Vista Networking Woes

[Sleepy]

Well I too am having major problems with wireless networking with Vista. I
had an old xp laptop with a Netgear (b) adapter and it worked fine. Now I
have a new Toshiba Satellite with Vista Premium, and I've spent literally
Two Days trying to get it to work! I have a Netgear b wireless router, with
2 XP desktop pc's hardwired in and my laptop wirelessly (internally).

I see there are several wireless networks in my area. Most are secured but
there is one that is close by that is unsecure. I have, after a lot of
problems, been able to connect to that one. But if I try to connect to my
network, it usually doesn't work but if it does, it says Local Only (no
Internet). Or it will say Connected with Limited accessibility.

THe problems I have experienced are numerous. I do know that once I was
'connected' to my network (tho limited access and no internet). Just to try
it, I Disconnected from the network. A few seconds later I went to Connect
To and it said there were no wireless networks in my area! I have around 8
wireless networks in this area. So how can one explain something as simple
as this -- several wireless networks one time, then none a few seconds
later?? I did click on the refresh button several times, but it still said
no wireless networks around. Besides that, several times I Restarted my pc
with no change in connectivity (i.e. none), then one time i rebooted and it
amazingly automatically connected to the interenet (via the other person's
network) on startup. However previous times I had Limited access with that
person's network.

I've read a lot here in the newsgroup. I've tried the Broadcast flag toggle
off/on in the registry. I did make sure workgroup was set to MSHome (like
my other pc's). I've tried Netmagic. I have power cycled my router (more
than once). If it wasn't for this desktop pc, I wouldn't even be able to
access the help in this newsgroup or from MS KB articles.

Would trying a newer wireless router (Linksys WRT54G) solve this problem?
Could it be that my old netgear router is part of the problem? I plan to
try a new router to see if this would solve the problem (I expect the
Broadcast flag in registry may affect this??) but I have doubts that it is
the router that is the problem.

I don't like being attached to someone else's network (tho fortunately I
don't do a lot of internet connection through that network). I would get on
mine immediately -- if I could. But for now that is the only internet
access I have. I feel sorry for people who don't know anything about PCs.
How would they know how to set up a network?! (e.g. workgroup name changed
from MSHOME to WORKGROUP, just to name one of the minor things they wouldn't
know about)

I hope Vista SP1 comes out real soon with fixes to these wireless network
problems. Otherwise this new laptop I bought is just an expensive
paperweight.

Sigh.
Dave

 

[Papa]

I read somewhere on the 'net that some Netgear wireless cards are
problematic with Vista. I think Netgear has a list of their wireless units
that are compatible with Vista.

 

[Sleepy]

thanks for the feedback. maybe this linksys router will do better. It is
currently out of stock and I will have to wait a couple of weeks for it to
come in.

 

[Guest]

Sleepy,

I'm sorry you're experiencing trouble. Please test your current router
here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd/default.mspx

Please post back with results.

 

[Joe Guidera]

Kim,

I've seen this test page. If your router passes all tests except is listed
as "SYMMETRIC", what does that mean (NAT test)? While this test page is
interesting, it doesn't offer a lot of insight as to WHAT you should do if
any of the given tests fail.

For example: the VAST majority of home based routers will fail your NAT test
as they don't support tunneling of IPV6 within IPV4 (e.g. Teredo). Nor does
most of the existing internet infrastructure support end-to-end IPV6... So,
if you fail that test, then what?

In other words, how is a user expected to use the information provided by
this test?

Joe

 

[Joe Guidera]

Also, I note that the WinQual information currently only lists home based
(and not business class) equipment. Is that an oversight?

J

 

[Barb Bowman]

Apps like Microsoft Meeting Space will have issues. See
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932134

Kim,

I've seen this test page. If your router passes all tests except is listed
as "SYMMETRIC", what does that mean (NAT test)? While this test page is
interesting, it doesn't offer a lot of insight as to WHAT you should do if
any of the given tests fail.

For example: the VAST majority of home based routers will fail your NAT test
as they don't support tunneling of IPV6 within IPV4 (e.g. Teredo). Nor does
most of the existing internet infrastructure support end-to-end IPV6... So,
if you fail that test, then what?

In other words, how is a user expected to use the information provided by
this test?

Joe

--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

 

[Joe Guidera]

Barb,

Thank you for the reference. I've read (and re-read again) that article
(and the information linked there). It's less than forthcoming with detail.
FYI: there's not a single mention of any application on this article that
might or might not work correctly.

"Slow Network Speeds" - but no reason as to why this might be. Vista fully
supports IPV4 and should automatically disable TCP window scaling if the
network doesn't support it (or doesn't it?), so how would a router not
supporting IPV6 impact that?

The same holds true for "Gradual Loss Of Network Speed"

Now, "Lack of support for new features" I can understand, but no link is
provided as to exactly WHAT those new features are that might not work
correctly.

The UPNP reference is certainly appropriate, but there's no explanation as
to what UPNP features Vista requires that XP did not (in other words it says
that Vista uses this more - but not how).

Finally, the links provided in the references section are less than helpful
(linking to a glossy telling me why Vista is better - but not HOW)
Joe

 

[Barb Bowman]

TCP Window Scaling & Auto Tuning - well Vista adjusts, but doesn't
turn it off. You have to manually turn it off (or on again).

Open up an elevated command prompt.
to disable auto-tuning:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

turn it back on:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

view the states of the TCP global paremeters:

netsh interface tcp show global


Joe Davies has been writing about TCP Window Scaling and some of his
articles might be interesting reading for you.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg1105.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/01/CableGuy/

Barb,

Thank you for the reference. I've read (and re-read again) that article
(and the information linked there). It's less than forthcoming with detail.
FYI: there's not a single mention of any application on this article that
might or might not work correctly.

"Slow Network Speeds" - but no reason as to why this might be. Vista fully
supports IPV4 and should automatically disable TCP window scaling if the
network doesn't support it (or doesn't it?), so how would a router not
supporting IPV6 impact that?

The same holds true for "Gradual Loss Of Network Speed"

Now, "Lack of support for new features" I can understand, but no link is
provided as to exactly WHAT those new features are that might not work
correctly.

The UPNP reference is certainly appropriate, but there's no explanation as
to what UPNP features Vista requires that XP did not (in other words it says
that Vista uses this more - but not how).

Finally, the links provided in the references section are less than helpful
(linking to a glossy telling me why Vista is better - but not HOW)
Joe

--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/