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Make "older" laptop wireless

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2K views 25 replies 7 participants last post by  Miqw7394 
#1 ·
I have a Lenovo B560 laptop that has been great. I now need it to be wireless. There is nothing built in. What is the best way for me to go? thanks, Frank
 
#3 ·
Fireflycph is correct. The Lenovo B560 laptop has a built-in Atheros or Broadcom or Intel wireless device.

What Windows version and bit number is running in that laptop?

What devices are listed in the Network Adapters heading in the Device Manager?

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#4 · (Edited)
That laptop isn't that old either, it's from 2011. Wireless has been standard in laptops for more than a decade. It definitely came with wireless, it may be disabled in Network Connections or Device Manager or you just need to use the wireless icon in the system tray to connect to a wireless network. The radios may also be disabled via a hotkey or the switch. The manual shows the location of the switch on page 5 and the hot key on page 13.

User Manual and more: http://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/pro...upport:Documentation|Documentation&beta=false
 
#6 ·
If you do have to open it up this video should help. You don't need to take the optical drive out, or it's screw (the first one removed). The wireless card is the one with a white wire attached, just above the middle screw hole at the front at ~40 seconds into the video. It's removed around the 1 minute mark.

 
#9 ·
Maybe this is relevant: When I click on the wireless icon on my desktop, it opens the Network Sharing Center, then I click on a Broadband button, and then on connect., Thereupon, I get a message "error 711 Operation could not finish because it could not start the Remote Access Connection Manager service in time. Please try again" which I do with no change. Thanks
 
#14 ·
win 7, 64 bit
Atheros AR811 PCI-E gigabit Ethernet controller
Avast firewall ND15 filter miniport
Broadcom 802.11n network adapter
Here is the driver downloads site for the Lenovo B560 laptop.

Select "Networking: Wireless LAN" for the component and "Windows 7 (64-bit)" for the operating system.
The list of wireless device drivers will appear.
The second one down from the top of the list (version 5.60.48.35) is the listed driver for that laptop's Broadcom wireless device.

Double-click the Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter entry in the Device Manager to open its properties window.
Click the "General" tab.
Does it show that device as working properly?
Click the "Driver" tab.
What's the exact driver version listed there?

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#23 ·
Download drivers for both Wireless and wired networks. THen uninstall any Broadcom software. Lastly, remove the Wlan from the device list by right-clicking and choosing "Uninstall". If it asks whether you want to delete driver answer "Yes". Reboot and install newly downloaded driver.
 
#25 ·
I had the best advisors on this. Finaalllly a delete of driver and new download and install which led to a long disk consistency check which found some errors did it! Who knows what permutation of problems had messed me up but you guys worked me through it. I am going to contribute to TG so that other ungeeks can benefit from your knowledge and good will. thanks, Frank
 
#26 ·
Just wanted to add to this.

I have a truly ancient 1100 Inspiron 1100 laptop, from 2002/3. The 1100 didn't come with a built-in wireless card, although its 'big brother', the 5100, did. So you can say that wireless cards have been installed in laptops since around 13 years ago.

The 1100/5100 series came with a PCMCIA slot, just under the hard drive caddy, so for my 1100, I use a NetGear RangeMax WPN511 external wireless card, which works brilliantly.

http://www.netgear.com/support/product/WPN511

I bought this about a year ago, on Amazon, for all of around GBP £6 (about USD $10); with the Dell being of 'classic' status, age-wise, I thought I'd be just as well off using a 'period' card for the old girl!

The 1100 only has two USB 2.0 ports. Previously, I'd been using a TP-Link TL-WN725N USB, 'N'-rated, 'nano'-sized dongle

http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/cat-11_TL-WN725N.html

(which also worked well), but this, of course, permanently occupied one of those two ports. The Dell now uses a 128 GB IDE SSD for internal storage, and a pair of 64 GB SanDisk Ultra 'nano' flashdrives in the two USB ports for 'external' storage.....giving a total of 256 GB storage.

A wee bit different to the 20 GB Hitachi Travelstar HDD she originally came with.....

Mike. :)
 
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