Issue with Vista & Wireless

[Cleon]

Please help. I don't have much hair left, I'd rather not keep pulling it out.

At home I have a wireless network set up, which works just fine and dandy.

My laptop is dual-boot, Ubuntu Linux and Vista.

When I'm using Vista, periodically I will lose Internet access. It will show me as connected to the wireless network, but "Local Only." If I click on the connection and hit "diagnose," then "Reset wireless adapter," it reconnects, and everything works fine...until the next time it goes back to "Local Only."

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for this periodic semi-disconnection. It'll happen while I'm using it, so I know it's not a power management thing (I turned that off anyway). Sometimes when I've left it on all day, I'll get home and everything will work fine; other times, it'll be "Local Only."

It doesn't happen at all on the Ubuntu partition, so I know it's not an issue with hardware or the router.

Needless to say, this can be really irritating when I'm, say, playing WoW or (worse) in an online poker tournament.

If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Welcome to Windows Vista. I get the same thing. There is no solution. Ever get the one where Windows will decide that it's not going to launch anymore applications?

For the record, my Mac has been on for 3 straight years, 24/7. Never lost connection. Same as your Ubuntu experience. It comes down to UNIX vs Windows.

[Cleon]

Welcome to Windows Vista. I get the same thing. There is no solution. Ever get the one where Windows will decide that it's not going to launch anymore applications?

No, haven't gotten that one, hopefully I never will.


For the record, my Mac has been on for 3 straight years, 24/7. Never lost connection. Same as your Ubuntu experience. It comes down to UNIX vs Windows.

No doubt. And I've love to switch to Mac, they're just too damned pricey.

If I can't get this resolved, I may just use Ubuntu full-time and run the Windows apps I want under wine.

[Ashles]

My wife quite often has the same issue on her Vista running laptop.

I never have this issue with my Vista running laptop.

We use the same wireless router.

It's just weird.

(I guess it's one of those deeply hidden options somewhere.
I assume if you hunt around enough you'll find a setting that says something like "Randomly periodically disconnect from internet" and you have to set this to "Off")

[Terry]

No, haven't gotten that one, hopefully I never will.



No doubt. And I've love to switch to Mac, they're just too damned pricey.

If I can't get this resolved, I may just use Ubuntu full-time and run the Windows apps I want under wine.

Consider VirtualBox also, it's a free virtual PC emulator, and is probably more compatible with more stuff than Wine.

[Cleon]

Consider VirtualBox also, it's a free virtual PC emulator, and is probably more compatible with more stuff than Wine.

Interesting. How does it work?

I'd rather not have two installs on the same box (on my Vista partition & on wine virtual drive). (Especially since WoW installs take *********** forever.) My ideal solution would be something that can run the Windows binaries directly off the Vista partition (which Ubuntu can see), but I don't know whether that's practical.

[a_unique_person]

My guess would be the drivers. When Vista came out they all had to be re-written, Microsoft changed the driver model again. This must be about the tenth time. I would check if their are any driver updates, from the manufacturer, not from Microsoft update.

My wife has a Lenovo laptop. Lenovo seems to have had major issues with taking over the software development role from IBM, because they have brought out updates with major bugs to their drivers. One very nasty bug was a major memory leak in the network configuration and monitoring software, that would crash the laptop after about two hours.

[a_unique_person]

*dupe*

[Frinkiak7]

Strangely, I'm having a similar issue with XP. I use my work laptop at home and connec to the company VPN cia out wireless router. Roughly every 30 minutes, the wireless connection burps and causes the VPN connection to drop. I can always immediately reconnect, but it's incredibly annoying.

I say roughly 30 minutes, but it has happened in as little as 8 minutes, but it has also lasted as long as 2 hours. Bless Cisco VPN's connection stats.

Any ideas?

[Frinkiak7]

Strangely, I'm having a similar issue with XP. I use my work laptop at home and connec to the company VPN cia out wireless router. Roughly every 30 minutes, the wireless connection burps and causes the VPN connection to drop. I can always immediately reconnect, but it's incredibly annoying.

I say roughly 30 minutes, but it has happened in as little as 8 minutes, but it has also lasted as long as 2 hours. Bless Cisco VPN's connection stats.

Any ideas?

[Wowbagger]

This also happens on my Tablet PC, and not just with wireless connections, but also wired ones in my own home!

When I asked a few folks about it, they basically said: "Oh yeah, Windows Vista is shoddy like that. You should seriously consider upgrading to Windows XP."

So, I created a shortcut to my Network Connections to disable and re-enable the network devices, for whenever it happens.

[malbui]

Same thing happens on my work laptop, a Lenovo T61 running XP. My Kubuntu and Mac machines stay connected over wifi all the time, but the XP box loses sight of the world outside at least every couple of hors.

[a_unique_person]

Same thing happens on my work laptop, a Lenovo T61 running XP. My Kubuntu and Mac machines stay connected over wifi all the time, but the XP box loses sight of the world outside at least every couple of hors.

Have a look for the latest drivers.:cool:

[Shrike]

Have a look for the latest drivers.:cool:
Will do tonight or later this week and keep everbody posted!

[a_unique_person]

I was once working on a project where we were testing out new wireless data collectors. Pretty simple stuff? No :(. As soon as we turned one on, the wireless router that they were to be hooked up to crashed. I mean it just went off the air completely. The only way to fix the problem was to turn off the data collector and reboot it. Amazing. To test it wasn't just a fluke, we tested it again, exactly the same result.

[malbui]

Have a look for the latest drivers.:cool:


Heh, work laptop. If I even thought about installing new drivers I'd be suspended by my testicles from a window on the seventh floor.

[GreNME]

When I'm using Vista, periodically I will lose Internet access. It will show me as connected to the wireless network, but "Local Only." If I click on the connection and hit "diagnose," then "Reset wireless adapter," it reconnects, and everything works fine...until the next time it goes back to "Local Only."
...
If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

Check your network location settings. You should be showing it as being at home. Vista has three settings for network location-- home, public place, and work-- and will automatically adjust your firewall accordingly. If Windows is losing your saved network location setting then there is something faulty with the driver.

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Strangely, I'm having a similar issue with XP. I use my work laptop at home and connec to the company VPN cia out wireless router. Roughly every 30 minutes, the wireless connection burps and causes the VPN connection to drop. I can always immediately reconnect, but it's incredibly annoying.

I say roughly 30 minutes, but it has happened in as little as 8 minutes, but it has also lasted as long as 2 hours. Bless Cisco VPN's connection stats.

Any ideas?

Sounds like something in the VPN settings. Are you allowed to use a local gateway for non-tunneled traffic? If so, then setting it that way should help, provided you're not dropping off when not using the VPN.

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This also happens on my Tablet PC, and not just with wireless connections, but also wired ones in my own home!

See above about both the network location settings and the driver. Your tablet may be shutting off the wired NIC due to a setting in the driver properties (power saving). Toshiba tablet?

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Same thing happens on my work laptop, a Lenovo T61 running XP. My Kubuntu and Mac machines stay connected over wifi all the time, but the XP box loses sight of the world outside at least every couple of hors.

As was mentioned, Lenovo has some driver issues with the lines they got from IBM. Dell and HP sometimes have these problems as well, more often with video drivers than NIC drivers but still fundamentally similar. You might want to see if you can identify the chip maker of the wireless card and see if they have a driver you can try.