Available networks not showing... please help!

I go to connect to a new network through the charms bar on windows 8 and i go into settings and look at the network icon, and it says networks available. So I click on that icon as everywhere tells me to, and absolutely nothing happens, i have tried right clicking, double etc and also tried it from the desktop but i have had no luck! So at the moment i have a £350 laptop sitting on my desk able to do nowt!

jimmyjojangles said:

I go to connect to a new network through the charms bar on windows 8 and i go into settings and look at the network icon, and it says networks available. So I click on that icon as everywhere tells me to, and absolutely nothing happens, i have tried right clicking, double etc and also tried it from the desktop but i have had no luck! So at the moment i have a £350 laptop sitting on my desk able to do nowt!

Click to expand...

Hi there
might be because it detects networks but these are hiding their SSID's or network name.

How do you get your Wifi -- is it via a cable box in UK usually (Virgin / BT / SKY) or via a public Wi-Fi service .

If it's a cable box try and logon using the LAN cable and see if you can download the correct Wifi driver for your laptop.

Could be settings in the router or the signal isn't strong enough to connect to.

In the UK I know the whole 2.4 GHZ in anywhere near London / Manchester and other big cities is hopelessly overloaded and interfence with adjacent signals causes mega probs -- I switch to the 5 GHZ band with the 301-n connection and this gets round these problems (your wifi card needs to be able to receive this band however. Newer laptops have this capability sometimes but not all of them).

I'd suggest testing via LAN cable -- and if you can get on to your routers control panel usually address 192.168.x.01 where x is often 0 or 2 or some number like that change the channel to something like 11 / 12 /13 for the 2.4 GHZ band if you can't use 5 GHZ. - Note USA won't allow channels 12, 13 so if your laptop was also destined for USA the wifi card might not be capable of accessing these channels.

Cheers
jimbo

Hey Jimbo buddy, let me ask you does Sky still use credits for internet use?

Hi there
Not sure -- I'm not usually in the UK long enough at any one stretch to claim these. All I know is that Sky is one of the few services where UNLIMITED Broadband is still fine so you can download like crazy without getting capped or charged and speed seems plenty fast enough --even on Wifi I get downloads of nearly 3 MB /S depending on the remote servers capability of delivering that sort of throughput. On LAN the speeds are just plain CRAZY.

Virgin "technically" also has unlimited - but has quite a humungous "Fair Use" Policy which you could quite easily run foul of - and I do like the SKY GO service. Also IMO the SKY VOD (video on demand) is STREETS ahead of VIRGIN.

BT I gave up on --might be better now but all my English acquaintances referr to it as BULL S--- Telecom.

Also SKY has online chat if you ever need service help -- I'm afraid (not trying to be racist here) I really can't understand a lot of those Indian / Phillipine accents that nearly every single UK call center seems to use -- after 3 or 4 times of saying "Can you repeat that SLOWLY" the person at the other end usually thinks I'm taking the P--- out of them and hangs up -- so I don't bother now.

The online or live chat is a MUCH MUCH better option -- and in this case the data center could be on Planet Mars for all I care as you see the written instructions and also the guys at the other end can answer REAL questions - unlike call centers where they just read from prepared scripts and mouth the same B/S over and over again no matter what question you ask them.

Cheers
jimbo

jimmyjojangles said:

I go to connect to a new network through the charms bar on windows 8 and i go into settings and look at the network icon, and it says networks available. So I click on that icon as everywhere tells me to, and absolutely nothing happens, i have tried right clicking, double etc and also tried it from the desktop but i have had no luck! So at the moment i have a £350 laptop sitting on my desk able to do nowt!

Click to expand...

Is your lappy still within warranty? Yes, contact your OEM or seller (website or in person). Also, you might have some system corruption. You could try using sfc /scannow.

jimmyjojangles said:

I go to connect to a new network through the charms bar on windows 8 and i go into settings and look at the network icon, and it says networks available. So I click on that icon as everywhere tells me to, and absolutely nothing happens, i have tried right clicking, double etc and also tried it from the desktop but i have had no luck! So at the moment i have a £350 laptop sitting on my desk able to do nowt!

Click to expand...

You might think about uninstalling any trial anti virus software which most likely was preinstalled on your machine.

It's best to use the official uninstall tool for this. Not sure which A/V is on there but they can wreck havoc unless you get rid of them.

There is probably a long list of preinstalled bloatware on your machine which should be uninstalled unless you really need it.

Chev? You should try PC Decrapifier. It works great, and makes a clean sweep of all garbage that was loaded on it as value software.

Located here: Download | The PC Decrapifier