-fi access perhaps using a special adapter, its cost varies from 15 to 30 dollars. You can easily find such an adapter in any computer store. In terms of external dimensions, the device can be compared to a flash drive. The use of the device is similar; you just need to plug it into a USB port.

Lack of external adapter- high probability of breakage due to careless handling. This also happens because the part protruding from the laptop remains unprotected. Therefore, the built-in wi-fi module installed in the service center will not cause problems. Although this solution will be more expensive, you will feel the comfort of work.

To enable external wifi adapter, you need to press special button located on the body.


Checking that the drivers are installed correctly

If your drivers are installed incorrectly, then even when the indicator is lit, the access point may not respond and wi-fi will not work. First of all, in this case, you need to check the functionality of the network card. Right-click on My Computer and go to Properties.

Next go to “Equipment” -> “ device Manager". You will notice the entire list of devices that are installed on the laptop. We need to find the section " Network adapters “, and there we look for “Wireless”, wi-fi or Wireless. If you see a yellow triangle next to the module with exclamation point, then be prepared for what will be needed.

Download drivers from the Internet or use the disk that comes with the laptop. Installing drivers is standard and is not much different from installing any program. It is possible that wi-fi will not work immediately, but only after several installations. For the adapter to work well and easily detect wireless networks, you need to set it to automatically obtain an IP address.

How to set up WIFI on a laptop and how to enable automatic acquisition of an IP address in Windows Xp.

Now we’ve almost figured out the question of how to set up wifi on a laptop. But now we need to enable automatic acquisition of an IP address. For this:

Open " Control Panel“, we set the view to classic.



We move to " Network connections ", right-click on necessary connection, select “Properties”. The components will open there, we are interested in the TCP/IP protocol, click on Properties again.

In the window that opens, select automatic receipt of an IP address, as well as automatic receipt of DNS, click OK.

Configuring automatic acquisition of an IP address for Windows7

We need to open the control panel, go to " Network and Sharing Center«.

In the column on the left we select “ Change adapter settings«.

A window will open, where you need to select the required network and right-click on it, select “Properties”. There we select to automatically obtain an IP address and DNS. Click OK. For Windows 8, similar actions are performed.

Connect to an access point.

You will notice a list of available networks. If you have your own access point, then the adapter will certainly find it. The adapter is also able to find nearby networks that may belong to your neighbors. You can select any network that does not have a lock icon. This means that the owner of the network does not mind someone using his access point. If you have your own network, then click on it, in the window that appears, enter your login and .

In addition, there is another option for connecting to the Internet. If any establishment nearby has wi-fi, then perhaps the owner will provide you with a password and you will be able to connect to the network if your adapter can reach this distance.

After the network is selected, you must click “Connect”. After that, enter the password twice and see the signal and connection speed.

If a warning window appears, close it and try to connect after some time.

After the Wi-Fi connection is completed, we will see the corresponding icon in the tray.

We open the browser and the service provider’s page appears in front of us. Click on the “Login” button and get to the page specified as home in the browser properties. If the connection frequently drops, then the laptop may be placed in a place where the signal from the wireless network is weak. In this case, you can drag the laptop closer to the access point.

Just a note! I recently wrote a lot of useful articles and I want you to read them too, namely what it is. But for gamers I wrote in games or .

With UV. Evgeny Kryzhanovsky

Most people buy laptops for the sole purpose of being able to access the necessary functions or access the Internet at any time. But at the same time, you often have to deal with the fact that the network on the device is not configured by the manufacturer, and you have to independently figure out how to connect to Wi-Fi on Windows XP.

To begin with, it is worth noting that the laptop itself, in principle, does not connect to the Internet, but connects only to a special access point, which, in turn, provides access to the network. Since setting up Wi-Fi on Windows XP can be done in two steps, we will mark both of them:

  1. Setting up an access point.
  2. Setting up the connection on the computer itself.

Point setup

It all depends on where exactly you are going to connect. If you are in a cafe, then the access point should already be fully configured, and in the future you will only need to figure out how to connect Wi-Fi on your laptop's Windows XP. Next, you select the name you need, enter the password and specified network details, if necessary.

