A past customer (he had a faulty wireless in a brand new HP media centre PC) calls me out to get the wireless going on his new (and newly repaired) HP PC.

I get there, and I can see that the PC and the router can now “see” each other wirelessly.

I run through the usual VISTA options to connect to the wireless, and Vista tells me:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

I’m then given an option to diagnose the fault. I click on the button/link, and the window just disappears… Hello? I thought VISTA was going to help me… but it just ran away to sulk!

OK, into network diagnostic mode: set the router to open system (no security)… and I still get:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

This is looking like a vista issue, as I’ve already tuned the relevant router parameters to suit the environment (changed the SSID, set it to only “G” mode (there will be no 802.11B cards around), make sure the firewall/NAT is enabled, etc

I decide that a windows update might fix things, so I connect the VISTA PC to the router via ethernet, and start the update (all 30+ updates!).

While thats happening, I take a look at the asus router firmware… as it could also be “guilty”.

The firmware is at 2.0.0.4, but the asus website has firmware 2.0.0.7 available. So I download it, and prepare to install it once the updates are complete.

After all the VISTA updates, and a firmware upgrade, I restart the router and VISTA, try to connect to the wireless network, and I get:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

Hmmm, I’m running out of options here…

In case the PC has another wireless problem, I try a spare USB wireless adapter that I carry around with me, but vista cannot find drivers for it over the net, so I insert the driver CD… but VISTA refuses to read the CD (it thinks its a blank CD!!!).

I’m allowed (reluctantly) to take the PC back to the office.

Once at the office, I use my standard netgear usb wireless adapter in the VISTA PC, and it detects and connects to my office wireless network just fine.

Next, I power up the asus router, try to connect to it, and I get:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

Ah, its not VISTA thats the problem.

Next, I try the HP built-in wireless adapter (with one of my 7 Dbi antennas), and I can connect to my office network (so far so good), but again, when connecting to the asus router, I get:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

At this stage, its either a faulty/incompatible router, or some router setting are incorrect.

I go back through the wireless setting, and decide to set them (one at a time) back to their original/generic settings.

I find the setting that fixes the problem is: Wireless Mode.

The default setting is Auto (ie both B and G network support).

By changing the setting to “G only”, vista stops being able to connect. I think this is a fault with the asus router… setting it to “G only” should allow (not prevent) “G” cards from connecting.

This is a case where going the extra mile, to try and improve the wireless performance for a customer, actually activated a fault with the router/VISTA

Grrr.