Vista cannot connect to Wifi

[OneDave]

I have a Inspiron laptop with an Intel Pro a/b/g wireless card in it. The Device Manager shows that the card is working. My router is a/b/g/n with an SSID broadcasting, open authentication, and WEP encryption. 5 of my other computer connect with no problem. My Vista laptop has a problem, though. When I go through the normal wifi connection dialogue, it sees the SSID of my router. When I select connect, it spins a while and then comes back and asks for the key and also a Domain Name. I have not configured any domains, and have no idea what to try to tell it. Leaving this field blank doesn't work.

From the laptop's Command prompt, ping of the router IP fails. When I type the ipconfig command, the assigned address is 0.0.0.0.

Appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Dave

PS- I am wondering: under what conditions does Vista try to get a Domain Name for its wireless connect dialogue?

[ruirib]

Is Windows managing the wireless connection or is it Intel's software doing it?

[OneDave]

Windows is managing the connection, not the Intel software.

Thanks,
Dave

[jwitalka]

Did you set up the Vista computer as a Workgroup with the same workgroup name as the other computers? Try creating the connection manually. To create it manually just go to your network sharing center and click create a network connection on the left hand panel. Hope this helps.



By the way, WEP encryption is very easy to crack and offers little security. WPA or preferably WPA2 would be much more secure if all your wireless clients support it.

Jerry

[OneDave]

We already tried the manual setup and deleting the prior setup for the SSID. This PC has Workgroup as its wg name. Not sure about the others.

Ideas?

Thanks, Dave

[ruirib]

Saw this advice elsewhere and it seemed to be effective in some cases:

Please try this step to resolve this issue. Go to Network and sharing center
and Click on manage wireless networks. Click on add and manually create a
network profile with the Network name and the WEP or WPA key if it is
secured. Then click on connect to and it will connect. If not restart your
computer to resolve.

[OneDave]

Been there, done that.

Other ideas?

Thanks,
Dave

[chowur]

Try M$ suggestion;http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935222

[Deadeye81]

Hello Dave,

Are you running Vista updated through Service Pack 2?

If you installed Service Pack 1 and 2, have you updated your wireless driver since doing so?

What OS is installed on your other PCs?

What brand and model router do you have?

How old is the router?

Have you ever updated the firmware on your router?

Does your router offer WPA or WPA2 as options, and can your other PCs utilize WPA or WPA2?

Try pinging with the feedback address. Run the Command Prompt and type in ping 127.0.0.1. See if you receive replies without errors. If no errors, type in ping localhost to see if you receive replies without errors.

Have you tried connecting your Vista PC via Ethernet to your router to see if it allows you to connect to your router?

[bellboy]

Hi Dave, I had a problem with my Vista laptop not connecting wirelessly to my home network a few weeks ago. It was working the day before but when I turned it on the next day it would not connect to my network. Well it did connect but just locally... not to the internet. I tried for a couple of days to get it to connect and then it dawned on me that I had installed several Windows updates the day before it quit working properly. I decided to uninstall the updates one at a time and see if one of them was causing my problem. When I uninstalled KB2533623 it went back to working properly and has been connecting wirelessly to the internet ever since.
It could be you have an update causing you to have this trouble.