Vista wireless is borken

[Buffy]

My latest vista nightmare...

Been trying to get the little one's computer (the only one in the house with Vista on it) to talk to the wireless network.

Bottom line: it doesn't work.

Alexander noted elsewhere that the Vista TCP stack has "problems," and this is probably a manifestation of it: apparently they changed the timing for the initial handshake on the connection to an access point, and for most older (i.e. more than 3 months old! ) APs, the response is not quick enough for Vista, so it complains that the "signal strength is low."

I have a Netgear WGT624 which has no problem with the rest of the XP, OSX and *nix machines in the house (although it does make me set up LMHOSTS files because it really wants to be a router and not an AP! ).

I've got the latest firmware for the Netgear which is supposed to be Vista compliant and have gone through several different wireless thingies on the Vista machine, but no dice. (so there's a 50' cable that's been installed to get halfway across the house).

Any one else run into this?

Operator, let's forget about this call,
Buffy

[Tormod]

Could it be something basic, like Vista wanting to use WPA instead of WEP (I have no idea, just shooting blind here - it happened when I got an Airport Extreme last week and my PC suddenly could not connect).

[Theory5]

perhaps its not the router but the Computer itself. my sister got a laptop and that has vista on it and she connected wireless to the neighbors unprotected wifi network. she has no computer experience whatsoever and I had to tell her how to click on the little icon to connect to a wireless network. (my dad has not set up ours yet so she uses a cable mostly.) Make sure your comp has the latest drivers for wireless and that the network card is searching and receiving. there should be a little light on the card itself 3 lights actually one should be sending the other should be receiving.

[Zythryn]

Our Vista laptop and desktop connected without any issues to our WRT54GS router.
Connections were 'out of the box' and automatic with no additional drivers needed.
I would second Tormod's suggest, check the easy basic stuff. 99% of the time with Windows if it isn't working there is likely some checkbox messing things up

[Buffy]

Honest, I have done the easy stuff! I've been having to mess with these network thingies since before some of you were born! Do any of you remember thick (1cm) cable that ran in a loop before some smart person invented hubs?

The fact that it works for many people with default settings just goes to show you that it either works or it doesn't!

I do have more Linksys equipment than Netgear and I like it better, so I'm not surprised to hear your story Z. I got the Netgear at CompUSA when they were shutting down the local store so I got it for half price...at least it works fine for the other machines!

No, actually this is an issue that's been documented in more than a few places I've found on the internet. Its not that it affects *all* wifi AP/card combinations, but apparently it is a significant number and it does have to do with what MS did to its IP stack in Vista....

Netgear is pretty good, but when they've got problems they never admit to it. While its really Microsoft's fault here, unfortunately most of us expect Netgear and the other hardware vendors to fix the situation...

...and hey, who "fixed" the title of the thread? Its "borken" on "porpoise"!

I hear you singing in the wire, I can hear you thru the whine,
Buffy

[Theory5]

hmm MAYBE microsoft will fix your problem in a Vista update IF enough people have that same problem :P

[alexander]

Originally Posted by Buffy

I have a Netgear WGT624

One question; Why, why is that still not running OpenWRT?

Buffy, if i am not mistaken, and i dont know the layout of your home network, but i am guessing here, you may have struck one of my peeves with Vista, let me explain. Vista's TCP stack code is so badly written that the wonderful OS does NOT support multiple gateways. If you are saying that your wireless router acts as a router and youcan't get it to act as an AP, Vista will freak out and not connect at all, when it sees multiple gateways. So suggestion for you to try: go manual, set a manual IP address, mask, gateway, dns server info and see if you get connectivity that way

[C1ay]

Some of the suggestions in this thread might help...

[Buffy]

Originally Posted by alexander

One question; Why, why is that still not running OpenWRT?

Netgear/Cisco *always* does their own thing. "We don't need not steeenkeen open source!"

Originally Posted by alexander

... that the wonderful OS does NOT support multiple gateways. If you are saying that your wireless router acts as a router and youcan't get it to act as an AP, Vista will freak out and not connect at all, when it sees multiple gateways. So suggestion for you to try: go manual, set a manual IP address, mask, gateway, dns server info and see if you get connectivity that way

Will try that, since I've already long ago gone to fixed IPs for all the systems except for the wired ones, which all have MacAddr-mapped assigned IPs (i.e. there's no issuance of ips going on at all).

Originally Posted by C1ay

Some of the suggestions in this thread might help...

I loved the first suggestion: "upgrade to super-G routers." Man those Netgear dudes know how to move hardware!

The document referenced in the thread does point out something I'd just stumbled across: wireless routers are having trouble with IPv6, so if you have problems, disable IPv6 completely...heck who uses it anyway?

Thanks guys!

Protocols here, there and everywhere,
Buffy

[alexander]

Originally Posted by buffy

Netgear/Cisco *always* does their own thing. "We don't need not steeenkeen open source!"

Rofl, right, who needs to have secure firmware.... i love openwrt and dd-wrt, makes a 50 dollar router into a 500+ dollar one, and you need only to flash it...