Vista not connecting to wireless network

tvout · 28-04-2009, 20:36

Hi all,
A colleague at work leant me his laptop to try and get his wireless connection working again. Thing is...it's Vista which I know barely anything about...
If there are some Vista experts that can talk to me in XP/2000/98/ME/3.1 language I'd really appreciate it!
Basically, the IP address is showing as a 169 one when using DHCP. I set the IP etc. manually and still not working. It's saying it can't connect to the DNS server? It also states the connection is local:
IPv4 Connectivity Local
IPv6 Connectivity Limited

Any ideas anyone? I did a TCP/IP and Winsock reset and rebooted but still the same also tried the DHCP fix mentioned by Microsoft.
There's a red cross between the network and Internet...

Hoping someone has some ideas. Also I can ping the router IP and also 4.2.2.2 (one packet gave 'general error' though).

28-04-2009, 21:10

is network discovery enabled?

danielf · 28-04-2009, 21:20

It could be incompatible security settings. Take the wireless security off for a bit to see if that's it.

tvout · 28-04-2009, 21:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by martyh

is network discovery enabled?

Hi martyh, I checked and it was set to custom. I set it to On and selected private network and it said 'request not supported' so I selected public networks and it's now on the blue swirly (hourglass) thing.

---------- Post added at 21:32 ---------- Previous post was at 21:23 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by danielf

It could be incompatible security settings. Take the wireless security off for a bit to see if that's it.

Yep, my router's open to the world

---------- Post added at 21:35 ---------- Previous post was at 21:32 ----------

It doesn't seem to be picking up an IP by DHCP. My router IP range is 192.168.1.x
The IP it's showing on the router is 169.254.96.244...

28-04-2009, 21:43

are you getting a "wireless networks are available" message when you hover over the network icon in the task bar

tvout · 28-04-2009, 21:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by martyh

are you getting a "wireless networks are available" message when you hover over the network icon in the task bar

Yep, it sees my wireless network fine but keeps coming up with an ip v4 autoconfiguration IP address of 169.254...
I tried disabling IPv4 and IPv6 in turn but still no luck

---------- Post added at 21:58 ---------- Previous post was at 21:55 ----------

It's showing on my router config as connected but again, with the 169.254 IP address...

28-04-2009, 22:06

try opening network and sharing and look at the top left corner you should get an option to repair the connection try that
were did you see the "custom" setting cos i don't see that anywere as far as i can see there are only 2 settings on/off

tvout · 28-04-2009, 22:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by martyh

try opening network and sharing and look at the top left corner you should get an option to repair the connection try that
were did you see the "custom" setting cos i don't see that anywere as far as i can see there are only 2 settings on/off

In network and sharing center at the bottom is has 'sharing and discovery' in there it says 'Network discovery' and has 'Custom' next to it. If I click on the radio button to Turn on network discovery I get the blue swirly thing for ages and nothing seems to happen. I end up killing it in task manager.

28-04-2009, 22:22

what version of vista is that?
the only other thing i can suggest is to make sure that "obtain ip automatically is checked" then reset the wireless adapter and reboot the router you should then be given an ip address
also make sure the security setting is the same as your router

tvout · 28-04-2009, 22:54

I made a bit of progress. If I go into the TCPIP IPv4 config and add an IP address etc. manually it shows up on my router with that IP but if using DHCP it gives it the duff 169 address.
With a static IP I got it to connect to the internet globe by entering Open DNS IP addresses. Still doesn't work though. If I try to diagnose I get an error 'Windows confirmed that this computer cannot connect to "Primary DNS Server"'

---------- Post added at 22:54 ---------- Previous post was at 22:43 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by martyh

what version of vista is that?
the only other thing i can suggest is to make sure that "obtain ip automatically is checked" then reset the wireless adapter and reboot the router you should then be given an ip address
also make sure the security setting is the same as your router

Hi martyh, many thanks for the suggestions. If I have it to get the IP by DHCP I get that 194 IP address each time... I've tried resetting the wireless adapter and rebooting several times but no luck...

Strzelecki · 28-04-2009, 23:13

It sounds to me as though you might have a problem with the broadcast dhcp packet vista sends out to try and get an address from you router. Try following the instructions here. It worked for me when I had trouble with some Zyxel routers. Worked fine on Linux and XP but Vista just plain refused to pick up DHCP details.

tvout · 28-04-2009, 23:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strzelecki

It sounds to me as though you might have a problem with the broadcast dhcp packet vista sends out to try and get an address from you router. Try following the instructions here. It worked for me when I had trouble with some Zyxel routers. Worked fine on Linux and XP but Vista just plain refused to pick up DHCP details.

Many thanks for the link. I tried the first reg fix and that didn't seem to make any difference. I then saw the second reg entry mentioned and realised that was there and set to 1 so I changed that to 0. Will see what happens.
The router is a WRT54G v2.0 running DD-WRT v23sp2.

Chuckster · 29-04-2009, 00:28

Hi,
Can you access the Router configuration pages (192.168.1.1)?.
Have you checked that the MAC for the Wireless NIC on the laptop is in the MAC Address Filter List?
Is 'MAC Address Filtering Enabled' on the router?
It sounds to me like the router is not accepting your MAC Address and assigning you a APIPA address (169.XX......).
Hope this helps

tvout · 29-04-2009, 00:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckster

Hi,
Can you access the Router configuration pages (192.168.1.1)?.
Have you checked that the MAC for the Wireless NIC on the laptop is in the MAC Address Filter List?
Is 'MAC Address Filtering Enabled' on the router?
It sounds to me like the router is not accepting your MAC Address and assigning you a APIPA address (169.XX......).
Hope this helps

Hi Chuckster, I can't access the router from IE but I can ping it fine from command prompt. I can also ping other machines on the network fine and access network drives. Mac filtering and all security on the router has been switched off and dhcp is definitely enabled on the router and in Vista.

Lord Nikon · 04-05-2009, 16:19

Try these commands from an ADMINISTRATOR command prompt (Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories then RIGHT CLICK on Command Prompt, then click on 'Run as Administrator')

netsh int reset all
(you will get a command prompt back in a couple of seconds with nothing visible reported, this is normal)
netsh winsock reset
(you will get a message telling you to reboot, this is normal, reboot the machine and then try connecting to the network again)

The problem is sometimes caused by a corrupt TCP/IP stack or Corrupt Windows sockets layer (winsock) - those commands above cause the windows system to reinitialise those layers and fix the problems caused by them. The 169.254 IP is a default IP when DHCP acquisition of an IP address has failed.