New Sony VGN AR71E problems connecting to wireless net. Help!

[Moonpig]

Hi Everyone! I'm looking for some help....

My Song VGN AR71E arrived yesterday..i'm trying to connect it to my BT Business hub using wireless but am having problems!

Have spent an hour with BT at lunchtime who have said all is ok from their point of view.

At the moment i cannot get it to conenct. My wireless switch on the front of the laptop is on and i have a LAN icon showing up on my taskbar. I can get the net to work with the ethernet connection PPPOE but it is not viewing the wireless option or even displaying it as a network option.

If i click the LAN icon on the task bar i am getting a box that says "Wireless device switch" come up. It then has two options.

* Enable 2.4ghz wireless lan (ticked)
*Enable 5ghz wireless lan

In sumary info it says: The frequency band of 2.4 ghz wireless lan and 5 ghz wireless lan are not compatitble. please switch systems to same frequency in order to connect successfully.

Any ideas what this is about and better still how i can solve it?

Thank god i still have a working pc with internet otherwise i would be stuffed trying to get info to sort this.

[Blencogo]

Hi Moonpig and welcome.

It looks OK. In the wireless switch window, just 2.4GHz should be selected.

Check the access point is broadcasting its SSID and check what wireless security is being used. Check it is using 802.11 b or g (draft N is not supported by your Vaio). Check it is set to be a DHCP Server. For some access points you need to 'allow wireless stations' by entering the MAC address for your Vaio.

All you should need to do on the Vaio is to right-click on the network symbol in the taskbar (this will either show as a signal strength bar chart or as two screens with a red cross) and choose "Connect to a Network". Select the SSID and press 'Connect'.

If your access point is set to use WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK authentication, you will need to enter the passphrase.

Is your other PC connected wirelessly to the same access point? Is it set to use DHCP or is it using a fixed IP address?

If this does not work then check in Device Manager -> Network Adapters -> Wireless Adapter that your WiFi card is installed and working OK. Try Run -> IPCONFIG at the command prompt to see if an IP Address has been allocated by DHCP.

If still stuck, it is time to contact Sony Support.