Troubleshooting Wireless Connection Issues on Windows Vista

[JasonRox]

I'm at the library on the wireless system and it works fine.

I go home to my wireless system and it does not work. It says connected, but the browser can not locate any website and can not detect an internet connection?

What's wrong here?

Note: Windows Vista

 

[apstu2]

i have the same problem at home. I'm at school. i have windows vista as well, but do you have an updaters, or has anyone erased history?

 

[Crosson]

I see this problem all the time! As far as I can tell, most consumer level wireless routers only pretend to work. There is a simple solution, which is to only purchase linksys brand routers if you are looking to spend under 200$. I have helped at least 5 people solve the fake wireless connection problem you describe, where ms windows claims that their laptops are connected but no web page will actually load. Some of them were initially skeptical, "why would one kind of router work and the others not? It must be something to do with the my particular house blocking signals." etc. You should be able to get a linksys WRT54G pretty inexpensively.

The other possible cause of your problem is if you are sharing the network at home with someone else who is either filesharing or infected with viruses. Since these applications try to accept and create a lot of direct connections they can sometimes make the home network totally unusable. This is more likely the case if you sometimes get a simple webpage to load excruciatingly slowly after 10 tries.

 

[NoTime]

I'm at the library on the wireless system and it works fine.

I go home to my wireless system and it does not work. It says connected, but the browser can not locate any website and can not detect an internet connection?

What's wrong here?

Note: Windows Vista

Use Start->Connect to
Select the connection you want.
You'll also need to reply "accept unsecured network" if the network is unsecured.

Vista is really bad with multiple networks.
One of the more annoying things is that it will disconnect and (perhaps) try another network if it fails to resolve a DNS entry.

 

[JasonRox]

Use Start->Connect to
Select the connection you want.
You'll also need to reply "accept unsecured network" if the network is unsecured.

Vista is really bad with multiple networks.
One of the more annoying things is that it will disconnect and (perhaps) try another network if it fails to resolve a DNS entry.

That's not it. That's just how to connect. I'm saying it's connected just not loading any pages.

I know buying a new router is not necessary because I was connected for about a month until it just stopped.

 

[NoTime]

Do a network diagnostic.
I think that is selectable from "Network" amongst other places like right click on the connection.

Had one recently where the wireless and the router were found but the link was bad on the service provider end.
And yes, I cursed it for a while before the diagnostic showed it up.

 

[cristo]

It could be a problem with the actual internet connection and not your network. Can you access your router's IP?

 

[JasonRox]

Do a network diagnostic.
I think that is selectable from "Network" amongst other places like right click on the connection.

Had one recently where the wireless and the router were found but the link was bad on the service provider end.
And yes, I cursed it for a while before the diagnostic showed it up.

It says that it finds no problems.

How do I reset my internet connections?I would like to do that.

 

[russ_watters]

To reset your internet connection, unplug the modem and then plug it back in. And check the indicator lights. Then try plugging your laptop directly into the modem (not through the router). If that doesn't work, the problem may well be your connection to your ISP is bad.

Wait, don't you live in Pennsylvania? Comcast has been really bad lately for some people. My parents' connection drops for hours at a time sometimes (I have comcast too, but it seems reliable in my area).

 

[NoTime]

I think I may have mislead you some. The right click is the wrong diagnostic.

Try Start->Network then pick Network & Sharing Center off the lower toolbar.
First check if there are all green lines between the depicted devices.
Any big red Xs mean you have to fix the external hardware.

Vista is quite happy saying its connected to a wireless router.
Unfortunately, the router doesn't have to be plugged into anything else or have an actual internet connection.
IE under Vista uses DNS to determine if it is connected to a Service provider.
Thus if you put in a bad address or any other reason it cannot resolve the DNS name then you get a "not connected" from IE function while Vista still sits there and says its connected.

If all the lines are green and no Xs then
From the Network & Sharing Center you can pick Manage Networks or Manage Wireless Networks.
Only way I know of to reset is delete everything in both categories then create a new connection.

Also get SP1 and the rest of updates for vista, If you havn't already.
Updating seemed to help some with switching to different networks, but it still does a lot of annoying things.

You could also try "View Status"
Under Details see if there is a DNS and DHCP entry.
As a last resort go to properties and uncheck IPv6, some people say this fixes things, but I havn't had to try it yet, and Reboot.

When I get some free time I'm getting rid of Vista on the laptop I have.

 

[JasonRox]

To reset your internet connection, unplug the modem and then plug it back in. And check the indicator lights. Then try plugging your laptop directly into the modem (not through the router). If that doesn't work, the problem may well be your connection to your ISP is bad.

Wait, don't you live in Pennsylvania? Comcast has been really bad lately for some people. My parents' connection drops for hours at a time sometimes (I have comcast too, but it seems reliable in my area).

I tried resetting and plugging directly into the router works fine, so through the modem is fine too.

I don't have Comcast. I'm in Quebec City. I don't think Comcast operates in Canada. Could be wrong though.

 

[JasonRox]

I think I may have mislead you some. The right click is the wrong diagnostic.

Try Start->Network then pick Network & Sharing Center off the lower toolbar.
First check if there are all green lines between the depicted devices.
Any big red Xs mean you have to fix the external hardware.

Vista is quite happy saying its connected to a wireless router.
Unfortunately, the router doesn't have to be plugged into anything else or have an actual internet connection.
IE under Vista uses DNS to determine if it is connected to a Service provider.
Thus if you put in a bad address or any other reason it cannot resolve the DNS name then you get a "not connected" from IE function while Vista still sits there and says its connected.

If all the lines are green and no Xs then
From the Network & Sharing Center you can pick Manage Networks or Manage Wireless Networks.
Only way I know of to reset is delete everything in both categories then create a new connection.

Also get SP1 and the rest of updates for vista, If you havn't already.
Updating seemed to help some with switching to different networks, but it still does a lot of annoying things.

You could also try "View Status"
Under Details see if there is a DNS and DHCP entry.
As a last resort go to properties and uncheck IPv6, some people say this fixes things, but I havn't had to try it yet, and Reboot.

When I get some free time I'm getting rid of Vista on the laptop I have.

I tried the majority of what you just said.

And yes, I'm getting rid of Vista too. I would do it now, but my XP CD is in another province.

 

[rootX]

This is one of the main reason I moved back to xp :)

Vista sucks. I like XP simplicity!@

 

[russ_watters]

Not sure why I thought you were in PA, sorry...

 

[Fujimitsu]

Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere in the post, but I haven't seen it:

Plug the laptop into the router, connect the ethernet port on your laptop (looks like large phone cable) to one of the ports on the back of the router.

If you have the same problem then something's up with your router/internet configuration.

if this fixes it then it's probably just a matter of fixing a setting or two on your machine or the router to fix the wireless. I've had a hell of a time getting wireless to work reliably on vista with a few machines in my home, it seems to randomly change settings on me. SP1 has helped on a few boxes, but I still have occasional issues.