Stupid you are offline bogus errors again

[Adam Albright]

I had fixed this, twice already, now it is back again. This documents
WHY UAC is a pain in the ass and doesn't WORK! If you want to learn
why User account control is badly broken keep reading. If you prefer
to remain in the dark, stop now.

I was trying to visit the PC Magazine web site, my broadband
connection is working fine. Moronic Vista pops up a dial-up box asking
me to log on to the MSN network. I don't have that, don't want it,
never set it up, but Vista constantly attempts to force it on me.

Now again because of this stupid Vista interference, all my desktop
links to various web sites say I'm offline when I'm not. For those
that still don't believe that UAC is absolute garbage read carefully.

1. I click on the Network Connection icon and get taken to a
network window where MSN is shown with the following message: "the
connection is not available because there is a problem with your
modem or network adapter". Remember my broadband connection is
working fine, so that's invalid.

2. I click on Windows Network diaagnostics it says: "This computer
does not have a wireless network adapter installed".
Well really? No kidding, I don't have one of those!

3. I click on the MSN line in "connect to a network" and I get "You do
not have sufficent privileges for configuring connection
properties. Contact your administrator.

I am logged on as a user with full administrative rights.

Lets review. Vista attempts to force a MSN dial-up account I don't
have or want after it blocks my actual working broadband connection. I
go to diagnostics where Vista babbles about a wireless network adapter
I don't have. Then trying to just get rid of this bogus 2nd network I
get blocked with the moronic "don't have privilages to configure" on
something Vista itself is trying to install behind my back and I
didn't ask for or install myself.

Now again I'll have to turn off UAC, just to hope this 2nd network
pops up again so I can try to click on it and get rid of it by
uninstalling. With UAC on I can't even do that.

 

[Geta Klew]

Why don't you just go back to XP and not worry about it?

 

[Adam Albright]

Why don't you just go back to XP and not worry about it?

What do you tell somebody that has been diagnosed with Cancer, go home
and die and don't worry about it?

Vista is badly flawed. Some here may actually like to know how badly.

 

[Sly Dog]

I'm sure there is a way to correct this snafu. Yes, VISTA is a buggy
bastard.
Keep hammering at it - There has got to be a way to correct this problem in
the same way a brain surgeon might have to reach the patient's brain through
entering the rectum.

VISTA; the new and improved pandora's box! :-0

 

[LaRoux]

Lets review. Vista attempts to force a MSN dial-up account I don't
have or want after it blocks my actual working broadband connection.

I've installed Vista probably a dozen times on different hardware/VPC combos
and have never seen this behaviour.

I go to diagnostics where Vista babbles about a wireless network adapter
I don't have. Then trying to just get rid of this bogus 2nd network I
get blocked with the moronic "don't have privilages to configure" on
something Vista itself is trying to install behind my back and I
didn't ask for or install myself.

Run the device manager elevated and delete the wireless network adapter that
isn't there. This shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[PTravel]

I've installed Vista probably a dozen times on different hardware/VPC
combos and have never seen this behaviour.

It happened with my new Vaio SZ440 that came with Vista pre-installed. I
believe it happens when "Never dial a connection" is not selected in
Internet Options and no dial-up connection has been set. I had set a
dial-up using my Motorola cellphone and, until I checked the "never dial a
connection" box, Vista would, from time to time, attempt to dial through my
phone.

 

[Adam Albright]

Run the device manager elevated and delete the wireless network adapter that
isn't there. This shouldn't be a big deal.

It literally "isn't" there. It don't show up in Device Manager and it
only shows up briefly under Networks. It truly is a phatom, that you
have to leave the Networks Window open for to see, shrunk down in a
corner of your desktop and hope you're fast enough to be able to catch
"Network 2" when it shows up for another brief visit. This is getting
to be old hat now. It only shows up if UAC is on. Almost a game. It
just is absurd though.

The other question is why does this kick off my broadband access, and
then only for web pages, not access to newsgroups? Every time I've
seen this happen, 3 or 4 times now, I've been typing some text in my
newsreader, then send something and it gets sent (over my broadband
connection) so it really doesn't make sense what's happening or why.
Obviously this never happened under XP.

 

[Adam Albright]

It happened with my new Vaio SZ440 that came with Vista pre-installed. I
believe it happens when "Never dial a connection" is not selected in
Internet Options and no dial-up connection has been set. I had set a
dial-up using my Motorola cellphone and, until I checked the "never dial a
connection" box, Vista would, from time to time, attempt to dial through my
phone.

Bingo!

Thanks, that seems to be it. Damn Vista, trying to be "helpful"
without asking again resulting in messing things up. Typical Micosoft
"programming".

I never touched IE7's default settings because I have a cable
broadband connection Vista detected right away just by plugging in my
network cable as you would expect it to do. Since it worked fine (with
broadband) and under XP, I did't think to look there too, but there it
is, some stupid MSN icon with the option checked to "dial whenever a
network connection IS NOT present".

So the game is on... I switched to NEVER dial and also deleted the MSN
icon from IE7's Connection tab.

Now we'll see if it comes back.

Now maybe we can begin to theorize what may be happening.

A wild guess:

Like I said repeatedly I have a very stable broadband connection from
WOW. One thing they do from time to time is automatically change the
IP address which does makes sense from a security standpoint and is
transpartent to the user.

