Backyard Aquaponics
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just got myself an Aspire 5742 and after installing 7 pro cant get the wifi to work... just need to know waht driver it is if someone can let me know Cheers

Hi Jamey - if you are on internet - just Google "acer aspire 5742 wifi drivers"
Regards - ColinW

its designed for win7, shouldn't matter which version.........

i know this will sound like a dumb question, but there isnt a hard or soft key that switches Wi-Fi on and off is there?

I hope this is the Acer link:
http://www.acer.com.au/acer/service.do; ... 3559666452

Iv downloaded the Acer drivers and tried installing them with no advail.

iv installed the Hotswitch drivers and they work but still nothing

and there is No hard switch on it anywhere

tried to install a few drivers but none of them start.... its doing my head in

Jamey
There should be a "soft" switch or key combination to turn the wireless function on or off if there is no dedicated "hard" switch. It doesn't really matter which OS you use, the wifi is a built-in computer function, not software or driver dependant. As long as you have a WAP Key to register your connection, the WiFi will work if your computer is enabled for wifi and it is turned on.
On the Dell Laptops it is "Fn + F2" where the Fn key is the function key next to the <Ctrl> on the left of the keyboard , bottom row, and F2 is the Function key on the top row. It has a little "blue" symbol on it which looks like a transmission tower with radio waves coming out at the top. You may have something similar.
Cheers IanK

Yep thats there and the OSD comes up but no light!! and No Wifi!!

iv got a fair bit of IT knowlege just not with newer hardware, really doing my head in

i think the Network Adapter in my Network drives that arent installed is the bluetooth driver which is why its not finding the wifi drivers, so im downloading the bluetooth drivers now....

still dunno where the wifi is tho

Jamey, check which wifi hardware you have... that model may need either the "Broadcom" or Atheros" wifi drivers....

Have you made sure that you've enabled/setup WEP etc on your router and laptop??

You may have already checked this or it may not apply, but, i've found that i constantly get caught out on my asus laptop (i know i know) because the "soft key" needs to be pressed multiple times to cycle thropught the different combinations of:
Wlan OFF + blue tooth OFF
Wlan OFF + blue tooth ON
Wlan ON + Blue tooth ON
Wlan ON + Blue tooth OFF
as displayed on the OSD.
I think the Wlan light only comes on when the wlan is on.

makes me feel like i'm living life in binary

Most of us do Steve... we're either in an "on" or "off" state....

WPA2 should be what you aim for, WPA if you must due to device compatability. WEP is completely useless and should be avoided.

To the OP, my initial suspicion is along the lines of the other comments - that the device is simply disabled. It would have to be pretty unusual for windows 7 not to have a valid wireless driver out of the box (might not be the latest driver but it'll work).

To confirm if you have a driver installed, open device manager;
Click start > in the 'Search programs and files' type: device manager
Expand 'Network Adapters' and see if a wireless adapter is listed

Check it doesn't have an exclamation mark or down arrow icon as this will indicate a driver problem or the device is disabled.

Have you tested that your function key combindations are actually working? For instance Fn + F7 *should* disable your touchpad.

Click start > in the 'Search programs and files' type: view network connections

Is the wireless network connection listed?

Click start > in the 'Search programs and files' type: network and sharing center

If you click 'connect to a network' do any wireless networks pop up?

True MrOrange... mentioned "WEP" coz it's the default... just wanted to know if he'd actually looked at the PC/Router inter-connection...

i just use MAC filtering. i know its not encrypted but i like it and it confuses people cause the network shows up as "unsecured"

Sorry but that's about as useless as WEP.

Look WEP will keep out your 90 yr old neighbour, but it wont keep out someone who knows how to search "crack wep" on google. If they're remotely interested in cracking WEP, they'll also have the tools to spoof their MAC address too.

MAC address filtering is a false sense of security I'm afraid. WEP/MAC filtering is better than nothing, though there are much better alternatives. I recommend you enable encryption.

If you're interested, see how long it'd take you to 'crack' your own wireless... Just start at google

I know we're going OT, but apart from cloning the mac addy (which although easy, you'd need to know an allowed mac) how can you circumvent MAC filtering. I didnt think any part of the "accepted macs" were transmitted or could be inferred. (but really i've not done a lot of looking)

my router only has WEP or WPA and neither of those are considered secure anymore so i went with MAC over getting a new router (yeh all of $40)