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Hard to explain issue - Advises needed

Hi All,

I have an extremly wierd problem. I am working for the company which is providing the HSIA to the hotels and other properties. Recently I recieved a call from our customer. He lives in the house where he should be able to connect wirelessly without any issues. I was troubleshooting him for last week but none of my ideas resolved it. This guy has 2 laptops - first brand new and the second one a little bit older. On both laptops he is detecting appropriate SSID's broadcasted by the nearest WAPs with a pretty good signal. But everytime he is attempting to connect IP - 169.254.x.x is being assigned. He was able to connect two blocks away from his house (the same equipment is installed in his neighbourhood) It's not a DHCP issue cause it has been investigated, all the Access Points are working just fine too. The most astonishing thing is that his friend is able to connect inside of his house using his own laptop.

New one Toshiba Satelite is running on WinVISTA. Originally I thought it's a drivers issue cause these which he had installed were outdated. He installed the newest compatibile with VISTA but it still didn't help. All the time he is getting 169.254.x.x. My first idea was to assign him a static settings - it didn't help. I went through the configuration of his wireless NIC hoping I can make it working more efficiently - still no success.

Finally I decided we will try with the second laptop. Exactly the same sympthoms.

Both laptops are equipped with good built in wireless NIC's - ATHEROS. I can't believe they are both failing. Just to double check I advised him to buy an external one. He bought a PCMCIA NetGear card. First we gave it a try with utility - results were still the same. Then using Wireless Zero Configuration - still the same.

I can't find a logical answer for it. Please help me !!. I now it's impossible that this isn't working, especially when somebody else is able to connect from his place. :confused:

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.

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Reply to
tomecki
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Will be interested in following this discussion. I have almost the same issue. Desktop with WinXP using Actiontec router #GT704-GT New laptop with Atheros AR5007EG network adapter Connects just fire with wire but alway get LIMited Connectivity when trying wireless

Scanned everywhere and tried all sorts of solutions with no good results.

Did read in Microsoft Knowledge Base that VISTA does not support something called DHCP BROADCAST flag and their solution was to modify the resistry, which I am not willing to do at this time. I returned the laptop to the dealer and he was able to access the Net using his network.

Sorry I did not keep theKnowledge Base #, just printed out the applicable parts. Will keep following the discussion. Anne

Reply to
anne watson

Reply to
anne watson

When he got 169.254.x.x did he able to access internet? or same as Anne having a "LIMited Connectivity"? Did he has to wait a long time after connect to acquire an IP and finally got this 169.254.x.x? If so, may be my experience has something to do with the problem.

When I have a good signal from my wifi router and connected I used to wait for a long long time at the acquire IP address stage and finally failed. Then I'll have an unexpected IP at the ipconfig response, and internet access is not available. If at the acquire IP stage I move my laptop closer to the router, it got assigned a good IP immediately. I think (I am not an wifi engineer) this has something to do with the quality from the laptop to the router. The so called good signal you saw when connecting is just the signal from the router is good. wifi communication is two-ways. Client side needs to have good signal to the router as well, which the client side doesn't have any indication on this.

Try to move the laptop closer to the WAP and see if it help.

Reply to
senderj

"anne watson" hath wroth:

Yep. That's the problem I keep running into with Vista. I can usually fix it with a firmware update to the wireless router, but can also be fixed by a registry tweak. However, there are other issues involving DHCP failures with Vista. See my previous rant:

on the subject which lists the latest DHCP tweaks.

Since this is a public access system, I strongly suggest that the various DHCP fixed should *NOT* be applied to the affected test laptop. There is going to be a steady stream of users that have unpatched Vista installations. It's impractical to update all of these and the support load is going to be substantial. Therefore, I suggest that either updating, fixing, or replacing the wireless router is the only effective alternative. I would also be tempted to sent Microsoft the invoice for a new router, but I'm sure their legal department already has a prepared defense.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

First - the 169.x.x.x address will never connect to anything besides itself and other local computers that don't have an address assigned via DHCP or Static. It's Microsoft's way of "helping" local computers get a dynamic IP without a DHCP server Basically - IT'S AN ERROR !!

the other part is Vista or XP - you need to mention if Vista or XP is the system that works or not -

I've played a little with Vista networking - and there are a TON of items that MS has added into Vista networking to "protect" the user that it makes it unuseable at times...

Reply to
P.Schuman

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