nik52wrx

My sisters laptop has stopped connecting to the internet via wireless.
The laptop shows her bt router but it says local connection only ie there is no globe shoing on the wireless icon on the task bar.
She can connect to the internet by plugging directly into the router but this kind of defeats the idea of a laptop and wireless.

Any ideas or help in sorting this out.

Thanks

Nik.

hodgy0_2

is the wireless enabled on the laptop and the Router

on some laptops you can turn wireless functionality off/on with a switch (as well as disabling the connection in software)

the router should have a light on it to show that wirless is working (coz you can disable the wirless on most wireless routers)

nik52wrx

Checked that already, router ok as other laptops work ok.

Dedrater

Try holding down the FN key and keying the wireless button off, give it a minute then turn it back on again.

Else reinstall the software for her network card which you will be able to download from the manufactures website.

scoobymad555

iTrader: (1)

Can you open and browse a list of available detected wireless networks? - if you can, what does it do when you manually tell it to connect to the one that is yours?

nik52wrx

Local connection only, it sees the router just cant get onto the net?

quote=scoobymad555;8448862]Can you open and browse a list of available detected wireless networks? - if you can, what does it do when you manually tell it to connect to the one that is yours?[/quote]

scoobymad555

iTrader: (1)

ohhh errrr

ok bit of a brain dump here ..... anyone spots flaws in the logic point them out eh? ......

It works when directly connected so it's fair to assume the ip stack is in place and functioning. It's also fair to assume that the browser config is correct regarding proxy settings etc. Since neither ip stack nor browser settings are specifically bound to an interface / adapter then it rules both out as potential fault locations.

Your comment about the Globe in the taskbar suggests the laptop is running Vista so that rules out the "issues" with linux and encryption keys.

If it's actually connecting to the access point then it's also fair to assume that the wireless adapter is working and its config is ok regarding things like encryption keys.



The only "IF" is whether it's actually connecting or not. The "Local connection only" message doesn't always actually mean it has connected to something so methinks that's the starting point. With that in mind, need answers to the following please ......

What network / ssid is it showing connection to?
What signal strength is it showing?
What ip details do you have?

(the last one can be detailed by typing "ipconfig /all" in a dos box without the speech marks)

hodgy0_2

yes -- that rules out the Router -- but as i said some laptops enable you to physically -- via a switch on the laptop, turn off the wirless NIC


i think the Vista message "Local connection only", might mean that it does not have a Default Gateway assigned -- hence has no mechanism for getting out of the local network

if you can "ping" the router address --- which will usually be listed as the Default Gateway address (often 192.168.1.1) and you are not connected via a lan cable, then that means the wirless card is working

you will be able to find the router address by looking at the network properties of a machine that has access through the router -- it will be listed as the default gateway

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Funnily enough My laptop only gets "local connection" to my wireless router.....after fruitless days messing about I gave in

I'll keep an eye on this thread


Shaun

scoobymad555

iTrader: (1)

default gateway address should be assigned to the machine as part of the dhcp service so no need to worry about that particularly.

a screengrab of the ipconfig /all command will confirm a connection to the device, identify the assigned local address, the subnet and the default gateway address though so get posting lol

Midlife ..... is yours similar / the same scenario? if so, can you also provide info please? - might help if we can identify a matching action i.e. an update or something

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

I'll see if I can do a screen grab and post it here.....Might be a bit as I have to wait for the kids bed-time.

Are screen grabs under Vista "ctrl-prt scr " ?

Cheers


Shaun

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Here's the top page from the output of ipconfig/sys on the laptop



does this help ?

Cheers


Shaun

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

And here's a shot of my laptop network page



again, any help ?

Do you need any info on my main PC status ??

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

And here's a shot of my main PC.......as you can see I have cocked up the wireless network and the PC gets confused from time to time.

I'd delete one of the networks but I'm not sure which one I actually use

hodgy0_2

yep -- as i said no default gateway listed -- thats why it says local connection -- it can only see the local lan and no exit out to the internet

you are also getting an APIPA IP adress which means you DHCP is not working (which is why you do not have a default gateway)

http://www.petri.co.il/what's_apipa.htm

I seem to remember when i looked at Vista for work last year that Vista has a problem getting DHCP adresses from certain routers
see the following article

Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers

one reason to stick to XP

scoobymad555

iTrader: (1)

As stated previously also - gateway assignment from dhcp .... dhcp not playing = dead duck.

Have also come across the article that hodgy has referrenced which seems to imply that it is the ip stack at fault since Vista handles the router broadcast announcements differently but that particular problem was documented back in 2007 ..... i know m/s can drag their feet sometimes but i woulda thought they'd done a patch for this by now rather than just a documented reg-hack?!

hodgy0_2

mmmm I wouldn,t bet on it

tbh I gave up on Vista two years ago when doing some investigations into a large corporate rollout.

they forgot to add previously available functionality in XP whereby you could specify a blank space in the sysprep.inf file, which gave you the oportunity to name a machine manually after a reboot -- basic FAIL

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Thanks

You lost me on DHCP LOL

The netgear router was supplied by AOL as part of their Platinum (I think package) to run with AOL VR..

So where do I go from here

are there companies who come and sort out home wireless **** -ups ??

Cheers


Shaun

scoobymad555

iTrader: (1)

DHCP is pretty much an autoconfig for your pc to talk on the network using tcp/ip (there's plenty of info on dhcp and tcp/ip if you wanna google it ) except in your case it's not working properly. The problem appears to be actually down to Vista IF (yet to be proven) myself and hodgy have concluded correctly rather than problems with AOL or Wireless per say. I would suggest trying to manually enter the appropriate ip configuration but that also appears to be documented in a number of places as ineffective.

The link provided in the posts above is to an article on the m/s knowledgebase website that has a documented workaround / fix for the problem. I referred to it as a "reg-hack" because it involves manually editing the operating systems internal registry to achieve the solution. Most of us frequenting this corner of forum wouldn't generally be bothered about doing that ourselves but we wouldn't tend to recommend it as an option to someone that's not a follower of our geeky ways lol! Considering most of us here are also i.t. professionals in one flavour or another, it's safe to say we wouldn't consider it as a commercial / corporate level solution either. Unfortunately at this point it doesn't look like there's many alternatives for you - in short you're screwed so break out the reg-hacks lol! Give it a go and see if it works then let us know on here so others can follow or avoid the same footsteps

oh and make a backup copy of your registry before editing it ..... just incase

There are people that will do home call outs but they can be pricey n besides, this stuff's not as hard as it seems .... well .... not always anyway lol!


hodgy : i vaguely recall hearing something about that fail as it goes lol! It got lost in the wind for me though due to a percentage of my client sites having that issue under xp at the time because of a naff custom variant of xp education edition .... mentioning no names rm honestly - ground up rebuild just to fix a typo - yeah, gonna happen! lol!

hodgy0_2

hi scoobymad555

I used to work for RM's biggest competitor a few years ago, so did 100's of rollouts/install for Colleges etc, we used sysprep etc all the time

small world

scoobymad555

iTrader: (1)

small world indeed lol!