New Laptop need some help

[Mr Pants]

Hey guys,

I just got a new Dell laptop from PC World.

I think I'm fairly technical but I'm stumped. I switched it on and ran through everything. Then connected to a network which is the wireless network set up that I use for my other laptop. I use Virgin and have like a wireless manager thing on the old laptop and that connects me.

Now I seem to be able to use that on this Dell one, but the connection isn't great and sometimes just doesn't load.

So Im thinking I need to set up the virgin wireless manager on this new Dell laptop. But when running through the install steps it fails to find my adapter. Yet I've picked up on a network already.

So confused.

 

[DMS]

Don't use any third party software to manage your wireless connection. You don't need to,
Windows comes with its own built in wireless configuration utility, anything else is just going to sit on top of it and probably cause issues, plus it's just one more piece of unnecessary software to slow your computer down.
All you need is the driver installed, which by the sounds of it you already have.

Uninstall the wireless software but leave the CD in the drive. Reboot the machine and if it tries to install a driver it should find it on the CD and do it by itself.

I'm assuming the laptop is using Windows 7 or Vista. If that's the case, you can select wireless networks to connect to via the wireless icon next to the system tray or through the "Connect to a network" link in the control panel.

 

[Mr Pants]

Well it found a network which I must have set up. Sometimes the net will connect and load up fine but often it doesn't which concerns me.

The Virgin Wireless thing isn't working.

It's Windows 7. If I look for the wireless network connections I have 'Simon' which is mine. But compared to the old laptop the connection is just awful.

Really confused.

 

[Mr Pants]

Right let me see if I can make more sense now as I was tired / annoyed last night. I've switched the laptop on and ran through everything. When prompted I've assigned my wireless network which is obviously the network that was set up on my old laptop. So the net should work all fine going through this network? It's still Virgin 20MB service and still the same router? The connection is awful though. Page loads are slow and I often get connection timed out. Is this the Dell wireless card and my router not playing nicely together? I'm gutted that I've spent this on a new laptop and my net browsing is awful.