Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Technical Help and How To's Vista causing wireless problems?

This has been plaguing me for months now, and I don't know why I didn't ask here sooner. Maybe because the problem is not a constant one.

Anyway, I got a new laptop back in March (Dell Inspiron 1501) and had no choice but to have Vista installed on it. Vista isn't *so* bad... just irritating. My wireless was working just fine until a few months ago, when it would just randomly stop working. It would say it was still connected, yet not actually be; it would connect only locally with no actual internet; it just plain wouldn't work. But it only happened some of the time and usually for no more than an hour (or I'd have given up for the night anyway and gone to bed).

Now it's happening more frequently.

At first I thought it was an IP conflict (but that turned out to be a separate issue that's now resolved).

It's not a Dell power saving conflict, either. (A Google search identified this as a common problem, but my settings don't interfere in any way.)

I believe it's what's called the Auto Tuning Level - something about Vista trying to get the optimum wireless signal at all times or something. I don't really understand it. I tried this fix (heck if I can find the website again, but I wrote it down):

Run the command prompt as an admin and run the command: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

and it seemed to work for a day or two, but now it's as frequent and annoying as ever.

I could Google more, but I'm really just shooting in the dark here as to what's wrong. Has anyone else experienced problems with this? Anyone computer saavy enough to figure out just how to convince Vista to stop doing this for once and for all? Do I need to start harassing Bill Gates to give me XP for free so I can downgrade?

Oh, and yes, the connection works just fine when plugged directly into the router. :p

I'll be eternally grateful to whomever can fix this for me once and for all?

Sara

Was this the page you got it from? Notice there is no "level" on the command. (UPDATE: Actually, there are *many* pages out there about this)

They say to try setting the level to "HIGH' instead of disabled, also:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=high

UPDATE: I also found a page that suggests disabling the Auto Level, but also includes the following line:
netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled

Oh, by the way, do you have a router in your home for the wireless? Try updating the firmware of the router. Maybe it needs to be updated to use with Vista?

malu

Oooh, new question: is your wireless secure or unsecure (do you need a passkey to be able to connect to the wireless connection)?

UPDATE: Try this .

malu

That wasn't the page about the autotuning, but it's the same info. I guess it works whether or not you add "level" to the end. Anyway, none of those settings seemed to work.

Checking on the Linksys site, it seems that my wireless router isn't compatible with Vista. WTG, Bill #$@%&!* Gates. And I guess there's absolutely nothing I can do about that but buy a new router or give up the wireless world and move stuff around so I can plug in to connect, according to the limited info there.

My wireless is unsecured (been meaning to do something about that, but I'm too lazy). Incidentally, the link you give there about the DHCP broadcast flag... I did the registry fix it suggests, rebooted, and I seem to be working fine now. Heck if I understand it, though. Cross your fingers that this keeps working!

Thanks a million, Malu!!

Sara (who's finally back online on her own laptop *happy sigh*)

Ah, a Linksys wireless router. Hate to tell you, but that's the issue right there, and nothing to do with Vista. Especially if you run any P2P software or torrents. I have a Linksys wireless router (no vista machines anywhere on the network, just 4 XP, 1 or 2 linux, 1 mac), and it will freeze up about once every week or two. The mac seems to be the first to drop, usually, which is my main machine. Sometimes it will get out of it. Other times I have to unplug the router for about 30 seconds to reset it. I notice when it drops, my wireless signal drops too. Sometimes I can access the router config page, other times I can't even do that. It has something to do with a buffer overrun. I know a few other people with the same issue, and you can find more if you google.

So the fix is to either power-cycle every time it happens, or get a new router. I haven't found a firmware upgrade yet that fixes it.

Well, I'm used to the occasional drop off from Linksys, but this is something more. It happens more often (as in several times a day, whereas the router only lapses every so often), and my sister's laptop (running XP) works just fine. So I know it's just my computer. Anyway, Malu's last link seems to have fixed the problem for now.

Sara

That's good.

Please let us know if the problem returns.

malu

Karen... The problem, as I understand it, is that certain Linksys routers track connections for 2 weeks. So if you're running P2P software (which involves connecting with a lot of different IPs), you'll overload the system and have to reset it.

