Turn on Wi-Fi on your laptop. We connect the laptop to Wi-Fi. How to enable the wireless network adapter

Almost every laptop has the ability to connect to wireless Wi-Fi.

Using this technology, computers exchange data between themselves and network devices (printers, access points, etc.), and also access the World Wide Web.

There are many laptop models, but they all work according to the same communication standards. Can you imagine what it would be like for their owners if Wi-Fi setup on each laptop was done differently?

Many laptops - one Wi-Fi

The procedure for setting up a wireless network depends only on the operating system.

Some manufacturers equip their laptops with network utilities, but this does not provide anything new, except that it makes the setup process more convenient. Of course, you can use them, but it is more useful to know how to work with OS tools.

If you figure out how to set up WIFI on Windows 7, 8 and XP using the system, you can do this on any laptop, regardless of the model.

Three conditions for turning on Wi-Fi for the first time

Before you connect your laptop to the Wi-Fi network for the first time, you need to do three things:

• turn on the wireless adapter (also called a WLAN or wireless network card);
• install the wireless adapter driver;
• start the WLAN autoconfiguration service.

Step 1. Enabling the Wi-Fi adapter

To turn on the Wi-Fi adapter on the laptop, there may be a button or key combination: Fn+ [one of the F1-F12 keys, where the Wi-Fi icon is shown]. You can tell that the adapter is turned on by the glow of the indicator on the laptop case:

Step 2. Driver installation

To install the wireless driver, connect the laptop to the Internet using cable access or a USB modem, go to the manufacturer's website and download the wireless driver for your operating system.

Run the downloaded file, wait for the installation to complete and reboot the machine.

To automatically start the WLAN AutoConfig service (if it is not running), open a Command Prompt with administrator rights and run two commands in it:

• sc config Wlansvc start=auto
• net start Wlansvc

After this, the Wi-Fi adapter will “see” access points located in the signal reception area.

Step 3. Setting up and connecting Wi-Fi on Windows 7 and 8

Quick connection

To connect your laptop to an existing Wi-Fi, click on the “Network” icon in the system tray and select the desired access point from the list.

Click the "Connect" button.

Enter your security key (password) and click OK. The connection will be established.

In addition to this method, you can connect to the selected wireless point by pressing the Wi-Fi button on the modem (router).

Important! Networks marked with a shield icon with an exclamation point do not require a password. They are not protected in any way, and data is transmitted through them in clear text.

Step 4. Connect to a hidden network and change the communication profile

To connect to an invisible network whose name is hidden, as well as to create a new wireless access profile, right-click on the “Network” icon in the tray and enter “Network Center...”.

In the “Change network settings” list in Windows 7, click “Set up a new connection or network”, and in Windows 8 (8.1) click “Create and set up a new connection or network”.

Select "Connect to a wireless network manually." This window, like the following ones, looks the same in Windows 8 and 7, so let’s look at the settings using Windows 8 as an example.

Enter the access point name (SSID), security type, encryption and password. If you are going to use this network constantly, check the “Start connection automatically” checkbox.

The “Connect if the network is not broadcasting” option should be checked when the access point is not visible in the list.

In the next window, you can change the connection parameters by clicking the button of the same name.

Basic parameters - name (SSID), grid type and availability cannot be changed. Security settings can be changed, but they must be the same as those assigned to the access point.

Step 5. Connecting and setting up Wi-Fi on Windows XP

Connect to available wireless networks. To connect your laptop to existing Wi-Fi networks, right-click on the “Network” icon in the tray and open “View available wireless networks.”

Select the desired access point from the list and click “Connect”.

Enter the password (security key) and its confirmation. After clicking on the “Connect” button, the connection will be established.

Every Lenovo, Asus, Acer, HP, Samsung, Toshiba, DNS, Dell or MSI laptop has a wifi function - you just need to turn it on to start using it.

Through Wi-Fi you can use the Internet, which has conquered our lives. He is with us at work, at school, in entertainment and in communication with friends.

The Internet has become a virtual reflection of everyday reality and an increasing number of people cannot imagine their lives without it - only first you must launch it.

What do you do when the hardware refuses to cooperate and the network is not available or worse, you have no idea how to connect Wi-Fi on your laptop?

To help you find a solution to this problem, below you will find a guide on the simplest ways to enable wireless connection and setup.

This is a step-by-step instruction for Windows 7 and 8 - now hardly anyone uses old Microsoft systems.

Check the function keys or how to turn on Wi-Fi on your laptop

I am fully aware that lack of sufficient knowledge is a serious problem, however, often the solution is simpler than you initially think.

So don't panic and read on calmly. Every laptop purchased over the past 5 years has a set of function keys.

They are used for volume control, media pause, screen saver, touchpad lock, etc.

