Vista - Wireless Disconnects - a Vista Bug

"Mr. Arnold" <MR. Arnold@Arnold.com> wrote in message
news:%23gLQLtZ0HHA.1100@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> "Richard in AZ" <me@mailinator.com> wrote in message
> news:ez%23QbfZ0HHA.5884@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>
>> "Mr. Arnold" <MR. Arnold@Arnold.com> wrote in message
>> news:%23jk70$X0HHA.748@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>
>>> "houstonmat" <houstonmat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>>> news:A9C3DD70-221B-411D-A61E-1DC3F1379A7B@microsoft.com...
>>>> On two different Vista Home Premium laptops, two different architectures and
>>>> laptop models and three different wireless routers I have experienced the
>>>> following issue. After about 15 minutes of being connected, my wireless
>>>> connection drops the Internet connection and becomes 'local access only.'
>>>> Local access is true, because I can stream from my 360, but the laptop cannot
>>>> access the internet. Just renewing the IP isn't enough, I have to completely
>>>> reset the adapter. A cursory search of the internet shows that this happens
>>>> on just about every imaginable platform and hardware configuration out there.
>>>>
>>>> What gives, Microsoft? When will this be patched?? I bought this laptop for
>>>> my wife so that she *wouldn't* be calling me all day at work to help her, yet
>>>> the support calls are through the roof!!
>>>>
>>>
>>> Have you tried running the Vista wireless diagnostic tool to see if it reveals a possible cause?
>>>
>>> http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window....mspx?mfr=true
>> I had exactly the same problem recently, other than it would not even start to access the
>> Internet.
>
> That's because the computer and its wireless NIC never got a DHCP IP from the router that was
> going to let it access the Internet. In addition to that, the machine cannot even access the
> router's admin pages either using the router's device IP, because it was not using an IP on the
> router.

Interesting. This computer has 3 hard drives and a drive switch that allows only one hard drive at
a time to be powered. All other hardware is the same. One hard drive has Windows XP Pro, one has
Vista and the 3rd has a Linux system. Only the Vista machine could not get the Internet
connection. The other two OSs worked just fine.

>> However I could connect to any other computer on the LAN. The diagnostic tool only gave me a
>> message that a firewall policy could be the problem. I only use the Windows Vista firewall.
>
> That is correct. The computer couldn't get a DHCP IP from the router and timed out. When the
> computer couldn't get an IP from the DHCP server on the router, the O/S assigned a default IP to
> the NIC of 169.xxx.xxx.xxx. The 169 IP will allow the computer to access other machines on the
> LAN. But the 169 IP will not allow the computer to access the Internet nor will the IP allow the
> computer to access the router's admin page, because the computer is not using an IP on the router.
>
>> I eventually just did a "system restore" back a couple of days and now the Internet works again.
>
> I am glad it worked out for you.

>
> Interesting. This computer has 3 hard drives and a drive switch that
> allows only one hard drive at a time to be powered. All other hardware is
> the same. One hard drive has Windows XP Pro, one has Vista and the 3rd
> has a Linux system. Only the Vista machine could not get the Internet
> connection. The other two OSs worked just fine.

So? This has nothing to do with it that the machine has 3 HD(s) each running
a different O/S.

The fact remains that while the machine was using the Vista O/S, the O/S
couldn't get an IP from the DHCP server on the router (it was not in contact
with the router for whatever reasons to get a valid IP), and the O/S
assigned the 169 IP to the NIC.

The 169 IP will allow the machine to access other machines on the LAN, but
the machine cannot access the Internet, because the 169 IP was not an IP
that was an IP on the router assigned by the router's DHCP server. The IP
will not stop the one machine from accessing other machines attached to the
router (the LAN).

http://www.pctechbytes.com/computer/article-8.html

And if for whatever reasons a machine is obtaining an IP from a DHCP server
will start dropping the connection, it doesn't matter where the DHCP server
is located it can be on the router, FW appliance, another computer acting as
the DHCP server on the LAN or the ISP's DHCP server for a computer that has
a direct connection to the modem and is a direct connection to the ISP's
network, then the 169 IP is going to be assigned to the NIC, if the
connection is dropped. It doesn't matter what O/S is being used as the 169
IP is an IANA standard for this condition.

I suggest you look up the 169 IP and see how that machine could access other
machines on the LAN, but the machine that has the 169 IP cannot access the
Internet. That's the only condition you were talking about it could be.

houstonmat wrote:
> Well after 2 solid days of troubleshooting this one, I'm prepared to
> chalk it up to a bug. I don't know for sure whether I blame
> Microsoft, HP or Intel, but there's no doubt it's a bug...and a
> well-documented one judging from the number of search results I get.

Judging from another post someone made in this thread about the same
thing happening on a computer triple booting between XP Pro, Vista, and
Linux, and only Vista exhibits the problem. So it looks like YAVB ( Yet
Another Vista Bug [TM] )

I still think such a bug is hardly excusable considering this was
working fine in previous operating systems.

-saran

"Saran" <none@nospam> wrote in message
news:uniNaq70HHA.4344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> houstonmat wrote:
>> Well after 2 solid days of troubleshooting this one, I'm prepared to
>> chalk it up to a bug. I don't know for sure whether I blame
>> Microsoft, HP or Intel, but there's no doubt it's a bug...and a
>> well-documented one judging from the number of search results I get.
>
> Judging from another post someone made in this thread about the same thing
> happening on a computer triple booting between XP Pro, Vista, and Linux,
> and only Vista exhibits the problem. So it looks like YAVB ( Yet Another
> Vista Bug [TM] )
>
> I still think such a bug is hardly excusable considering this was working
> fine in previous operating systems.

I guess you missed that part when the poster said he did get it to work with
Vista.

Mr. Arnold wrote:
> "Saran" <none@nospam> wrote in message
> news:uniNaq70HHA.4344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> houstonmat wrote:
>>> Well after 2 solid days of troubleshooting this one, I'm prepared to
>>> chalk it up to a bug. I don't know for sure whether I blame
>>> Microsoft, HP or Intel, but there's no doubt it's a bug...and a
>>> well-documented one judging from the number of search results I get.
>>
>> Judging from another post someone made in this thread about the same
>> thing happening on a computer triple booting between XP Pro, Vista,
>> and Linux, and only Vista exhibits the problem. So it looks like
>> YAVB ( Yet Another Vista Bug [TM] )
>>
>> I still think such a bug is hardly excusable considering this was
>> working fine in previous operating systems.
>
> I guess you missed that part when the poster said he did get it to
> work with Vista.

I haven't been able to find such a follow up. If it's there please
provide a link.

and even if he says, I find it utterly inexable one should have ot go
thorugh so many hoops to get it works, when it worked perfectly in XP
SP2.

-saran