Vista laptop sees router, but will not stay connected

[Me]

Hello. Just purchased an Acer Aspire 3680. Neat little machine -
unfortunately it will not connect to my D-Link router. It SEES the router
but will not connect. Getting 100% signal. Issue is, there are 3 other
laptops that worked perfrctly out of the box, including an Acer 5610 with
Vista Premium, that work well off the same system. Therefore, the problem
has to be a setting somewhere in the Vista basic on the 3680, but I know not
where. Acer's tech worked with me a while, but gave up and explained to me
that they had so far NOT been trained by Microsoft in Vista. Good ol' MS
offers mounds of help in their knowledge base, but nothing actually fits,
and I don't think it is reasonable of them to charge for support on a new
machine.

This feels like a configuration problem on the 3680, but I am not sure where
to look. The diagnostic message reports the network is hidden , but if this
was so would the other machines not connect either??

Also, I tried several times to set network discovery to on, and the computer
would not let me do it. I turned off the User accounts watchdog and it
astill will not let me turn network discovery.

Any thoughts???

Bill.....

 

[Chuck]

Hello. Just purchased an Acer Aspire 3680. Neat little machine -
unfortunately it will not connect to my D-Link router. It SEES the router
but will not connect. Getting 100% signal. Issue is, there are 3 other
laptops that worked perfrctly out of the box, including an Acer 5610 with
Vista Premium, that work well off the same system. Therefore, the problem
has to be a setting somewhere in the Vista basic on the 3680, but I know not
where. Acer's tech worked with me a while, but gave up and explained to me
that they had so far NOT been trained by Microsoft in Vista. Good ol' MS
offers mounds of help in their knowledge base, but nothing actually fits,
and I don't think it is reasonable of them to charge for support on a new
machine.

This feels like a configuration problem on the 3680, but I am not sure where
to look. The diagnostic message reports the network is hidden , but if this
was so would the other machines not connect either??

Also, I tried several times to set network discovery to on, and the computer
would not let me do it. I turned off the User accounts watchdog and it
astill will not let me turn network discovery.

Any thoughts???

Bill.....

Bill,

First check for DHCP Broadcast set on - that's a common problem with computers
running Vista. Many NAT routers can't handle this.
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233>
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233

Now you don't say what vendor supplies the WiFi in the new computer. Is it the
same make and model as the others? If not, try turning WiFi security off on the
router, just as a test.

If you're using WPA on the router, you may have to work at finding a WPA key
that will work for all 4 laptops.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/07/setup-wifi-and-wpa-carefully.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/07/setup-wifi-and-wpa-carefully.html

And look at the access log on the router, for clues.

 

[Me]

Bill,

First check for DHCP Broadcast set on - that's a common problem with
computers
running Vista. Many NAT routers can't handle this.
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233>
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233

Now you don't say what vendor supplies the WiFi in the new computer. Is
it the
same make and model as the others? If not, try turning WiFi security off
on the
router, just as a test.

If you're using WPA on the router, you may have to work at finding a WPA
key
that will work for all 4 laptops.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/07/setup-wifi-and-wpa-carefully.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/07/setup-wifi-and-wpa-carefully.html

And look at the access log on the router, for clues.

Chuck - this makes sense and will try it later, but - there is another Acer
laptop in thehouse running Vista Premium that worked first crack out of the
box. I live in the country, and do Not have security set at all on the
router. Will give this a try after work... Thanks
Bill

 

[Me]

Chuck - this makes sense and will try it later, but - there is another
Acer laptop in thehouse running Vista Premium that worked first crack out
of the box. I live in the country, and do Not have security set at all on
the router. Will give this a try after work... Thanks
Bill
May/25/2007 11:42:04 dhcpc_input: pLeaseId NULL.

This repeats over and over on the router log. evidently it is looking for
some kind of ID from the 3680. I did go into the registry and make the
changes to the DHCP broadcast flag with no effect. ( ys, I did reboot after
the changes =) )

Bill

 

[Brent Harrelson]

This is just a thought, but here goes....

You do not mention the exact model of wireless router you are using, but I
know that some of them have a setting that allows you to set the maximum
number of concurrent wireless connections allowed. So if for instance you
have at some point set it to only allow say three connections and you have
three laptops connected wirelessly then the fourth one would see the network
but not be able to connect as you mention.

It is a security feature of sorts....and it may have been configured by
default on your router for some reason if you did not. I can't say for sure
not knowing the model of your equipment or if all the other machines are
connected at once. Just a thought.

--
________________________________________
Brent Harrelson
IT Director
Alpha & Omega Communications, Inc
(843) 249-7372 ext. 303