When travelling I have been using my Toshiba laptop (running Windows XP) to connect to the internet. There is a Belkin PCMCIA wireless card installed in the laptop, but I have found that the connection fee at caravan parks can be very expensive. Instead, I have purchased Telstra Next-G USB wireless modem so that I can connect to the internet over the Next-G cellular network, independent of the wireless offered at caravan parks. However, the computer refused to recognise the USB wireless modem. Previously I have encountered such issues and they could be resolved by enabling the device within the Device Manager, but when I go into the Device Manager it is completely blank with no devices listed at all. This functioned perfectly before I connected the Telstra modem to the computer. Disconnecting the Telstra modem does not fix the problem. How can I restore the Device Manager to its previous state and also make the computer recognise the Telstra modem? (more…)