Vista Updates broke wireless connection?

[katz]

No one else has posted about this but I have a hard time believing it's just my systems. This past Wed. I have 4 Vista laptops in the shop, none will connect wireless. One is my own laptop which I know is clean, so I'm not suspecting virus activity. The symptom is "Local Only" access.

Did all the usual scans on all systems, ran the tweaking tool, no connection. Dev. Manager looks good. Swapped out wireless cards and one pc actually connected at that point...what the heck...? Maybe that one actually had a defective card.

Replaced router with new Linksys, still no connection on the other laptops, but the Win 7 laptop, xbox and smartphones all have wireless. I am completely clueless as to what is happening here. I have a feeling some update broke it, not sure. Ran system restore back a few days and that did not help.

Wireless works great with a Linux live cd.

My brain is scrambled at this point. Any ideas on how to proceed?

 

[mr m]

I have a feeling some update broke it, not sure.

I just checked a Vista desktop with an USB wireless adapter and it connects fine. Not counting the daily MSSE updates it was last auto-updated on Aug 18. Maybe a wireless card driver update caused this although I see you already ran a sys restore. It might pay to rollback the wireless card driver anyway.

I'm running out to a client now but if I think of anything I'll get back to you.

 

[katz]

It might pay to rollback the wireless card driver anyway.

I've tried 3 different cards in my personal laptop, different drivers, no connection. I forgot to mention that I also performed all the refresh/renew winsock stuff, a couple of known Vista/wireless fixes I found including registry edits and a MSoft fixit.

This one is a real stumper. Another thing that puzzles me is that I have not received any calls from a few of my customers that have Vista laptops; I know they would be calling if they were having connection issues.

Is there something simple I am overlooking???

 

[NYJimbo]

You did google "vista local access only", and see if any of that applies to you, right ?

Are all of them up to date in Service packs and hot fixes?

Also, you replaced your router but is your internet "modem" separate ? If so did you do a FULL power cycle and make sure its refreshed everything ?
Sometimes an issue with a modem/router will affect one O/S version and not others, typically older O/S's.

 

[katz]

You did google "vista local access only", and see if any of that applies to you, right ?

Are all of them up to date in Service packs and hot fixes?

Also, you replaced your router but is your internet "modem" separate ? If so did you do a FULL power cycle and make sure its refreshed everything ?
Sometimes an issue with a modem/router will affect one O/S version and not others, typically older O/S's.

Tried all of the "vista local access only" fixes. No change

That also included some registry tweaking & the MSoft Fixit.

Are all of them up to date in Service packs and hot fixes? Yes.

I did power cycle everything, modem and router are separate.

I also disabled, then uninstalled the A/V software, no change . No connection in safe mode either.

I know I left some of the troubleshooting steps out of the initial posts, sorry Jimbo...

I've never encountered anything this strange with network issues that I couldn't figure out through process of elimination.

To recap, here is the scenario;

* Three different flavors of Vista/ 4 laptops
* Lost Wireless capability on Wed. (I'm pretty sure that was the day) "Local Only Access" is what I am experiencing.
* Will connect with a Linux CD
* Was able to get one laptop back online with a wireless card replacement, but that fix did not work on the other laptops.

 

[mr m]

Some thoughts. Run ipconfig/all and compare the IP's to the working Win 7 laptop. See how far out you can ping. Ping google.com and 173.194.43.40 (google). Check/disable the firewall. Disable WPA2. Try to connect via the NIC.

Weird that this occurs on multiple Vista laptop's/wireless cards/routers.

 

[katz]

Some thoughts. Run ipconfig/all and compare the IP's to the working Win 7 laptop. See how far out you can ping. Ping google.com and 173.194.43.40 (google). Check/disable the firewall. Disable WPA2. Try to connect via the NIC.

Weird that this occurs on multiple Vista laptop's/wireless cards/routers.

I'll do all that and report back tomorrow. For the record, I just did a factory restore on my personal Vista laptop, performed all updates via. wired connection...and guess what...no wireless internet...

