Need assistance with Mystery connectivity problem

[JRDtechnet]

I have a strange issue I'm trying to troubleshoot. Customer has a home wireless network (netgear cable modem/wifi G router all-in-one unit).
Computers:
1. Vista Home Premium 32bit Dell laptop (built-in wifi adapter)
2. Vista Home Basic with linksys usb adapter G
3. Windows XP Home with linksys usb adapter G

The issue is the Vista computers will ONLY load a Google website (maps.google.com, local.google.com, mail.google.com, etc) I can do a search and the links display fine but as soon as a click a link it times out. Yahoo.com timeout, microsoft.com time out etc etch. I can ping out to every website just fine though, I can do an nslookup just fine.

Steps I've taken,
Updated everything (Vista and adapter drivers)
Reset winsock and ip catalogs
Malware scan (nothing but a few cookies)

Finally I went into the router and disabled wifi security (they had it on WPA), Bam everything works great...reset the router and tried WPA again...nothing. Tried WEP 128bit....works perfectly. (I should mention that the XP computer accesses everything just fine with WPA)

At this point I'm leaning towards router incompatibility with Vista...until I try my laptop, which has Vista, and I can connect and access everything just fine with WPA enabled on the router.

Has anyone ever come across this? Why would WPA only allow access to google sites and nothing else?

edit: also did a tracert to several websites and it made it to the destination with no problems....yet again only google will come up in the browser (tried about 3 dozen common websites)

 

[seedubya]

Nothing for you but a couple of stabs in the dark. Are you (or they) on different service packs? Have you considered a firmware upgrade for the router - netgear stuff is well known as being flaky?

 

[JRDtechnet]

Nothing for you but a couple of stabs in the dark. Are you (or they) on different service packs? Have you considered a firmware upgrade for the router - netgear stuff is well known as being flaky?

All the Vista's including my laptop (which works fine with wpa) are on SP1. The netgear is flashed with Comcast's Dummy proof firmware and there's no option to upgrade through gui.

 

[tartis]

Have you disabled the Firewall in Vista? I would first make sure that the local firewall is not blocking traffic. It is odd that you can go to Google, but not get anywhere.

 

[TimeCode]

WiFi Connection Software

Are you using the Windows Zero Configuration (Start > Connect to) or the software that came with the wireless card or laptop? I would recommend using the Windows Zero Configuration because I almost always have problems with WiFi connection software that came from Hardware manufacturers.

Also, can you ping any of the "blocked sites" successfully? Is the firewall in the router... box enabled? Try disabling that (not permanently) for a test. Let us know what happens.

 

[bitznpcz]

looks like a common problem: - http://www.techsupportforum.com/mic...-can-only-access-google-some-other-sites.html

 

[abe]

hi all

this is from the link bitznpcz posted just posting here to save time having to go through the whole thread.

hello all,
This is a very interesting problem and here's the solution. This is a known issue with certain types of network hardware. In my case, the problem occured on a network with multiple XP clients and one Vista client. The wireless router was a comcast issued Netgear cable modem/router/WiFi AP all in one. The issue is specifically with the WPA encryption. Only the Vista computer could not access the web sites other than Google. All other computers worked in all ways and the Vista box could ping anything. Only problem was web browsing in IE and Firefox on the Vista box. Changed the encryption to WEP64 and everything works fine again. Neat! The login for the Netgear branded Comcast equipment in question is comcast/1234 and the ip is 192.168.0.1. What a crazy problem!!! Take care all.

 

[JRDtechnet]

hi all

this is from the link bitznpcz posted just posting here to save time having to go through the whole thread.

hello all,
This is a very interesting problem and here's the solution. This is a known issue with certain types of network hardware. In my case, the problem occured on a network with multiple XP clients and one Vista client. The wireless router was a comcast issued Netgear cable modem/router/WiFi AP all in one. The issue is specifically with the WPA encryption. Only the Vista computer could not access the web sites other than Google. All other computers worked in all ways and the Vista box could ping anything. Only problem was web browsing in IE and Firefox on the Vista box. Changed the encryption to WEP64 and everything works fine again. Neat! The login for the Netgear branded Comcast equipment in question is comcast/1234 and the ip is 192.168.0.1. What a crazy problem!!! Take care all.

Yeah thing is...my Vista laptop connects wireless with WPA no problems....and the 2 vista desktops according to the customer were working fine...thats why she called me because all of a sudden they stopped working.

Yes, i disable the firewall, removed all security suites, etc. Using wireless zero too...not a 3rd party wifi config.

 

[TimeCode]

Yes, i disable the firewall, removed all security suites, etc. Using wireless zero too...not a 3rd party wifi config.

Quick fix: Get a WAP (Wireless Access Point), stick with the WPA (or even go WPA2) and you'll be good to go. I don't recommend using the WEP because of the obvious security reasons.

If you insist on fixing that problem, I have no more suggestions for you. That is a CRAZY problem that I've never seen before. But I will keep my eye out for it.