Among them there are also those responsible for enabling/disabling the wireless wifi network.

By default, they are usually assigned to the F2 button - just press the Fn + F2 key combination, if these do not work on your laptop, then the WLAN control can be assigned to another button.

The simplest methods are usually the most effective - but if the keyboard shortcut above doesn't produce any results, move on to further reading

How to enable WiFi on your Windows 7 laptop

Windows 7 has been the main system pre-installed on most laptop manufacturers for the past few years—and it's likely on yours, too.

Below are the steps to help you learn how to enable Wi-Fi on your laptop - "on the seven"

• Go to Control Panel

Just click on it to see a list of all available wireless networks in your area. From the drop-down list, select the network you want to connect to.

How to enable WiFi on your Windows 8 (8.1) laptop

In addition to Windows 7, another popular system comes pre-installed on most new laptops: Windows 8 or 8.1.

Since its interface has been significantly changed due to the “metro” steps for it, turning on WiFi on a laptop is slightly different.

• Enable network settings

Move your cursor to the bottom right edge and click on the icon: “Settings”. I have Windows 8 in English, so your inscriptions will be different than in the pictures - in Russian.

• Go to your wireless network and turn on WiFi

When you are in the computer settings, go to Wireless and change the wireless device from the Off position to the ON position.

Enabling Wi-Fi by laptop model

As mentioned above, some laptops may have “non-standard” settings.

Therefore, below I will give the most popular solutions for various models - I think this will be useful for many, especially if they do not have instructions from the manufacturer.

Please note that in addition to keyboard shortcuts, there may also be special buttons on the case.

How to enable wifi on acer

1. Keyboard shortcut – Fn + F5
2. Aspire 1000 / 1640Z / 1690 - button above the keyboard
3. Aspire 16xx - button above the keyboard
4. Aspire 2000 Series - switch on the front of the laptop
5. Aspire 2012 Button - above the keyboard
6. Aspire 3005 - switch on the right side of the laptop
7. Aspire 3500 - on the front of the laptop
8. Aspire 5610 - on the front of the laptop
9. Aspire 5612 – laptop side button
10. Aspire 9302 - blue button on the left side of the laptop
11. Aspire 94xx - button below the lock key
12. Aspire One [Older Models] - Antenna button in the lower right corner of the palm rest
13. Aspire One [New Models] - Fn + F3 Keys
14. Extensa 2000/2500 Series Button - button in the upper right corner of the keyboard
15. Ferrari 3000/3020/3400/4000 - buttons on the front of the laptop
16. Travelmate C Series Button - Top Left Key, Screen Menu will appear on the screen, select WLAN

How to enable wifi on asus

1. Keyboard shortcut – Fn + F2
2. One click: turn on Bluetooth / turn on Wifi
3. Two presses: turn off Bluetooth / turn on WiFi
4. Three presses: turn on Bluetooth / turn off WiFi
5. Four presses: turn off Bluetooth / turn off WiFi
6. Older models - [antenna icon] button above the keyboard, press and hold
7. New models - bottom button to the left of the keyboard
8. Compaq Armada - Enable Built-in Wireless
9. Compaq Pavilion ZX5190 - [Wireless icon] switch on keyboard
10. Compaq Presario - button on the back
11. Compaq Presario CQ Series - (antenna icon) above keyboard
12. Compaq Presario M2000 - (antenna icon) above keyboard
13. 6910p - HP/Compaq button on the top left of the keyboard
14. HP 600 – in the lower left corner of the keyboard
15. HP nc4000 / 4010 - button above the keyboard
16. HP NC4220 - on the left side of the laptop [near the USB Port]
17. HP NC6000/6220 - above the keyboard
18. NX9010 - on the front side of the laptop
19. HP Omnibook 6200 - on the left side of the laptop

How to enable wifi on Dell

1. In most cases, the keys are Fn + F2 or Fn + F8 or Fn + F12
2. 600 m - Fn + F2
3. E6400 - right side of laptop above headphone port
4. Inspiron - FN+F2
5. Inspiron 1510 / 500M / 600M / 1150 - FN + F2
6. Inspiron 1505 - system tray icon right click and turn on
7. Inspiron 1521 - right side of the laptop
8. Inspiron 1525 - [wireless icon] button on the front of the laptop
9. Inspiron 1720 - switch on the left side of the laptop
10. Inspiron 5100 - Built-in Wireless Networking
11. Inspiron 6000/8600/9300 - Fn + F2
12. D400 / D500 / D600 / D610 / D400 / D500 / D600 / D610 / D620 / D800 - Fn + F2
13. Latitude D630 (D640 and newer) - toggle switch on the left side of the front
14. Latitude E6400 - FN+F2
15. X300 - FN + F2
16. Vostro 1500 - Large buttons on the left side of the back

