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  • In my task bar I have and icon that looks like the reception bars on cell phones. When I run my curser over it, it states WLAN Monitor No connect. All the bars are white. The bars used to be green and I don't remember what it said when I ran the curser over it. I spoke to 4 different people at Verizon and no one knew what I was talking about. Does anyone here know what I am speaking of?

  • By (Deleted User)

    Yes, the bars you have are to notify you when your specific card is utlizing the WIFI card. It is a utility tool. If you have installed more than one Wifi cards on your computer you will have more icons available.

    If you are associated to a wireless network it goes from white to green. It shows , the SSID, the connection speed, signal strength, and status. If you right click on it, it gives you other options too.

    Microsoft's wireless configuration tool also has an icon. It displays your Wifi connection, click on the computer icon at the bottom of your tool bar with the RF radio bars going to the right. You will see the status etc.

  • Is this icon something that is important? Should I be worried that it is white and not green? and what does the no connect mean? Thanks for your help, but I am still a little confused.

  • By (Deleted User)

    White either means the radio is turned off or you have no Wi-Fi connection. So, YES!, in my opinion, that is a very bad thing! No one should be without Wi-Fi access... ever.

    There are a few things you can do to resolve this "issue". Assuming there's a Wi-Fi network near you, there should be tools in the icon (double-click or right-click on it) to find wireless networks that are available. Also, if you have an IBM ThinkPad, you can turn on the radio by pressing [Fn + F5].

    Granted, this is only going to work if the following are true:

    1) You want to connect to a Wi-Fi network.
    2) Your computer has hardware to support the Wi-Fi connection.
    3) A Wi-Fi network exists within range of your computer.
    4) You have the proper security setup to access it OR it is a wide-open (i.e. unsecured) Wi-Fi network.

    I stipulate "Wi-Fi" here so many times because this is not a cellular network connection; Verizon certainly will be clueless about your Wi-Fi software.

    Last, if you want to know more information about all this, I highly recommend the "CWNA Study Guide" and any of the multitude of introductory books about wireless networking, such as the "Wireless Networks First-Step" by Jim Geier.

    Disclaimer: I tech edited this book with Jim Geier and the CWNA Study Guide with Devin Akin.

    Joel

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