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Hi Ethel, yes we connected this laptop physically to the router yesterday, everything worked fine, no problems connecting to the internet. But once we disconnected, nothing again. We then returned the router to its factory settings, and reinstalled the AOL disk - the only improvement after that was that our network came up briefly twice on the laptop, just long enough for us to read the error messages "the capability of your network adaptor does not match the requirements of this network" and the second time "The settings saved on this computer for the network do not meet the requirements of the network"
The device manager on the laptop (which is a new one) says that the network adaptors are functionning OK. The problem for us is not knowing whether the laptop is at fault, the router or the installation disk so who should we turn to? Anyway, I'm giving up now for a few days, I'm trying not to get obsessed about this! But if I'd read all the problems with wireless networks a fortnight ago instead of a few days ago, I would never have bought a laptop. Anyway, moan over. thanks for your responses. :)