Yes, it is me again. New thread.

I have gotten nowhere. Since I cannot get either of my two wireless
adapters to work - I am forced to try to buy a replacement for one of
them. I have to wonder - is it worth it?

I ask - has anyone out there had an Inspiron 8500 laptop actually
work wirelessly? I ask because of all the threads out there on the
subject, plus the fact that my adapters seem to be installed & driven
correctly - it is just that they will not connect.

If someone has their 8500 working, please be kind enough to tell me
the hardware modules and drivers you actually use or are using. Maybe
if I buy similar, I will get this laptop to behave.

Or maybe this is a hardware fault one can blame on DELL?

I'll remember you in my will. All 5 cents worth.

Your frustrated pseudo-geek.

Big Fred

On 8/12/2011 6:40 PM, Frederick wrote:
> Yes, it is me again. New thread.
>
> I have gotten nowhere. Since I cannot get either of my two wireless
> adapters to work - I am forced to try to buy a replacement for one of
> them. I have to wonder - is it worth it?
>
> I ask - has anyone out there had an Inspiron 8500 laptop actually
> work wirelessly? I ask because of all the threads out there on the
> subject, plus the fact that my adapters seem to be installed& driven
> correctly - it is just that they will not connect.
>
> If someone has their 8500 working, please be kind enough to tell me
> the hardware modules and drivers you actually use or are using. Maybe
> if I buy similar, I will get this laptop to behave.
>
> Or maybe this is a hardware fault one can blame on DELL?
>
> I'll remember you in my will. All 5 cents worth.
>
> Your frustrated pseudo-geek.
>
> Big Fred

Fred, try downloading the freeware program Inssider2 which can be found at:

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

It uses just the radio part of a wireless card to look around and does
not care about possible security issues like bad passwords or
non-matching security protocols. It just looks around and reports what
it sees using a nice graphical interface. It recognizes a wider range
of wireless cards than the other programs of it's type that I have tried.

See if that program recognizes your card and shows the router and/or
other transmitters in the area.

The other option would be to take your laptop to a major electronics
store and have them show you how their card(s) work inside your laptop.
If their sales staff or repair department won't demo their card on
your machine then they are not worth the bother for future purchases.

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:25:27 -0500, GlowingBlueMist
<glowingbluemist@truely.invalid> wrote:

>Fred, try downloading the freeware program Inssider2 which can be found at:
>
>http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/
>
>It uses just the radio part of a wireless card to look around and does
>not care about possible security issues like bad passwords or
>non-matching security protocols. It just looks around and reports what
>it sees using a nice graphical interface. It recognizes a wider range
>of wireless cards than the other programs of it's type that I have tried.
>
>See if that program recognizes your card and shows the router and/or
>other transmitters in the area.

Thanks - I downloaded & installed Inssider2 on the laptop (using the
CAT5 wired connection to the router), and tried to run it.

I recognizes the Dell TrueMobile 1300 WLAN Mini PCI card on the top of
its window with the phrase 'Packet Scheduler MiniPort'. It shows
absolutely nothing in any of the graphs, and is flashing 'waiting for
data' at the bottom of the window.

>
>The other option would be to take your laptop to a major electronics
>store and have them show you how their card(s) work inside your laptop.
> If their sales staff or repair department won't demo their card on
>your machine then they are not worth the bother for future purchases.

This is a thought. I really am surprised that neither the internal
WLAN card nor the PCMCIA adapter card doesn't work even though both
seem to be recognized by XP.

Thanks

Big Fred