Ok, having a problem here with wifi I don´t understand-perhaps it is particular to Madrid? I could connect by wifi with no issue in NYC and in Paris. Here, in my hostal, there is wifi, and, while I can connect, I cannot get any browser to work (tried both internet explorer and firefox). They both say they find the site, then spend about 15 minutes trying to load, then die on me. Anyone ever had something similar? Or, can you recommend some local techie on whose mercy I can throw myself??? HELP!

hi schwendy.

a few things could be happening here...

1) the wifi you are trying to get on is mac filtered. that is, the owners of the wifi need to add your "mac address" to their wifi router. when a wifi connex has mac filtering on, the computer will connect to the wifi (as yours is) but there will be no real connectivity (you will not be able to use the www, connect to e-mail nor do anything else that you need the internet for).

2) your room is too far away from the wifi broadcast point. if this is the case, the connection will be made but you will not be able to use it since the signal is too weak.

3) your laptop is picking up a wifi connex that is NOT the one the hostel offers. there may be more than one connection available due to wifi in floors above, bleow or apts. next door. these other connex may be protected ("mac filtered") and your laptop may be trying to connect to them instead of the one the hostel offers.

you should ask at the hostel if you need to have your "mac address" added for them to allow you a connection. also ask them what you need to do to connect, they should know. if your room is too far from the router or wap (wireless access point), ask them where the signal is broadcast from, set up your laptop next to is (or close to it) and try to connect.

that is just one troubleshooting idea. could be other probs but try the above for starters.

let us know how it goes. if you have no luck and your hostel is centrally located, i can pop around tomorrow and have a look.

saludos,
jer...

Jer-Thanks for those thoughts. I am pretty sure it is not any of those. I have told them about the issue and they have said that others walk in and connect with no issue-there is nothing they need to add or give me (like a password) to make it work. I thought it may be a signal issue, but I brought my computer right down into the lobby next to their wifi transmitter, and, again, while I was able to connect quickly and even bring up the front page of Yahoo once, I couldn´t go anywhere beyond that or duplicate it. And, lastly, their wifi connection is labeled with the Hostal´s name, so I know I am connecting to the right one. So I am not sure if the problem is with my computer or with their wifi.

I was planning to come to see you the minute you open tomorrow for a cellphone (4?) and thought I would see if it was any better in your office (Candela mentioned you have wifi there)-so at least I could figure out if the problem was with their set-up or with my computer.

Or I am in the Hostal Madrid which is at 6 Calle Esparteros if you want to pop by-that would be terrific. Let me know what works for you! thanks!

That is strange. You have the TCP/IP configuration on your connection set to: "get IP Address" and "get DNS servers"?

You might sometimes see pages because your browser after realizing its got no connection, goes offline and serves pages that are stored on your computer.

hi,

i had a similar problem but after updating my belkin wifi driver the issue was resolved. I also had success by using a dell driver.

will be curious as to the final outcome.

I look forward to meeting you Thurs nite,
Rebecca

Rebecca,

Where did you get the updates for the drivers? Plus, it´s tricky, since I cannot connect to the internet, I cannot download anything from the web. And was yours a problem only here? The weird thing is that I could connect fine in NYC and connected at work in Paris (though the office tech guy set that up for me), so I don´t think it´s that my computer isn´t configured for wifi.....

I think if the tech guy in paris touched your computer, you are most likely experiencing what I mentioned in my earlier post.

Go to start ==> settings ==> network connections

right click on your wifi connection and select properties.
Once the little config window pop-up, select:
Internet Protocol (TCP-IP) and click on properties
From that window, select:
Obtain an IP Addess...
and also
Obtain DNS server...

That should do it. Your computer is probably configured for your office settings which are not standard.

thanks for the advice. I tried it, but just found that it was already set that way-to obtain the addresses automatically.......arghhhhh!!!!!

hey schwendy, i think you can just throw away the computer at this point

i am in my office 4-7pm today (monday).
i do have wifi here and you are welcome to try it out.

if the problem ends up being with your pc and is beyond us, there is a thread at http://spaintalk.multimadrid.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...1030511/m/2901092061 with the phone number of a tech here in madrid. charges 20 euros/hour from what i can tell from his ad in InMadrid but just may be worth it.

saludos,
jer...

Really? what about the DNS server? Was also setup already to get it automatically?

I got one more idea, and then you can follow jer's advice, and just toss it. Right click again on the wifi connection, and select repair

ok, we have made some progress-if you can call it that. I went to El Corte Ingles for the wifi to see if it worked there. First off, the 7th floor cafeteria at the Corte Ingles in Calle Preciados is undergoing renovations and does not currently have wifi BUT the other store up near Callao DOES have wifi in its 8th floor cafe. I tried to connect, it was showing a lovely strong signal and this is what happened. It said it couldn´t connect because the network did not assign a network address to the computer and suggested trying to repair it (thanks Fab). When it tried to repair, the computer said it couldn´t because it couldn´t renew the IP address. What have we learned? Not sure!

Try ipconfig. Go to Start/Run and type in cmd and OK

Then type in ipconfig /all to see what settings you currently have.

Heres a list of syntax you can use.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/window.../en-us/ipconfig.mspx

Try to manually renew or release.

I guess we've learned that el corte ingles' wifi doesn't give IPs. Which is a hell of a lot more than I knew earlier today, since I didn't even know that el corte ingles had wifi...

Normske, repair, also renews IP address among a bunch of other things, so that advise of yours is a bit outdated

okeeeee.

the corte ingles cafeteria on the top floor of the calle preciados store (currently closed for renovations) does indeed assign ips, i have used it before. it must be the callao one that schwendy tried that is not assigning them.

scwhendy was just in here and her dell picked up and connected to my office wifi no probs. she spent a few hours e-mailing and surfin the www so her laptop is not the problem.

i have to pass by her hostel on my way home tonight so i will be popping in to see if my laptop can connect to the hostel wifi. my guess is that it will have the same probs. as hers is having and that both the hostel connex and the one at corte callao are not working well.

one thing Fab (and anyone else). schwendy said that when she connects to the hostel wifi, it comes up as something like 10g and not 54g. i am no pro here but could it be that the hostels connection is too old and the 10g standard is not compatible with her laptop?

mine of course is new and uses the 54g standard. could the 10g be causing the problem?

saludos,
jer...

Fabrizio,

Yep I know repair should renew etc but I've had this problem with a couple of sales guys in the past. Once they'd done this it seemed to work. But, these were sales guys so all the things I'd asked them to do before they probably hadn't.