Win XP laptop doesn't see wireless network

My Powerbook uses a Verizon Wireless broadband pcmcia card for internet access. Using my PB as a base station allows our iMac to share the network connection. The windows XP laptop will not see the network. I have:

1) used the hardware control panel to ensure that the wireless card in the XP machine is installed and configured.

2) attempted to set up a new wireless connection, but it says there are no wireless networks detected.

3) ensured that the PC firewall is disabled

What else should I be looking at? I just want this laptop to be able to get on the network for internet and email access.

Verizon will tell me that this not a supported configuration, but it's worked so far just fine for the two macs. Gotta use this PC for a large project that will take several months!

Any suggestions or pointing me at good directions will be most appreciated.



Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8) iMac 20" isight model; Toshiba laptop w/ Windows XP

Posted on Mar 16, 2007 6:55 PM

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56 replies

Sep 19, 2008 10:13 PM in response to JMAdams

I have a similar problem not mentioned on this discussion yet. You see i have an iMac with leopard 10.5.5 and a recently installed version of Windows Xp with service pack 2. My internet is currently available through my excellent airport and works perfectly with the mac os. However, when i switch over to windows, the apple wireless network vanishes and all thats left is the worthless city-wide network with terrible connection strength (ie somewhere around 2mbps). I have tried setting my airport to other channels with no luck. I need help people.

Oct 4, 2008 1:02 PM in response to rkwiatek

Hi. I have got my Mac to see all via Airport. I have connected a portable hard drive to the airport Xpress. I have an existing LAN network that I have a few PCs connected. I am struggling to get the PC to see the portable hard drive (this pc is connected to the airport with an ethernet cable and I can access the internet with the PC via the airport/ethernet cable. Did you do a similar thing? How do you get the PC to see another object connected to the airport?

Oct 5, 2008 2:00 PM in response to Karen Hovy

I have had some of the problems you noted previously. But here is what I ended up having to do.

First, when connecting the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS), I first took the Airport Extreme Software Disk and loaded that on my PC.

Then, because it did not see my AEBS, I ended up getting an update to the Airport Utility by an ethernet connection.

Then, I had to reset (hard reset) the AEBS and re-do all the settings. I ended up doing all that several times and finally got everything working.

Then, apparently when I uploaded Airport Utility 5.3.2, none of my PC nor my MACs could see the Airport Extreme -- and -- I just did not want to reset the AEBS all over again.

So, I called Airport Support and they asked (since I was connected to the Internet via wireless -- though the Airport Utility could not "see" the AEBS) me to connect via Ethernet directly to the AEBS.

By doing so, my AEBS was immediately visible via Airport Utility (and without doing any hard resets of any kind).

Then, I changed the channels under Manual Setup to one that was not being interfered with by neighbors -- and as soon as I did that, all my MACs and PCs (well my MACs for sure) and I also assume my PCs because now I can print directly to a printer connected via wire to a wirelessly connected PC to the wireless network -- that I could not do before.

Now all the while I used a CLOSED network for security purposes.

Hope this helps someone out.

It seems that the reason the Airport Extreme Base Station is NOT visible via Airport Utility (including 5.3.2 -- which is the one being used) -- the problem was solved.

All this was done by a very knowledgeable support member at Apple Airport support.

Dec 26, 2008 1:53 PM in response to JMAdams

Thanks for everyone who posted answers to this question. I just got a new Macbook Pro and a Time Capsule. Setup for the wireless network was easy on the Mac and frustratingly impossible on my old Thinkpad. I followed one of the suggestions and reset the channel selection to 6 and that solved my problem. The Thinkpad immediately saw the network and was able to log on with a password. Hope this helps others too.

Mar 1, 2009 6:24 PM in response to JMAdams

My problem is even more basic. I'm not a computer person. I bought the new MacBook Pro mainly to use the video editing for photos. The reason I went with it was that it now allows the partition for Windows XP, as I have a few programs for work that Mac does not support anymore. I did get Windows loaded and it works. But it does not find the wireless card. When I'm in Mac, it works fine. But in Windows, it says i have no wireless networks. How do you get it to recognize what's already in the machine? Help!

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Win XP laptop doesn't see wireless network

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