Now what I'm guessing happens is something like this. If I happen to
be surfing the web when this happens like when the electricity goes
out in a thunder storm ofter some transformer with kill your house
power for a second or less before the power comes back on from a
different transformer. Its seems Vista may be configured by default to
detect these minor interuptions when my ISP (WOW) changes my IP
address and foolishly WITHOUT ASKING Vista tries to give me a dial up
connection to their MSN network. That's why I see the dial-up box pop
up if I happen to be surfing the web when this happens.

That then causes a 2nd network trying to get established, then Vista
detects there is no 2nd network card, then any hint goes away under
Internet connections this is happening, but by this time the damage is
done.

Vista says I'm offline (even if it was only a second or two) then is
too dumb to reconnect to the broadband network that is back up and was
only down for that tiny amount of time. The result is instead of
trying to help by offering a dial-up connection (I never asked for) to
a Network I haven't signed up to, it effectively blocks my access to
anything I'm attempting to access from the IE7 browser, (but not my
newsreader) until I reboot and in effect Vista then resets when it
again correctly detects the broadband connection, but also rearms the
MSN network to cause the same problem again and again the next time my
ISP automatically changes my IP address.

 

[PTravel]

Bingo!

Thanks, that seems to be it. Damn Vista, trying to be "helpful"
without asking again resulting in messing things up. Typical Micosoft
"programming".

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure the setup was the same in XP -- I
remember having that problem on my old laptop. However, I agree that this
is an example of the Macintoshization of Windows, i.e. "We know better than
you how you should be working."

I never touched IE7's default settings because I have a cable
broadband connection Vista detected right away just by plugging in my
network cable as you would expect it to do. Since it worked fine (with
broadband) and under XP, I did't think to look there too, but there it
is, some stupid MSN icon with the option checked to "dial whenever a
network connection IS NOT present".

So the game is on... I switched to NEVER dial and also deleted the MSN
icon from IE7's Connection tab.

Now we'll see if it comes back.

Now maybe we can begin to theorize what may be happening.

A wild guess:

Like I said repeatedly I have a very stable broadband connection from
WOW. One thing they do from time to time is automatically change the
IP address which does makes sense from a security standpoint and is
transpartent to the user.

Dynamic IP addresses are cheaper for ISPs to administer because they don't
have to dedicate an IP address to a specific user. I have the same
situation with my IP. I've got a computer that is on all the time and acts
as an FTP-server, VNC gateway and a couple of other things. I had to cobble
together some code so that it would check the IP address twice a day and
send it to me in an email. Otherwise, it might wind up changed and I
wouldn't be able to hit the machine.

Now what I'm guessing happens is something like this. If I happen to
be surfing the web when this happens like when the electricity goes
out in a thunder storm ofter some transformer with kill your house
power for a second or less before the power comes back on from a
different transformer. Its seems Vista may be configured by default to
detect these minor interuptions when my ISP (WOW) changes my IP
address and foolishly WITHOUT ASKING Vista tries to give me a dial up
connection to their MSN network. That's why I see the dial-up box pop
up if I happen to be surfing the web when this happens.

Usually, this is transparent to the computer. If you have a router, or a
DSL modem with a router built-in, changes to the outside IP address won't
effect the IP address of any computers on the LAN. If you've got a DSL
modem without a router and connect directly to it (not a good thing to do,
by the way, because the router approach gives you an additional level of
firewall protection), to Windows it will simply look like the internet
connection was dropped and it'll just try to restore it. Of course, when it
does, it gets the new IP address. That's not a Vista-specific thing. XP
and Win2000 do the same.

I think the trouble you were having is related to a different issue. I've
found that Vista sometimes has trouble with the IP stack. I'm not sure what
triggers it, and it seems to happen only with a specific NIC that I'm using
(that the manufacturer has finally admitted doesn't work with the Vista
drivers and they're writing a new driver for it). I've found that either
rebooting, or running netsh from the command line will fix it. The command
is:

NETSH WINSOCK RESET

I think this problem is also responsible for the mail issues some people
have, specifically Windows Mail claiming it's not on-line, or failing to
send an email and leaving it in the outbox. I'm not an expert at this, but
my guess is that poorly-written NIC drivers are corrupting the IP stack
(this only happens to me when I use that not-really-ready-for-Vista NIC I
have at home, but not here in the office where I use the laptop's built-in
NIC or the one in my docking station).

That then causes a 2nd network trying to get established, then Vista
detects there is no 2nd network card, then any hint goes away under
Internet connections this is happening, but by this time the damage is
done.

Vista says I'm offline (even if it was only a second or two) then is
too dumb to reconnect to the broadband network that is back up and was
only down for that tiny amount of time.

As I said, I don't think it's because Vista is too dumb, but because it
loses track of the connection because of corruption of the IP stack. Once
you select "never dial a connection," it will give you the off-line message
and ask if you want to re-connect. If you select re-connect, it does and, I
think, in the process re-initialize the IP stack.

 

[TheNetAvenger]

Not to burst your bubble, but the PC Magazine website is using passport, so
it wants your passport login when visiting the site.

It is the one wanting you to have a passport credential agent active, and
that is why it is making you sign into the MSN 'passport' network.

Yell at PC Magazine, or just create yourself a freaking passport account.
(They are free, and can be your own email account, so you don't have to use
hotmail or anything else.)