TechWeb > IT Help > Troubleshooting Wireless Network Connections
Troubleshooting Wireless Network Connections
The Most Common Solutions For Wireless Network Problems
If you experience difficulty accessing the law school's wireless network, try the
measures below which have proved to be the most common fixes.
-
Does your computer have current anti-virus software?
If not, you may want to purchase McAffee VirusScan Enterprise software which is
available to SMU students for just $5 at the
SMU Computer Corner, located on the main floor of the Hughes-Trigg Student
Center.
-
Does your computer have current anti-spyware software?
If not, we recommend LavaSoft's Ad-Aware software which you can download for free
at
www.download.com.
-
Does your computer have the most recent wireless driver?
To find out, from the Start Menu choose Run and
enter devmgmt.msc and press enter. This brings up the
Device Manager. Expand the section below Network Adapters to find your wireless
card. (see image at left for example.)
Double-click the card and choose
the Driver tab. Here you can view the Driver Version and Driver Date, use this information
to compare with the vendor website.
Some of the major vendors and recent drivers are listed below.
Drivers for Intel network cards can be downloaded (in Zip format) here:
Intel 11.1.1 drivers.ZIP (6MB)
Drivers for Dell TrueMobile cards (Dell branded cards *NOT* provided by Intel) can
be downloaded here:
Dell TrueMobile Driver.exe (53MB)
If you have an HP (or Compaq branded), Toshiba, Sony, or Gateway laptop there are
no "standard" drivers available for these units. You can enter your laptop's model
information into these pages to get updated drivers for your specific laptop unit:
If the steps above do not resolve connectivity issues, please send an e-mail
to lawtech@smu.edu with the information
listed below. It is not essential that you provide all of this
information but please provide as much as you can.
- Model of PC
- Model/Brand of Network Card
(see #3 above)
- SMU ID Number
- E-mail Address
- Physical address (MAC) of your card
(found by double-clicking on your network card icon, selecting "Support" tab, and
clicking on Details.) Noted as Physical Address.
- Date and time issues were encountered
- Location where issues were encountered (room name or number)