[$tinkle]

w/o any kind of warning, my wife's laptop stopped all communication between router & wireless card.

here's what i've done on my own:
- rebooted the router
- compared configuration on other working machines
- checked state-of-health for wireless card (linksys: power light good, link light flickering like it's swapping packets)

i can see 4 of my neighbors networks, and even mine, according to the View Wireless Networks app. b/c it's an aftermarket adapter card hooked into a slot, there's no wireless button to push in order to activate it (like on my other laptop).

???

 

[LordOpie]

when you rebooted the router, did you reboot the laptop?

I have to do that every few weeks.

 

[$tinkle]

yes.
just b/c it's my wife laptop doesn't mean i'm instantly all noobed up

 

[syadasti]

Maybe your TCP/IP stack is hosed, reset it:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

I assume you've checked to make sure you didn't disable accidentally by right clicking and choosing that under network connections.

 

[$tinkle]

Maybe your TCP/IP stack is hosed, reset it:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

I assume you've checked to make sure you didn't disable accidentally by right clicking and choosing that under network connections.

i'll piss all over the registry just as quick as the next guy, but this part gave me pause:

Warning Programs that access or monitor the Internet such as antivirus, firewall or proxy clients may be adversely affected when you run the netsh winsock reset command. If you have a program that no longer functions correctly after you use this resolution, reinstall the program to restore functionality.

i'll see if this is tolerable, as being roped to the machine is wholly unacceptable

 

[$tinkle]

oh, after rebooting, i even did the disable/enable for the wireless, then re-boot, b/c clearly i'm in the flailing phase

 

[$tinkle]

pinging 192.168.0.1 results in 100% packet loss, too.

curiously, i can connect to my neighbors network - or at least it's advertised as connected - but still can't ping anything common (google, sprint, verizon)

 

[LordOpie]

umm, pull and re-insert the third party card? Update the sofware for it?

 

[syadasti]

Well you'd just have to reinstall the app that misbehaves if you have an issue afterwards.

It doesn't happen often but I've had to reset the stack on maybe 2-3 computers out of the thousands I've worked on. Last one I reset was probably about a week ago - WiFi adapter connected to APs but would not get IP. Reset TCP/IP stack and it worked again. Sounds like that's what you go going on there...

I have had this little WiFi gem for about a week and half (my rep gave it to me for free too). Teh best smartphone evar - WiFi with UMA calling - turns any WiFi access into a cell tower. Also works well as a WiFi detector:

 

[$tinkle]

ok, one thing doesn't quite make sense: there's absolutely no problem when i'm connected via ethernet. why would this problem be limited to just wifi?

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

adapter card is toast?

 

[$tinkle]

ok, i just put the adapter in question into my work laptop, and after disabling its embedded wifi card, slapped in the adapter & installed the driver. it works fine in my laptop, so there's some config thing jacked up in hers.

and my wife wouldn't know where to begin changing settings, so that rules her out...

i just ran netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt, & it seemed to have no effect. and curiously, here's something interesting after checking my ipconfig: it says my wireless adapter is disconnected.

ipconfig/renew fails, saying "unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out". how can it not find the dhcp server? i'm connected thru a cat5 & can properly get outside. should i flush DNS?

maybe the way my laptop physically accepts the adapter is toast?

 

[$tinkle]

ok, after all that, i think i have a bad slot. i moved the adapter to the empty slot beneath it, and all's well.

thanks for the help.

 

[syadasti]

ok, after all that, i think i have a bad slot. i moved the adapter to the empty slot beneath it, and all's well.

That's a rare one - consider yourself "lucky" to have hardware failure like that

 

[$tinkle]

need to re-emphasize this command: netsh int ip reset [log_file_name], as my wife's computer now boots up in 1/3 the time. you don't have to be on a network to do it, and having the stack flushed made the network connection part go in seconds (instead of minutes).

 

[syadasti]

need to re-emphasize this command: netsh int ip reset [log_file_name], as my wife's computer now boots up in 1/3 the time. you don't have to be on a network to do it, and having the stack flushed made the network connection part go in seconds (instead of minutes).

That sounds like malware - maybe the slot wasn't really broken. Have you tried the slot again since reboot/the issue cleared up?

Here is more details about fixes for this issue

http://www.soton.ac.uk/iss/computing/net/halls/winsock.html

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/winsock.htm

Automated tool: http://www.xp-smoker.com/freeware.html