Tag Archives: vista wireless

netgear wgr614 v7 and vista wireless strangeness

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer needed a wireless router in order to connect 2 new vista laptops (HP), plus 2 PCs (one wired, one wireless).

So I supply a netgear wgr614 v7 wireless router.

I connect it to the adsl modem, then connect a PC to the ethernet port on the router.

When I connect to the routers IP address (using IE), I get a “setup” screen. I click on a few “next” buttons until I get past the wizard, and I see the usual web interface.

I setup wpa-psk as usual, save and restart the router.

I then go to the vista laptops, and setup one with the wireless settings, restart it (and the router (just in case).

But Vista cannot see any wireless networks… Hmm, how odd. No amount of “scan for networks” will find the router.

The other (identical) laptop behaves the same way.

I check the network settings, make sure the laptops wireless switch is in the “on” position, but still no go.

I then decide to read the documentation that came with the router, and it says something about visiting the netgear website for vista wireless updates.

I usually ignore the documentation, as its usually little more than a request to register online (so we can capture your email address). Well, looks like I have to visit the website, download some kind of driver setup file (I keep asking myself why should I need this… it should work as is).

Anyway I copy the file to the vista laptop, discover that to run setup, the laptop needs to be wired to the router…

OK, I wire up the laptop to the router, then rerun the setup file, and it take a few minutes to install “something”.

I get no indication of exactly what its installing… I kinda feels like its installing vista drivers on the laptop… and I wonder how thats going to help me on the wireless front.

In the end, I’m asked to restart vista, and the router.

After the restart, I still cannot connect to the router via wireless (the wireless LED is off…)

I connect to the router web interface again, and I find I need to go through the setup wizard again… maybe the firmware got updated… so I click on “next” buttons again, then go to setup the wireless settings again, but I find that they are just as I left them earlier.

I give the router one more restart and the wireless LED starts this time, I restart the vista laptop, and it can finally see the wireless network. yay!

I test the internet connection, and it works well.

I try the second laptop (thinking i’ll need to run the silly driver setup file again, but luckily it sees and connects to the wireless network without a problem.

Looks like some part of the router firmware must have been updated, so that it could work in a vista-compatible way.

I get the feeling that it will be a while before all wireless routers will work with vista “out of the box”… is Vista to blame? or is it the router manufacturers? who knows!

vista wireless association failed due to an unknown reason (asus wl-520gc)

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer with a new Dell PC, 3Gb ram and vista (this is the fastest vista I have seen so far… and its almost up to XP speeds…).

He had tried getting it to work with his wireless router (asus wl-520gc) and a belkin usb wireless adapter, but got nowhere (despite help from his ISP and the mob that sold him the pc).

Ok, I get there, knowing I had prior trouble with a vista wireless setup (vista cannot get dhcp address).

I start by getting the PC and the router and modem talking to each other with a wired ethernet connection. Although I don’t actually need to… I change the router IP address (and DHCP pool) so that they don’t conflict with the modem settings (the router has a WAN port, so I know the network on the modem side (WAN) will be isolated from the network on the PC side(LAN)). So the modem has the 192.168.1.X address range, and I give the router the 192.168.2.X address range. After all that, the internet connection works well.

Ok, now for the wireless: I do the usual: setup WPA-PSK, enter a “pass phrase” password, ask vista nicely to connect to the router, give it the pass phrase, and it connects correctly (after I miss-type a few pass phrases).

Ok, now to the final stage: I move the modem and router to main bedroom (so that there is no long telephone cable running down the corridor from the bedroom to the office)… and the PC refuses to connect with a “wireless association failed due to an unknown reason”.

I try some of the vista diagnostic and repair options, but none work. I try altering the router security settings, but find it only works with “open system” (no WEP encryption)… anything else fails… I make sure I alter the SSID with every change, in order to make sure I don’t connect to “leftover” WLANs (which XP is notorious prone to do).

After 2.5 hours, I decide to take the PC back to the workshop, and carefully try a few alternatives.

The owner doesn’t mind downgrading to XP, but I feel there is something to be discovered here, so I offer to fix it at no extra charge (I really want to know whats going on).

At the workshop, I try the PC with another wireless router (netgear dg834g)… and it works first time (with WPA encryption).

Ok, on the asus website, I see that the latest router firmware is 2.0.0.6 (the router is at 2.0.0.4). So I decide to upgrade the firmware.

I then try “open system” and it works.

I try wep, and it doesn’t…

I try restarting PC, router, and modem (power off everything), and then it works!

Ok, I setup the WPA settings in the router, and vista doesn’t connect.

I restart the vista, router, and modem… and vista can now connect!

I try restarting a few more times, and it works every single time. 

So where was the problem?

It could have been partially fixed by the firmware upgrade… but I’m starting to suspect that vista “tries too hard” to remember prior WLAN settings, such that changes in encryption will just not work without a reboot. And I also suspect something wrong with the asus wl-520gc wireless router as well.

So, from now on, if I’m working on vista wireless settings, I’ll make sure I restart vista and WAPs at every encryption change (what joy… most vistas i’ve worked with, are really slow to restart 🙁 )