wifi connection to existing livebox

[Benjamin]

I have a livebox connected via wifi which was installed over three years ago. It has run almost without problem since except for the time when I forgot to unplug it during a storm which resulted in Orange giving me a new one and my local friendly computer shop reinstalled the new one. I'm running Widows XP Pro.

I have just purchased a laptop running Windows Vista Home Basic and wish to connect this via wifi to the Livebox. I have tried for most of today using the original Livebox guide together with searching this forum and also Googling for guidance but still I can't get it to connect.

I'm pretty thick on these techy things and am becoming more and more confused the more I try.

Can anyone talk me through the procedure ie which installation CD to put into which computer etc etc.

[Will]

I've found it can be best to avoid the Orange software if you can, particularly if it's a fairly old Livebox and a newer Vista computer. All you need should be the Livebox key - a long code that would have been supplied to you with the Livebox or printed on the Livebox label.

If you click on the Start button, you will see an option 'Connect to' (sorry if your computer is French - the one I am looking at is English, and has Vista Premium rather than Basic, but I think it's generally the same). Click on 'Connect to' and, as long as your Wireless adaptor is enabled and switched on, you should see your Livebox, and possibly some other networks.

Press the 'association' button on your Livebox; its position varies according to the model (see the instructions), on ours it's button 1 on the rear of the Livebox, on others I have seen it is on the bottom, marked 'reg'. This is important - if you don't press the button the Livebox won't recognise your computer.

Go back to the laptop; highlight your Livebox in the list, and click on 'connect' at the bottom of the window. It will then ask you for the key, which you should enter exactly as supplied, but without the spaces between each group of digits. You may have to enter this twice.

If all has worked, you should, within a short time, be connected to the Livebox, and it should re-make the connection every time you log on within range of the Livebox.

[Maggie]

Hi Benjamin

I had a similar problem a few months back when I had to buy a new tower - which was pre-installed with Vista.  I'd installed the livebox via wi-fi on my old PC (XP) some years ago with no problems, but it refused to install on the new PC.  In the end I went to FT & asked their advice ... they gave me a new CD ... the old one was not compatible with Vista.  I would suggest a visit to your local FT shop and see if they can give you the newer CD.  Good Luck!

Regards

[Will]

I have found this link (in English) which seems to more or less confirm what I said above: http://help.orange.co.uk/documentDisplay.do?clusterName=DefaultCluster&preview=1&groupId=1&page=http://ESERVER_109bbc92-8f2e-49ed-9d0b-6fa283cf410e.xhtml&docType=1006&resultType=5002&docProp=$solution_id&docPropValue=kb15098

[Benjamin]

Many thanks for your help. The new laptop is now connected to the net.

What has caused a problem is that the very helpful computer shop put an icon on my start

 page which, when clicked, gave the WEP key. Unfortunately they used upper case for the

 alpha part of the code when it should have been lower case which has taken me a couple of days to work out.