As you said, Linksys firmware upgrades won't do the trick. But... Linksys has open source firmware. There are a few independent projects out there. Wiki has a current list of them in their article on my router (WRT54G) . There's also a utorrent FAQ on the subject with links to a couple of firmware alternatives.

Seems to work for most people, and I'd expect the major projects would be stable. But there's a chance of bricking the router during the switch and no formal tech support (unless you go with one of the paid options, I guess), so I've always been afraid to make the jump. Hasn't been an issue for me, though, because I don't often bother with torrents. If you're running into the problem on a regular basis, though, it might be worth a shot.

And Sara... there's a chance that if it's the router that's the problem rather than Vista, this could help you, too. Maybe...

Paul

It happened again yesterday, then again today.

*cries*

There I am, trying to research how to fix my sister\'s keyboard problem , and the connection goes kaput on me.

Not sure what to do now.

Sara

You know, I've been trawling around the Microsoft site... there are quite a few people on the forums who are having the same problem as me. And all their efforts, it seems, have really proved futile. One person said that "upon further research, this appears to be related to a bug with a new feature called "Scaling". Microsoft claims it is not a bug - it is a feature - and blames router manufacturers who don't support it."

Linksys lists my router as "compatible with Vista". It must be, as it works most of the time with it.

So, it seems there really isn't a fix for this except for to kill Vista.

A fun side-note: When I searched for "vista sucks" on the Microsoft website, I got nearly 10,000 hits.

Sara

Did you know Linksys has a page specifically dedicated to Vista support? stumbled across it while browsing their support site to get more detailed instructions for below. They have drivers you can download and all sorts of stuff.

Back to my original reason for posting: if the router is supposed to be Vista compatible but isn't acting like it... Try updating the firmware?

You'll have to manually go to linksys.com, navigate to the Tech Support page, tell it which router you have (model and version - if you don't know, it'll tell you how to find it), click the link in the "downloads" box, and download the latest firmware. If it's in .zip format, extract the file.

Then log into the router. With a linksys router, by default:

1. Open your web browser
2. In the address bar, type in: 192.168.1.1
3. Going there should pop up a box with a login prompt. Leave the username blank, and put in "admin" as the password.

Go to the "Administration" tab, and select "firmware upgrade." Click the "browse" button and select the file you downloaded from the Linksys website. Confirm that you want to upgrade, then leave it alone while it upgrades and reboots.

Click here for more detailed, step-by-step instructions from Linksys, including pictures.

Hmm, and according to that page, you may have to reset the router to complete the upgrade. To do that, press and hold the little "reset" button on the back of the router for 30 seconds (and, though they don't mention it, you may have to power cycle it to complete the process). You can also go to the "administration" tab, select "factory defaults," and confirm that you want to "restore factory defaults."

Resetting the router will, as indicated, return everything to factory default. So if you have any non-default settings (wireless security enabled, different network name, etc.) you'll have to log back in to the router and reenter them.

Oh, and you'll probably want to plug directly into the router with an ethernet cable to do this stuff, rather than trying to manage it all wirelessly.

I've had a history with several Linksys routers. None of them were very reliable. They all had minor problems with freezes and with dropped signal. For no reason at random times, I'd lose the signal with Windows telling me that I wasn't connected any longer. Then it'd pick up the signal several seconds later. That made any sort of audio or video streaming problematic. It also plays havoc with VPN tunnels I use to get into my work's network.

Linksys routers are cheap... and you get what you pay for.

Strangely enough, the most stable and least stable routers I've had came from Netgear.

I currently use Apple's Airport Extreme 802.11n gigabit routers. They work pretty well and are very stable, plus they have the added benefit of allowing you to plug in external hard drives or printers into the USB port on the back (either directly or through a USB hub to add more than one USB device), giving you a network printer and network hard drives. I have a MacBook Pro while my wife has a Sony Windows laptop. Both connect easily to my wireless network and have had no issues.

Ooh! Thanks, Paul! I'll definitely be trying that out later tonight. Let's hope it works to fix the problem for good.

Sara