If you are using desktop computer, to which the router is connected, then you need to figure out how to configure it yourself. To do this, enter 192.168.1.1 in the browser (or another similar address, it is better to check with the operator in advance), and then set the parameters you need, that is, indicate the name, the password you are interested in and other characteristics.

Never give your password to strangers and be sure to make it as complex as possible, otherwise you will literally “give away” the Internet for free to everyone.

Wi-Fi setup

Now let's move on to how to connect the Windows XP Wi-Fi of your laptop:

  1. Click Start and select Control Panel.
  2. Select "Network Connections".
  3. There you will see “Wireless Network Connection”. Right-click on it and select “View available networks.”
  4. Select the network you need and click the “Connect” button.

Windows XP: how to connect WiFi?



A wireless Wi-Fi network is available in almost every home today. With it, you can easily access the Internet wirelessly from tablets, laptops and phones. However, connecting to the network may not be as easy on older operating systems. For example, significant difficulties may arise on Windows XP.

Let's take a closer look at how you can connect Wi-Fi in Windows XP.

Connecting Wi-Fi in Windows XP

Connecting a wireless network on a laptop based on the operating system Windows systems XP goes like this:

  1. To enable wireless network discovery, you can move the switch on the laptop body. Also, in operating systems on a laptop, you can activate the network using the “Fn+F2” combination. The key combination can always be found in the laptop documentation.
  2. You need to make sure that wireless connection scanning is enabled in Windows XP. To do this, follow the path “Start - Control Panel - Network Connections”. In the window you need to activate “Wireless network connection” by clicking on it with the mouse.
  3. You need to find the application that is responsible for searching for a wireless connection. It may be necessary to install drivers and applications. You can find the necessary utility in the system tray. The icon usually looks like a monitor. If the utility exists, then it intercepts control.
  4. By double-clicking on the utility, we open a window where you can click “Search” and find all the wireless networks around. Having selected the desired network, connect to it. To do this, you will need to enter your network password, if required. You can find out the password from the owner of the network.

This way you can connect to a wireless Wi-Fi networks on Windows XP OS. However, if you do not find the necessary utility, then you should download and install drivers for the network card. You can find drivers on the manufacturer's website or on the laptop disk.

Setting up a wireless network in Windows XP is much easier compared to previous versions significantly simplified. To create a wireless network in Windows XP, you must first go to the “Network Neighborhood” menu, and in it select “Create a small office wireless network or home network”, after which the network installation wizard will start.

The next screen will ask us to enter the SSID name, which will be the same for the entire network. It will also ask us to select the type of encryption keys and the encryption method itself (WPA or WEP). It is worth noting that WEP protection is not very reliable. And if possible, it is better to use WPA encryption (of course, if the driver and adapter support it).

You can use your own encryption keys or assign them automatically. If you have chosen your own, a window will open for entering them.


Once all the necessary parameters have been assigned, the installation wizard will proceed to the next step. And it will ask you to choose a method for creating a network (create a network manually, or use a Flash keychain).

The first method will give you the opportunity to seamlessly transfer the configuration to other computers on the wireless network. In this case, you only need to configure the configuration once. If other computers on the network do not support reading information from Flash drives, you will have to enter it manually.

After you connect the Flash drive to another computer running Windows XP, you will be prompted to add it to your wireless network. If the invitation does not appear, you need to manually run the “setupSNK.exe” file. After you visit all the necessary computers, insert it again into the first computer, thereby completing the wireless network setup in Windows XP.

Connecting to a wireless network Windows XP

After you have done everything that is written above, there is still a direct connection to the Windows XP wireless network. For full operation, you need to enter another IP address on each computer. For this purpose, you should select the network 192.168.x.y where x is the starting address of your network (0-255). And y is the number of a specific computer on the network (1-254). In your network, all IPs must have the same network number and different numbers computers. The IP address is set in the properties of the network connection. After you go there, select “Internet protocol TCP\IP” and click the “properties” button. In the window that opens, enter the required addresses.

To check the functionality of your network, we will use the command line and the PING command. To open command line press the Windows key combination + R and enter “CMD” into it. In the window that opens, enter Ping command and the network computer address (for example, 192.168.0.2).

Publications on the topic