Wi-Fi auto reconnect

[DGtlRift]

I just got a new toshiba with Win XP and a Atheros Wi-Fi
interface, but I kept getting bumpt off my Wi-Fi access
point (NetGear MR314). The little Wifi access icon in
the task tray kept poping up with the message "Wireless
Network Connection, One of more wireless networks are
available, To see a list of available networks, click
here" and having to manually reconnect manually, then
wait for the netgear box to assign me the ip again.
There were no other wifi networks in the list... just my
netgear box.

At first I thought that this might be signal strength but
with the notebook right next to the netgear box I rulled
that out.

After disabling encryption, access keys, and MAC address
filters on the netgear box, I was still having the issue.

After a friend came over with his sony with linux and he
connected no problem with no issues and was able to stay
connected I figured it was the Atheros chipset or the OS,
but then we found that his pc-card was atheros chip set I
figured it must be the OS or driver.

After this happening about every 5 minutes, I made it my
mission to find out what the deal is. I found in a
thread that if I disable "Wireless Zero Configuration"
service it would solve the problem, which it did. Woo-hoo!

Does anyone know if there are there any known issues with
having this service disabled? The other question is when
Microsoft will patch this so it will work automatically?

-DG

 

[DGtlRift]

-----Original Message-----
I just got a new toshiba with Win XP and a Atheros Wi-Fi
interface, but I kept getting bumpt off my Wi-Fi access
point (NetGear MR314). The little Wifi access icon in
the task tray kept poping up with the message "Wireless
Network Connection, One of more wireless networks are
available, To see a list of available networks, click
here" and having to manually reconnect manually, then
wait for the netgear box to assign me the ip again.
There were no other wifi networks in the list... just my
netgear box.

At first I thought that this might be signal strength but
with the notebook right next to the netgear box I rulled
that out.

After disabling encryption, access keys, and MAC address
filters on the netgear box, I was still having the issue.

After a friend came over with his sony with linux and he
connected no problem with no issues and was able to stay
connected I figured it was the Atheros chipset or the OS,
but then we found that his pc-card was atheros chip set I
figured it must be the OS or driver.

After this happening about every 5 minutes, I made it my
mission to find out what the deal is. I found in a
thread that if I disable "Wireless Zero Configuration"
service it would solve the problem, which it did. Woo- hoo!

Does anyone know if there are there any known issues with
having this service disabled? The other question is when
Microsoft will patch this so it will work automatically?

-DG

Well, I found one already. If you reboot, it will not
find the WAP, so I start the service then disable it when
it finds the network. Lame. Although, one thing I
noticed is after rebooting and starting the service, it
autoconnects to the wap without going through that dialog
window. So it works the first on the first discovery of
the wap, but for some reason it looses it, redescovers it
and is unable to connect on it's own.

In addition, when I put the notebook to sleep (close the
screen) it has no problem reaquiring the wap when it
wakes up, even with the service disabled.

Does Microsoft know about this issue? Does their support
read these threads to see if there are quick answers for
the simple problems?

-DG