The following instructions are for Gracelanders who have laptop computers with wireless capabilities and who also plug in the laptop to a network connection. When your laptop's wireless is enabled AND you are plugged in to the network, you will experience problems (unless you are not in range of a wireless signal). You computer will communicate over the wrong channel (wireless) which experiences more firewall restrictions. Things that you expect to work when you are normally plugged into the network do not work. Faculty are vulnerable to this because they move back and forth between classroom and office.
Symptoms when both wireless and wired are enabled- You try to log in or restart your computer and it takes a long time to get the desktop icons. You cannot get to many of your usual mapped drives (e.g., W-drive or H-drive). You open My Computer but don't see the usual network drive icons. You cannot get to your Graceland email using the Outlook client program.
Solution- If you are experiencing these symptoms and you are plugged in to the network you should disable your wireless, log out, and log back in to your computer. If you are about to move from a wireless environment back to a wired one, you should disable your wireless and log out. When you get to your wired environment just log in after you plug in. If you are about to go to a wireless environment, you should re-log in to your computer when it is unplugged from the network. You will probably also need to enable the wireless and connect to the wireless access point when you get to your WiFi hotspot. Although there are other solutions short of re-logging in to your computer, they are more complicated than the typical user likes to hear.
How To Disconnect Your Wireless- You can hold down the Function key and press the F2 key to disable the wireless. Alternatively, go to Start-->Settings-->Network Connections and choose the wireless network connection. You should be able to press the Disconnect button if you are currently connected to a wireless access point.
How To Connect or Reconnect Your Wireless- Go to Start-->Settings-->Network Connections and choose the wireless network connection. If it is already connected you should some name information about the wireless connection you have and a button that says Disconnect. If not you may need to choose the link to Refresh network list. If you still don't see anything, hold down the Function key and press the F2 key to turn the wireless on and then refresh the network list again. If multiple networks are shown, choose one and press the Connect button to connect to it.