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I booted my almost brand new laptop running Windows 7 this morning and noticed a red X through the wireless networking icon in the system tray. At first I thought something was wrong, but clicking on it shows a good connection to my wireless network. I had no problem getting here to post this question. I'm very new to Windows 7 so I have no idea how to troubleshoot this myself. Is there an actual problem here? Can I fix the icon so it doesn't falsely display an error (I assume that's what the red X means)?

Here's what I know:

  • I can get here to post this question.
  • There's at least one unsecured network available that I'm not connected to.
  • I can see a bunch of wireless networks, presumably from my neighbors' houses.
  • There are no other computers turned on in my house right now.
  • The device manager shows no problems with any devices.
  • I can ping my default gateway, DNS, and yahoo.com with no problem.
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1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Some laptops come with their own wireless network connection utility which is probably what is controlling your connection. The network icon (I'm guessing it's the built-in Windows utility) has a cross through it because it hasn't been used to make the connection.

To fix it, you could try uninstalling the manufacturer's utility and then set up the connection using the windows utility

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I have something called HP Wireless Assistant that pops up whenever I connect to the internet. I was going to classify it as "crap that the manufacturer thought I needed" and uninstall it, but I haven't taken the time to figure out what it does. – Kristo Dec 31 '10 at 15:04
Tog's answer is correct. My only advice is to retreive the network keys before uninstalling the software, as it can be a pain to get them all back – CamronBute Dec 31 '10 at 16:05
@Camron, by "network keys" do you mean ssid and passphrase? – Kristo Dec 31 '10 at 17:01
Yup! Saves headaches down the road – CamronBute Dec 31 '10 at 18:54
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