"Unidentified Network" problem

[Lenny Jacobs]

Another Vista networking problem:

Yesterday my Vista Home Premium laptop began having difficulty optainining
an IP address from my router (Linksys BEFSR41) via DHCP when it is initially
turned on. The tray icon reports local access only, unidentified network,
and falls back to an APIPA (sic), 169 address. If I launch a command prompt
and execute ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew I then get an IP address
from the router. Two other computers running XP SP3 have no problem getting
an IP address via DHCP from the same router.

Thanks for any assistance that you may be able to provide.

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
The Linksys BEFSR41 is a very old Router, Vista might have problem working
wit it
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)

 

[Lenny Jacobs]

The BEFSR41 has worked just fine for many months. Linksys still sells this
router and mine is less than a year old. This problem just started
yesterday.

 

[Barb Bowman]

It is an "archived" product. Linksys is not selling it. There are
retailers who are selling this at rock bottom close out prices and
will continue to do so until stock is gone. Take a look at the KB
article Jack pointed out.

The BEFSR41 has worked just fine for many months. Linksys still sells this
router and mine is less than a year old. This problem just started
yesterday.

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

 

[Lenny Jacobs]

All of what you say may be true, but this computer worked flawlessly with
this router for many months until yesterday. Something changed in Vista
yesterday that caused this to happen. I have not made any changes to Vista
for over a week. I have never made any registry changes to Vista on this
computer.

 

[Barb Bowman]

I don't believe that model was ever certified to work with Vista.
http://winqual.microsoft.com/HCL/ProductList.aspx?m=v&cid=710&g=d

You were lucky that it did work for so long.
You can try resetting the router to factory defaults. You can try
the fix Jack suggested at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233

If it were me, I'd buy something new and modern.

All of what you say may be true, but this computer worked flawlessly with
this router for many months until yesterday. Something changed in Vista
yesterday that caused this to happen. I have not made any changes to Vista
for over a week. I have never made any registry changes to Vista on this
computer.

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

 

[+Bob+]

I don't believe that model was ever certified to work with Vista.
http://winqual.microsoft.com/HCL/ProductList.aspx?m=v&cid=710&g=d

The number of routers certified to work with Vista is beyond lame.
None of the routers that people actually use are on this list.

You were lucky that it did work for so long.

In other words, Vista sucks - the previous generation of Windows (XP)
has better networking capabilities.

You can try resetting the router to factory defaults. You can try
the fix Jack suggested at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233

I'd go with Jack's suggestion as a first try.

If it were me, I'd buy something new and modern.

Obsoleting working hardware and software seems to be MS's goal with
Vista.

 

[Barb Bowman]

Many things were added to Vista to improve the overall networking
experience. Most vendors had upgrades for a large number of their
models. There are some work around available. One was offered in a
genuine attempt to help the OP.

Thanks for your opinion.

In other words, Vista sucks - the previous generation of Windows (XP)
has better networking capabilities.

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

 

[+Bob+]

Many things were added to Vista to improve the overall networking
experience.

I think you'd need to puts quotes around "improve" in that statement.

Here are some things that have issues:
- Sleep/Hibernate/Standby mode is now incompatible with most router
- Sleep/Hibernate/Standby mode with connections to shared drives is
incompatible with most and network cards/chips.
- Problems with shared connections are rampant, particularly to other
OS's
- Problems related to the massive global "security" blocks are rampant
- Loss of a shared connection being used in a program server causes
Vista to hang the program and typically the entire system on file
access attempts
- Loss of the network connection hangs Vista. Trying to change from
one network interface to another (wireless to wired) hangs Vista
- Changing from one wireless network to another (physical location
change) causes Vista to fail to connect without significant manual
interaction.
- Allowing network cards to sleep causes significant connection
problems.

While some of these problems can be fixed with a registry hack or the
aforementioned ipconfig/renew, the default is that they don't work in
Vista. None of these problems existed in XP or win2K.

Take a look around this newsgroup. Problems are rampant.