How to enable wifi on Lenovo

1. In DV series laptops there is a button in the form of an antenna above the keyboard
2. R40 - Fn + F5
3. Thinkpad - buttons on the left side of the laptop
4. T43/X32 - Fn+F5 opens OSD menu, select "Turn On"
5. X61 switch on the front right side of the laptop
6. Lenovo T-61 – switch on the front of the laptop

How to enable wifi on MSI

1. The button next to the power button
2. U100 - Fn + F11

How to turn on wifi on Samsung

1. Blue button in the middle of the keyboard

How to turn on wifi on Toshiba

1. Keyboard - Fn + F5 or Fn + F8
2. A100-078 – switch on the right side of the case
3. Equium - on the front of the body
4. Libretto – on the front of the body
5. M1 and M2 – switch on the left side of the housing
6. M40 and M70 – button on the front of the laptop
7. Portege & Qosmio – on the left side of the case
8. Quantium - on the left side of the laptop
9. R100 – switch on the right side of the case
10. Satego - on the right side of the laptop
11. Satellite - switch to the lower left corner of the keyboard Fn + F8 shows the status
12. L355D-S7825 - switch below the keyboard just to the left of center
13. Satellite A60-S1662 - switch on the right side next to the USB port
14. Satellite Pro button on side or front
15. TE2000 - switch on the left side of the case
16. Tecra 2100 – switch on the left side of the case

What to do if the instructions above did not help

If you have done everything written above and nothing helps, then the problem can only be one thing - the lack of the correct driver.

Where can I get the driver? It’s best to download it from the manufacturer’s website, but you can do it differently, especially if you can’t find it there.

The driver can be downloaded from . I won’t describe how to do this again - here are detailed instructions.

Yes, this is rare, but it happens - I’m not saying that the module failed, it’s just that the manufacturers themselves do not intentionally make mistakes.

Or, for example, you have an old laptop, you installed Windows 7 or 8 on it, but there may not be drivers for such OS on it, since the manufacturer has long forgotten about it. Let's hope that this is not your case and everything went well. Good luck.

Determine when you can restore the system. Restore your system if you were able to connect to the wireless network just a few days ago and now cannot do so. System Restore will return the settings and files to the date you selected. Changes made to the operating system after this date will be canceled. That is, for example, programs that were installed after the selected date will be deleted. Keep in mind that the system restore process will not affect your personal files.

Run the System Restore utility. To do this, find it in the system; the search process depends on your version of Windows.

• In Windows 10/8.1, click “Start” and enter “recovery” (without quotes) in the search bar. The Recovery window will open in Control Panel. Click "Run System Restore."
• In Windows 7/Vista, click Start and type “recovery” (without quotes) in the search bar. In the list of search results, click on “System Restore”.

Check which programs will be affected when you perform a system restore. Since the restore will return settings and files to the date you selected, programs installed or uninstalled after that date will be uninstalled or installed accordingly. To check programs, click "Search for affected programs." Please remember that the system restore process will not affect your personal files.

Start the system restore process. After selecting a restore point, confirm in the window that opens that you really intend to restore the system. Windows will restart and restore your settings and files. The system recovery process will take some time. Once this process is complete, the operating system will boot and a message will appear on the screen indicating that the recovery was successful.

Try connecting to a wireless network. If your wireless adapter won't turn on due to driver or software issues, restoring your system to a date when the adapter was still working will resolve the issue. If you still cannot turn on the wireless adapter, take your laptop to a repair shop or replace it.

Not every user knows how to turn on Wi-Fi on a laptop if any unexpected problems arise. Beginner users are lost when they are unable to activate Wi-Fi using standard methods.

We will try to consider all possible ways to enable Wi-Fi and provide solutions to the most common faults that a laptop wireless network adapter may be subject to.

The simplest method of activating a wireless network on a Windows laptop is to use the key combination provided by the manufacturer for this.

Here are examples of these combinations for the most common laptop models (in most cases the keyboard is used, in rare cases a special switch is used):

• HP (HP Probook, Satellite, Pavilion, 4535s and others) – Fn + F12 ;
• Acer (Acer Aspire and others) – Fn + F3, similar to Packard Bell;
• Asus – Fn + F2;
• Lenovo (G580, G50, G500, G570 and others), including Ideapad – Fn + F5;
• Samsung – Fn + F12 or F9;
• Dell (Dell Inspiron and others) – Fn +F12 or F2;
• MSI (MSI) – Fn + F10;
• Toshiba – Fn + F8;
• DNS – Fn + F2 ;
• DEXP – Fn + F12 ;
• Sony Vaio - using a mechanical switch.

