Laptop will not detect hotel wireless

[slipperypete]

Howdy - I'm out of ideas on this problem so I thought I'd post to see if anyone can help.
One of the people I support has his Dell e4300 in London. The laptop will not detect the hotel wireless network. He knows there is a signal available because his iPhone can connect. The laptop just will not see the wireless. He has had the problem in the past at different hotels so I've upgrade the driver, software, BIOS, etc., everything Dell and I could think of. Nothing seems to work.
The laptop detects our office wireless just fine, and will, depending on where he is, detect networks at other locations and he can connect and go about his business.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[Devilpapaya]

Quick look at that model specs appears it does not support wireless b-band networks. Check the wireless network type using the iphone and see if it is on b or g. If it's b-band looks like the laptop may be SOL unless you want to get an external adapter.

 

[slipperypete]

Thanks for the info. It hadn't occurred to me to try an external adapter. The guy is in London. Does anyone know a place he could go into (e.g. Best Buy) and get a USB external adapter?

 

[nboy22]

That would certainly be bizarre if the laptop supported G and not B.. I've never seen a laptop that could connect to G and not B, because G is usually backwards compatible with B.

Before buying a new adapter, I would actually have him manually program in a preferred network with the information from his iphone.

For instance on win XP right click the wireless network connection from the network connections screen accessed by the control panel. Click properties -> Wireless networks tab -> Down at the bottom add a network manually. -> Make sure he types in the network name completely the same (caps and everything) -> Click OK and OK -> See if it connects.

I'm guessing you won't have to setup a password on the preferred network because most hotels have no protection anyways.

 

[Devilpapaya]

That would certainly be bizarre if the laptop supported G and not B.. I've never seen a laptop that could connect to G and not B, because G is usually backwards compatible with B.

Before buying a new adapter, I would actually have him manually program in a preferred network with the information from his iphone.

For instance on win XP right click the wireless network connection from the network connections screen accessed by the control panel. Click properties -> Wireless networks tab -> Down at the bottom add a network manually. -> Make sure he types in the network name completely the same (caps and everything) -> Click OK and OK -> See if it connects.

I'm guessing you won't have to setup a password on the preferred network because most hotels have no protection anyways.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterpris...aspx?refid=laptop_latitude_e4300&cs=555&s=biz

The tech specs specifically say a/g/n supported. Can't find anywhere on there where it says it's backwards compatible with b networks.