wireless networks vanished!

[#1]

Quote from: glosoldspot

How do I check whether my laptop supports 802.11b or 802.11g....whatever they are, to see if this solves it!?

It doesnt really matter what your laptop supports really, just what your router will allow to connect....  802.11x is the standard for wireless networking, b supports up to 11mbps,  g is the newer standard supporting up to 54mbps.  There is n but it does not come into this.. If your are interested see here  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11
Anyhow, I digress.....  Log into the router, standard address for speedtouches is 192.168.1.254
Select Home network on the left hand columns, and follow the link for wireless. Click configure in  the top right hand corner. you will see the screenshot as below.
under Interface type, make sure this says 802.11b/g and not 802.11g or anything else.
Let us know what happens.

[#2]

At the moment it has 802.11 b/g/n....should I still go ahead and change to 802.11 b/g?
I assume changing this won't affect the connection I already have with my new laptop?

[#3]

That means it is already set for all three so it doesn't need changing. If the new laptop is using n it may lose connection or see reduced speed if you change the setting.

[#4]

hmm...i'm at an utter loss then on how to solve this.

[#5]

OK then.... lets do a bit of troubleshooting here.....  To start with, what operating system does the laptop use, and is it fully up to date with patches, XP did get alot of patches for wireless issues I think.
Also what does device manager say for your networking card, I am assuming there are no yellow excalamtion marks...
If laptop is XP SP1 or lower, I would recommend upgrading it to SP3 first of all, i presume the spec will take it.
Next disable security on the wireless part of the router, and then see if you can connect with the laptop.  If you still cant, have you got a wireless USB dongle or PCMCIA card you can beg steal or borrow.  If that works, then the internal card is caput.....
Lets see how that goes...