Vista Wireless Lan Issues

Dyvion

My computer issues seem to be very frequent as of late.

So one of my wifes friends is staying with us :winky: for awhile until she gets settled after some troubles :x and she has a Vista Laptop. I've shied away from vista at all opportunities, but now I'm trying to get her laptop to connect to my wireless router so she can have private interwebs from the room we're letting her use. I can connect with my PSP from anywhere in the house, so I know it works. But whenever I try to connect with her laptop it will not recognize my wireless signal. I've tried WEP with a very simple 10 digit key, I've tried WPA with the same simple 10 digit key. I've tried open wireless with hidden SSID. I'm very hesitant to try open wireless without SSID because if it does work she's going to want it to stay that way and I'm loathe to disappoint her in any way :winky:. I've tried manually connecting... I've tried setting it to connect automatically with all three of the above options.

Is Vista not compatible at all with a pre-vista wireless router? Has anyone else experienced this and figured it out? I apologize for not including the make/model etc. of my router and her wireless card. I'm not sure how much that would help, but I've googled both and didn't find any issues with that.

YodaTuna

I have a pre-vista wireless router and I'm able to connect just fine. I do get randomly disconnected, however I had severe troubles when trying to connect to the network with the software that came with my wireless network card. Once I uninstalled that shit and allowed Windows to have full control over the network, my problems pretty much ended.

Even if you don't think you're using 3rd party software, make sure there is none running in the background that might be starting at boot. Uninstall it and only install the drivers for the card.

Dyvion

YodaTuna wrote: »

I have a pre-vista wireless router and I'm able to connect just fine. I do get randomly disconnected, however I had severe troubles when trying to connect to the network with the software that came with my wireless network card. Once I uninstalled that shit and allowed Windows to have full control over the network, my problems pretty much ended.

Even if you don't think you're using 3rd party software, make sure there is none running in the background that might be starting at boot. Uninstall it and only install the drivers for the card.

Thanks, I'll try that when I get home.

Rook

You can run mac address filtering and no wireless filtering if you're worried about it.

This may sound daft, but does the laptop work with other wireless networks? It's not something silly like the wireless switch is off or something? Also, it doesn't have 3-4gb of ram does it?

Dyvion

Rook wrote: »

You can run mac address filtering and no wireless filtering if you're worried about it.

This may sound daft, but does the laptop work with other wireless networks? It's not something silly like the wireless switch is off or something? Also, it doesn't have 3-4gb of ram does it?

...wireless switch? I'll have to look into that one... never heard of such a contraption. She says she's used it at the local library before. Donno about the ram, would that effect wireless connectivity? Thanks for the tip on mac filtering too.

taliosfalcon

I know it sounds stupid as it almost never works, but have you tried right clicking the connection and "Diagnose & Repair" usually it does jack shit, or gives you obvious stupid answers, but once in awhile it actually helps, like telling me that when superfetch crashed a few minutes ago it took the wireless service down with it (damn you superfetch)

Dyvion

taliosfalcon wrote: »

I know it sounds stupid as it almost never works, but have you tried right clicking the connection and "Diagnose & Repair" usually it does jack shit, or gives you obvious stupid answers, but once in awhile it actually helps, like telling me that when superfetch crashed a few minutes ago it took the wireless service down with it (damn you superfetch)

Yeah... that was one of the first features I had seen in Vista that actually looked useful... but it just gave me stupid things to try like make sure my router was on (while watching my other computers toodling away on the interwebs) and make sure I was close enough to the router (I was less than 10 feet away, no walls or anything) so I became very disappointed in this 'feature' very quickly.

Dyvion

Small update... it seems the WLAN Autoconfig for Vista is a bit flaky, and if that's borked (which seems to be the case) you will get no wireless connectivity, even if you switch out hardware. But I can't find the DLL's for it anywhere. I know their names, but DLL Downloads and various other sites don't have them. Short of doing a full vista reinstall, is there somewhere I can find the individual dll's, or is there a system file checker?

DeShadowC

Use the actual WEP key instead of the pass phrase.

Dyvion

DeShadowC wrote: »

Use the actual WEP key instead of the pass phrase.

I was using a 10 digit key, but it won't communicate at all with any wireless device Still can't find those DLL's. I may try to talk her into reinstalling vista... or do it for her. Hopefully she still has the disc somewhere.

AngrySpoon

have you tried this?

Dyvion

AngrySpoon wrote: »

have you tried this?

I love you. I've searched for multiple hours and not been able to find anything this concise... spent hours with tech support to no avail (I have more knowledge than most tech support guys, which is scary... but a couple of them actually acknowledged that and just gave me access to their trouble shooting trees, which was nice.). If this works you can have a hand job from me... or something. Maybe I'll mail you some cookies?

Not at home right now, but I should be in roughly an hour, I'll try it and report back. Thanks again.

Organichu

Dyvion wrote: »

Rook wrote: »

You can run mac address filtering and no wireless filtering if you're worried about it.

This may sound daft, but does the laptop work with other wireless networks? It's not something silly like the wireless switch is off or something? Also, it doesn't have 3-4gb of ram does it?

...wireless switch? I'll have to look into that one... never heard of such a contraption. She says she's used it at the local library before. Donno about the ram, would that effect wireless connectivity? Thanks for the tip on mac filtering too.

I'm not sure if you've figured out the wireless switch bit: most laptops have, in addition to the software-based disabling of the wireless card, a 'hard' switch, a rocker or sliding switch of some sort that physically disables/enables wireless capability. If switched off it will not see any wireless networks. Common locations are the front of the laptop (non screen half, next to the IR port and audio ports) and the bottom of the laptop, next to the battery.

Dyvion

Organichu wrote: »

Dyvion wrote: »

Rook wrote: »

You can run mac address filtering and no wireless filtering if you're worried about it.

This may sound daft, but does the laptop work with other wireless networks? It's not something silly like the wireless switch is off or something? Also, it doesn't have 3-4gb of ram does it?

...wireless switch? I'll have to look into that one... never heard of such a contraption. She says she's used it at the local library before. Donno about the ram, would that effect wireless connectivity? Thanks for the tip on mac filtering too.

I'm not sure if you've figured out the wireless switch bit: most laptops have, in addition to the software-based disabling of the wireless card, a 'hard' switch, a rocker or sliding switch of some sort that physically disables/enables wireless capability. If switched off it will not see any wireless networks. Common locations are the front of the laptop (non screen half, next to the IR port and audio ports) and the bottom of the laptop, next to the battery.

Yeah, found that bit... it's the func key and F2... weird positioning, but it didn't help Checking the suggestion a couple posts up now.

e: Ok... running the system file checker (which is what that command is, yay, it's still around) found corrupt files, but was unable to fix some of the, and posted a log called cbs.log, but when I try to open it (as an administrator) it says 'Access Denied'... I've gone into the properties of the file and it has read and write enabled for administrator and local system... what gives?