Getting Sky broadband working wirelessly

I've just been asked by a neighbour to give them a hand getting their new Sky broadband working over wireless to their laptop. They've recently moved house and have just got Sky broadband but cannot get it working via wireless, it works via a cable (presumably Ethernet). The 'box' (modem/router?) says SkyLink on it, no other model id. just a serial no. She says the wireless light on it is flashing so presumably is transmitting wireless.

Sky have told them to try another PC, sort of understandable as clearly the broadband is working, just that they cannot connect via wireless. One possibility is that the PC needs setting up to talk to that Sky box's wireless interface, security level, network id., password, etc. Not sure but I think they're running XP.

Her husband is currently undergoing treatment for cancer so naturally she really doesn't want any further hassle, she just wants it to be working.

I'm going round tomorrow afternoon to have a look, I'll take my netbook to see what that can see.

Anything I should look for in particular?

How do I login to the SkyLink box?

I've never heard of a sky router branded skylink...It could be a new model though

A long time ago we had a device called 'sky link.' This was just a device that linked the main sky box to the bedroom TV. & you could control the remote from the bedroom, whilst the sky was downstairs.

Anyway usually the routers are sagecom, sagem, d-link or netgear. There's a few new ones which may be branded differently.

The routers ALWAYS come setup. The wireless is automatically activated.

You unbox it, plug in all the wires & you're good to go.

On the box is a sticker with the network name (SSID), usually something like SKY06345
and the password is shown. Usually 8 letters and all capitals.

They also provide a piece of card, the size of a credit card with the wireless details on

You click onto the wireless on the Laptop in the notification area, click onto the network name, type the password in & it works.

If this fails, you can try changing the wirless channel. Otherwise faulty router

If they have been messing with the settings you may have to reset the router

Thanks, I'll have a look tomorrow. I know that someone has 'had a go' at getting wireless working.

Are the routers locked to Sky?

{Edit - grammar]

Edited by cheshire_man (Sun 28-Aug-11 16:54:45)

Yes, the adsl username and password are hidden and not easily obtainable.

I'm working on it at the moment. My XP netbook connected straight away so the Sky D-link (not Skylink) box is working fine.

Her laptop can see the network but flatly refuses to connect to it.I've tried repair but that fails trying to connect to the wireless network. Everything looks ok, I've compared settings with this netbook XP setup and cannot see any differences.

Given that it can see the network, and a couple of others, thatb seems to suggest that the Realtek RTL8155 PCMCIA card is working ok.

Any thoughts guys?

Any error messages? what happens? Does it ask for the security key?

Are all the wireless connectoid settings set to auto? Tried disabling and enabling the wireless card?

Does it work wired?

What OS is the machine running?

Some XP Service pack 2 machines do not like WPA-PSK. An upgrade to service pack 3 does the job.

Thanks for that.

There were no error messages whatsoever.

I had been told that it worked wired but hadn't actually tried it. When I did it came up with an IP address conflict. Dug around and found that someone (I would guess it was a relative trying to be helpful) had set the network address for the wired adapter to 192.168.0.1. Cleared that and set it to automatic, it then connected ok wired. As I'd also just tried reinstalling the wireless software and setting that up I can't be absolutely certain whether it was the IP conflict or the reinstall but it then connected wirelessly.

Hooray!!

I then spent another hour or so sorting out her Sky email address and getting that accessible from Outlook Express.

She's a happier bunny, that was hassle she really couldn't be having to deal with currently.

Thanks for pointing me in a direction that led to a resolution.

It's running XP SP3.

You'll see from my reply to Batboy that it's now resolved.

Thanks to all for their help.

That's good news