When trying to access my wireless network it tells me that it cant locate a certificate to log on to my wireless connection. What does that mean? I have two other children who received these netbooks and they didn't have any problem accessing wireless connection.

Windows doesn't need a certificate to logon to the router.

It may need one to logon to a web page.

Check by accessing another web page.

Is this possibly the problem/solution?

https://kb.netgear.com/7334/Validation-and-Certificate-errors-in-Win-XP-and-Vista

Please click the Comment link to respond.

Here's how to connect to your wireless router if you are getting this message:

First, click on the wireless icon in your taskbar and under Related Tasks, choose Change advanced settings.

Now click on the Wireless Networks tab and select the network in the list at the bottom. Click on Properties once you select the wireless network that is having problems.

Click on the Authentication tab and now uncheck the Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network box. If the box is checked, then that is why you were getting the "unable to find a certificate to log you on to the network" message because Windows is looking for one, but your wireless router is not setup for certificate security.

And that's it! Once unchecking the box and try to reconnect to the wireless network, everything should work fine.


Hope this helps!

If You cannot enable 802.1x authentication on computers running Windows 2000 because support for 802.1x is not provided by default in Windows 2000. Therefore, the associated user interface (the Authentication tab) does not appear in the Network Connection Properties dialog box.

A supported feature that modifies the product's default behavior is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to modify the behavior that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that specifically require it. This feature may receive additional testing. Therefore, if the system is not severely affected by the lack of this feature, we recommend that you wait for the next Windows 2000 service pack that contains this feature.

The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
Collapse this imageExpand this image English Language Version (http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000platform/patch/q313664/nt5/en-us/q313664_w2k_sp4_x86_en.exe)

After you apply this update, follow these steps to enable 802.1x authentication:

1. Installing the hotfix installs the 802.1x service in the disabled state. To change the Wireless Configuration service startup to Automatic: Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage. Click Services and Applications, and then click Services. Set the Startup value for the service to Automatic, and then start the service.
2. Open Network Connections by clicking Start, pointing to Settings, clicking Control Panel, and then double-clicking Network Connections.
3. Right-click the wireless connection for which you want to enable or disable 802.1x authentication, and then click Properties.
4. On the Authentication tab, do one of the following:
   • To enable 802.1x authentication for this connection, click to select the Enable network access control using IEEE 802.1x check box. By default, this check box is selected.
   • To disable 802.1x authentication for this connection, click to clear the Enable network access control using IEEE 802.1x check box.
5. In the EAP type box, click the Extensible Authentication Protocol type that is to be used with this connection.
6. If you click Smart Card or other Certificate in the EAP type box, you can configure additional properties if you click Properties and then follow these steps in Smart Card or other Certificate properties:
   • To use the certificate that is located in the certificate store on your computer for authentication, click Use a certificate on this computer.
   • To verify that the server certificate that is presented to your computer is still valid, click to select the Validate server certificate check box, specify whether to connect only if the server is located in a particular domain, and then specify the trusted root certification authority.
   • To use a different user name when the user name in the certificate is different from the user name in the domain to which you are logging on, click to select the Use a different user name for the connection check box.
7. If you click Protected EAP (PEAP) in the EAP type box, your Windows user name and password are used for authentication.
8. To specify whether the computer should try authentication on the network if a user is not logged on, if the computer or user information is not available, or both, follow these steps:
   • To specify that the computer try authentication on the network if a user is not logged on, click to select the Authenticate as computer when computer information is available check box. By default, this check box is selected.
   • To specify that the computer try authentication on the network if user information or computer information is not available, click to select the Authenticate as guest when user or computer information is unavailable check box.

Log into the router and have a look at the encryption - see if there any details on certificates there - or change the wireless encryption from WPA2 to WPA

This type of error message appear when we are trying to connect to the wireless network.
For Windows(xp) perform the following steps:-
a)click on start menu and then go to control panel and then open network connections from there.
b)Under network connections an option for wireless connection exist , right click on that option and then click on properties.
c)Under wireless network connection properties there are three tabs general , wireless network and advanced.
d)Left click on wireless network tab and check the box which says use windows to configure my wireless setting's and click OK at the bottom.
e)Then , Right click again on wireless network connection and click properties and then again click on wireless network tab.
f)At the bottom of the wireless network tab you will have preferred networks and in that small box yo will have list of networks and therefore delete all of them from there including the one you are trying to connect to.
g)On the right hand side of preferred networks you will have ADD click on that option and enter the details of your network manually.
SSID(name of the network)
Network Authentication:-Open if the security is WEP else WPA-Personal.
Encryption:-WEP for wep security TKIP/AES for WPA-PSK.
Network key/Confirm network key:-is the wep key or wpa-psk password.
Untick the box at the bottom that says the key is provided to me automatically.
Click OK at the bottom and close the properties window.
h)Then , Right click again on wireless network connection and then left click on view available wireless network.
i)List of available networks will be there , select the network you use and try connecting to it , it will get connected automatically.

try downloading mozilla firefox 3.5 or internet explorer 8. Then in options, menu, there is a connection settings and you can choose for firefox to choose certificate automatically or you can choose one yourself.

Access the preferred network settings (if you are using the Windows wireless setup - right click on the wireless icon + view available wireless networks + preferred networks) for your machine and edit the listing for your wireless network, you'll need to uncheck the box that says something to the effect of "an authentication key is provided for me" and enter your security key in the boxes provided.

If it still fails - you may want to remove your network from the preferred listing and add it manually, making sure that the authentication is turned off as described and with your security key entered twice.

when you say it has a router in it, you mean a receiver and you are trying to connect to the other pc without the means of an external router (network).

You need to set up the connection using windows wireless network wizard as you seem to be trying to connect 'adhoc', which is one pc to another.

It's too long a process to type here so use the wizard

also you need to check that both are on the same workgroup setting, this is found by right clicking my computer and then properties and computer name, as if they are'nt they cannot see each other.

This is usually caused by a driver glitch. From the device manager, uninstall the drivers for the wireless, then reboot. The machine will find and reinstall the drivers. If the problem persist, the take the card out, clean the connections, and reinstall it. It's located under a panel on the bottom of the machine. If it still won't work, then you need to replace the wireless card.