Laptop cannot find wireless network.

[Soul]

Up until about yesterday my laptop has always been able to find my wireless network and connect to it automatically. But for some reason whenever I look for my wireless network now it doesnt appear and so I cant connect to it making me use an ethernet cable to connect to the internet. And whenever I try to connect to a wireless network manually and input all the correct information it says the network already exists yet I still cant find it in the list of active networks.

I think it may have something to do with the fact that yesterday I tried to change my wireless setting so that I could connect my DS to wi-fi. But when I realized it wasnt that great an idea I changed all the settings back to what they were before I tried to change it from a WPA to WEP connection.

Anyone have any idea what the fuck is up?

[Spastic]

If you cannot connect with your DS or laptop the router sounds to be the key problem. Have you tried resetting it or restoring it to factory default settings?

[Dodger]

Unplug your router and plug it back in, works every time for me.

[GCBC]

Mine does this too, only I didn't change any settings and my other laptop CAN pick up wireless signals, so it's not the router. :mad:

[Mirrorman]

Maybe you have a wi-fi button on your laptop that switches it on and of somewhere. I'm not kidding, I was in distress for like 2 days before I found it in a shitty place in the back or something.

[kkhan]

My mothers laptop had the same problem, I just reinstalled windows and it worked like a charm! So I figure there had to be something wrong with laptop and not the router, why don't you try playing around with your laptop settings?

[GCBC]

Maybe you have a wi-fi button on your laptop that switches it on and of somewhere. I'm not kidding, I was in distress for like 2 days before I found it in a shitty place in the back or something.

My wireless swtich is in the front and it's definitely in the on position.

I don't want to reinstall windows, cuz that means I lose everything, right?

[Mirrorman]

Well yeah, you can backup everything on DvD-s and shit, but use that as a last resort option.

[Planky]

And whenever I try to connect to a wireless network manually and input all the correct information it says the network already exists yet I still cant find it in the list of active networks.

Are we talking Windows XP or Vista here? I know in Vista you have to dig down in the dialogs further to get a list of the wireless connections (not the list of active APs).

Edit: 'Manage Wireless Networks' is what it's called in Vista, not sure about XP.

[Soul]

Well to what I thought would be less complicated I decided to restore the factory settings on my router and now my computer has been able to find my homes wireless network. Theres just 1 eensy tiny little problem. The internet for anything that my routers connected to wont work. Right now im on the internet because I have my computer connected straight to my dsl box thing. Any suggestions?

Also im on vista for whoever asked.

EDIT: I ended up calling linksys and they helped me fix it for now at leat.