I checked the wireless right after the restore and at various points during the update process. All drivers are fine in Dev. manager. And, I have internet with a Linux disk. At this point I'm not thinking clearly at all, I need to take a step back.

 

[citizensmith]

Welcome to the Dell wifi Hell

Ive spent too much time futzing around with this problem. Darn laptops would conect to my phone but not their netgear router. Rollback don;t always work either. You need the specific driver you're dell came with. Dont asume the latest from dell will work with your service tag Last time I wasted days downloading freakin realtek drivers from every where until one just worked.

 

[katz]

citizensmith,

LOL on the Dell rant; unfortunately?, these are not Dells.

3 Compaqs
1 Acer

I finally got one of the Compaqs working by swapping in another card, so that one is back in the client's hands and all is well. The same is not the case with the remaining laptops.

If I get a chance today I am going to take them to another network to see if I can connect there.

 

[johnrobert]

Have you tried taking laptop to another location and trying to connect
This just happened to me on site no local access on dell vista laptop
I brought it home and it connected right away
I spent quite a bit of time removing crap updating wireless drivers etc.
took it back and again no local access
They did not want to pay and pursue it anymore it was just a side job.
didn't do system restore as it had been like this for months.
but it bugged the hell out of me I felt like an idiot

 

[katz]

Something hokey is going on with my shop wireless network. I just tried 2 of the laptops at another location and they connect fine. Back in the shop, I'm on my second new router, power cycled everything and no connection.

Very odd that this just happened out of the blue with no changes to my network, pc's, etc. And to recap, I can connect in the shop with a live disk, but not when booted into windows - and this is with a fresh install on one of the laptops.

I'll fight with it more when I get back to the shop.

 

[citizensmith]

Is this related to WPA / WPA2 and some router type - wifi card combinations not getting on? Do they connect to open networks?
Apologeis for the Dell rant earlier and not much help now. Hate faults that dont break properley.

 

[glricht]

Don't know if this applies or not, but I had something similar about a year ago. Did a N&P on a Vista laptop and everything (including wireless) worked just fine in the office.

Brought it to the customer and the wireless wouldn't connect to their router (supplied by Verizon, their ISP). My personal laptop, my smartphone, and the laptop running a live CD connected just fine, but wouldn't connect when running Vista.

Searched Google and Atheros and found a driver (NOT the latest!) that finally got things working again. The problem supposedly exists with laptops using Atheros under Vista in some situations!

hth

 

[katz]

The problem supposedly exists with laptops using Atheros under Vista in some situations!

The 2 remaining laptops I am working with have Atheros cards. I have new cards coming this week to try out. I may look for some alternate drivers in the meantime.

 

[Steve202]

What model are the cards? AR5007?

 

[katz]

What model are the cards? AR5007?

Good call - AR5007EG to be exact. I don't have the full PCI number avail. right now. I downloaded some drivers from the Atheros site last eve., and for some reason the setup.exe file crashed when trying to install them.

I didn't have much time to mess with it further, I may tackle it today if I get a chance. Fortunately, the remaining laptops belong to a family that is away on vacation for the week, so I have a bit of time to work with it. (I'll need it)

Funny I've never run across this Atheros/Vista scenario before, but as was previously mentioned by glricht it does seem to be a known issue.

 

[citizensmith]

Me too It was an atheros 5007

not a realtek . Just gettting old I guess

wow. sorry about the img size.

 

[Steve202]

Thought so. Had an issue with a customers laptop few months ago, they were running Vista and had an Atheros AR5007 card and recently swapped routers. Turns out there's an issue with Atheros cards and some Netgear routers. If you turn off all wireless security, it should connect fine.

There's some driver update here that might work.

 

[AlaDes]

I've had similar issues with wireless connections, after updating the drivers, especially the Atheros cards. They will usually connect to WEP or an unsecured network but not to WPA / WPA2 network. Once an updated driver is installed, I've usually had to uninstall and delete the driver and install the factory driver.