OT: Annoying Vista Laptop and network

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I now have my own Annoying Vista Laptop, bought for the trip I will be taking tomorrow.

It isn't seeing the house network. This is somewhat important, as there are files I'd like to take with me.

Any help?

(Also, wireless mice are cool)

[Jack Simth]

Try manually assigning the IP address. I had a similar problem with my Vista desktop (before I converted it to a Linux desktop); for whatever reason, it kept automatically taking an IP address that wasn't actually on my house network - which, for obvious reasons, didn't work through the NAT.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

...And it's decided to work.

Just in case, how do I do that? Thanks.

[Jack Simth]

It's been a while, and I'm doing this from memory; I may be missing a few steps...
Right-click Network Neighborhood
select Properties on the context-sensitive menu
Select TCP/IP on the list
Click Properties
Move from "Obtain an IP address Automatically" to "Use a specific IP address" (or whatever it's called)
Put in the numbers appropriate to your network (the IP address itself needs to be unique, but you can clone the rest off of another machine on the network - open up command.com (start/run, enter command.com) and type in ipconfig - that should get you most of it)).
Hit Ok/close out of everything, reboot.

Edit: Oh yeah - and while the IP address has to be unique, you don't want to change more than the last number on most networks. It still has to be in a particular range, which is specified by the net mask.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Um, yeah - Vista has a different setup.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Also, someone needs to tell one of the families here they have an unsecured wireless network.

Unfortunately, I have no idea who they are.