The Computer Corner
Turning on to wireless
By Charles Miller

This week’s column is one that is rather difficult for me to write—difficult because I am going to detail one of those tasks I have done so many times it is now second nature to me. In these cases, I find myself having to deliberately step through the process, watching my fingers on the keyboard and making notes as to where those fingers went.

If you own a laptop computer, there is a very good chance it came equipped with an 802.11 compliant wireless network card. That means you can sit in the Biblioteca patio, in El Jardín or in many coffee shops and connect wirelessly to the internet.

Look on the TaskBar next to the clock for an icon with a couple of radio waves emanating from it—somewhat like )). If you hover your mouse above this icon, it should pop up a balloon saying “Wireless Network Connection.” Right-click here for more options.

The first thing to check on is the status of your hardware. To do this, click on “Open Network Connections.” There might be several icons in this window, but only one with the wireless symbol—it looks a bit like (()). If it says it is disabled, right-click on that icon and click on “Enable.”


If there is a big red X on the icon, then your wireless card is probably turned off. Look for an on/off switch on your laptop. You may need to consult your instruction book. Some laptop models turn on and off from the keyboard; usually by pressing [Fn] and one of the function keys. Look for a function key with the ((i)) wireless symbol.

Back to the desktop, right click on the “Wireless Network Connection” icon again, and this time choose “View Available Wireless Networks.” On the left sidebar, click on “Refresh network list,” then wait a minute. Access points broadcast their station ID (SSID) every so often, so you just have to be patient until your laptop “sees” the broadcast.

Soon enough, a list of available access points will come up, if there are any in range. Here in the Biblioteca patio, I have “biblioteca1” and “biblioteca2.”

Windows shows that “biblioteca2” has a stronger signal and it is an “Unsecured Wireless Network,” meaning I can freely log on. In the lower-right corner of the “Wireless Network Connection” window, I click on [Connect] then [Connect Anyway]. The “biblioteca2” line should say “Acquiring Network Address” and then “Connected.”

If you are connecting to a security-enabled network, the access point will ask you now to enter the password. You will need to get this from your network administrator—or in the case of an access point that came to you with wireless security enabled—from your instruction book.


A balloon should now appear for a moment above your “Wireless Network Connection” icon saying “Wireless Network Connection is now connected.” You are now ready to surf the internet wirelessly.

By default, Windows remembers this network connection and automatically tries to reconnect to this wireless access point every time you activate your wireless network card. This means you do not have to go through any of this process again. Just turn the wireless card on and wait for the balloon to appear saying “Wireless Network is now connected. Connected to: biblioteca2. Signal Strength: Excellent.”

If for some reason you want to not automatically reconnect to this access point, click on [Disconnect] and Windows will no longer try to reconnect without asking you first.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ7@SMAguru.com.