Daniel Dalton <d.dalton@iinet.net.au> wrote:
But it seems to have no effect on my Dell. The wifi hot key on the laptop does not seem to work either (from the console).
Is there a hardware switch somewhere on the laptop, perhaps
underneath,
to turn the wifi on and off? On my Lenovo laptop, there is a switch. If it's off and you try to bring up the wireless interface, you get the most obscure error message that I've read in a very long time.
I was lead to believe that all wireless devices were required to have a switch to disable the wireless for situations where it was required (eg on an airplane). I can't find any evidence to back that up though so maybe I imagined it. Disabling the wireless using the wireless button also disables Bluetooth on my laptop which is not always what I want... Additionally, my wifi automatically turns off when I plug in an Ethernet cable (which is a good feature to have on a network with hundreds of laptops otherwise you end up with double the number of DHCP reservations). I assume a loopback Ethernet plug would have the same effect... (to the OP) Do you know if your wireless is internally PCI or USB connected? James