This method will not always work, so let’s move on to considering software methods.

Via system tray

The second method for turning on Wi-Fi is to manually activate the adapter through the system tray.

To use this option, just click on the network icon in the lower right corner of the system and click on the Wi-Fi icon. The wireless connection module will turn on and automatically begin searching for available networks to connect to.

It is quite possible that instead of the window presented above, the system will display another one with limited functionality, where the key with which you need to turn on Wi-Fi will simply be missing.

If for some reason that is unclear to the user, just such a window appears, then move on to the next method.

In the control center

The previous method may not have worked for several reasons - for example, the wireless network adapter was disabled in the settings of Windows 10 or Windows 7.

To fix this, you need to follow the following instructions step by step:

1. Press the Win + R key combination on the keyboard and in the “Run” window that opens, enter the phrase “ncpa.cpl” through the command line. Click on Enter or “OK”.

1. In the “Network connections” window that opens, look for the “Wireless network connection” block. If it is grayed out and the status bar shows Disabled, then the wireless adapter has indeed been disabled systemically.

1. To activate, right-click on the selected block and click on the “Enable” button.

1. Successful activation will be accompanied by activation of the adapter and display of its name in the status bar.

1. Let's return to the first method we considered - the Wi-Fi activation button should appear in its proper place.

Did this method not help either? There's nothing wrong with that, just move on to the next method.

Enable via Device Manager

This is very rare, but sometimes the network adapter may be disabled in the system's device manager. This usually happens after some failure occurs that is beyond the control of the user.

Determining whether the wireless network adapter is really disabled through the device manager is extremely simple - go to the second method described in this article, open the “Run” window with the command Win + R, enter the appropriate request, click on “OK” and see the network window in front of you connections. If there is no wireless adapter in this window at all, then the problem really lies in the device manager.

To activate the module, carry out the following sequence of actions:

1. Right-click on the “Start” menu and go to the “Device Manager” section.

1. In the window that opens, find the “Network Adapters” tab and right-click on the Wi-Fi module (usually Broadcom). In the pop-up list, click on “Enable device”.

1. We check the network connections field in the system tray - the Wi-Fi button that appears indicates a positive result. You can start using the Internet.

If none of the above methods worked, then it is likely that there is a problem with the wireless network adapter drivers.

Driver Update

An outdated or missing driver may be the main reason why there is no access to Wi-Fi or distribution via Wi-Fi Direct does not work. Installing or reinstalling a suitable driver will not take much time - just go to the manufacturer’s website, find the laptop model you are using and download the required driver from the list of those offered.

conclusions

Don’t panic if you can’t turn on Wi-Fi on your laptop - you need to consistently check all the possible causes of this problem, starting from the most likely.

Video instruction

We have attached detailed instructions in video format. It clearly reflects the process of applying each of the methods described above.

“I was sitting in a cafe today and couldn’t connect to Wi-Fi. The employees said everything was fine with them. What could be the matter? What should I press?

Thanks in advance, Alina Kireeva

If you have a laptop, then you will probably want to use it to access the Internet. To take advantage of this feature, you first need to turn on Wi-Fi on your laptop. Let's see what needs to be done so that your laptop sees all available wireless networks and can connect to them.

Enabling Wi-Fi via switch and hotkeys

If the wireless connection icon in the system tray is missing or shows that there are no available networks, although you probably know that you are in range of a Wi-Fi signal, then:

Different laptop models may have different key combinations for controlling the adapter. For example, on ASUS laptops Wi-Fi is turned on with the combination Fn+F2, and on HP - Fn+F12.

By the way, some laptop models have special utilities for enabling the Wi-Fi adapter. They can be called differently: “Wi-Fi manager”, “Wi+Fi Assistant”, etc. Without running these programs, the adapter will not work no matter what you do, so be sure to make sure you have them enabled.

Wi-Fi connection via operating system

If the adapter is physically turned on, but no available networks appear, check the status of the wireless connection - it may be inactive.

After this, check again whether there are networks to which you can connect. If yes, then click on the desired access point, enter the password and establish a connection.

Using Device Manager

If the above methods do not help (for example, there is no wireless connection), then try turning on Wi-Fi using the device manager.

1. Right-click on the “Computer” icon.
2. Launch the Manage tool.
3. Find "Device Manager" in the menu on the left.
4. Expand the "Network Adapters" section.

Find your Wi-Fi adapter. If it is marked with a downward arrow, it needs to be turned on. Right-click on the equipment and select “Engage”. Sometimes an exclamation mark appears next to the device - this is a message that the drivers were installed incorrectly.

To correct the error, go to the laptop manufacturer’s website and on the “Support” or “Service” page, find and download the latest drivers for the Wi-Fi adapter of your laptop.