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Rant

Limited Access, Local only Wireless messages with Vista

Jul 11, 2012 11:37PM PDT

Hi there, let me start off by saying that I have very very limited understanding of the whole IPaddress, Network settings ect. Here is my problem: I travel for business alot, and as such I am constantly on Free or Unsecured wireless Networks at Airports, Starbucks, Hotels ect. I have a Toshiba Laptop that came factoy installed with Windows Vista Premium, but shortly after purchasing I upgraded to a Windows 7 family pack that I had purchased for my home PC (this was an oem product). I have done this for a couple of years now without ever having an issue but last week my laptops Hardrive crapped out so I purchased a new one and restored the system, because my Windows 7 was an OEM version and I now have new hardware (Hard Drive) it will not let me reinstall Windows 7 (another problem for another forum I am working with Microsoft Support to resolve this). However all of this has left me back running the factory installed Windows Vista. Now I am constantly finding myself unable to access the wireless connections I know to be good that I used all of the time before. It seems like Linksys routers are the worst about having this problem, I will log on for a bit and within a couple of minutes I will get an Error message saying I have Limited access, or local only connection. Usually I have to Disconnect from the Network and then Reconnect and hope I can finish my online work before my next Disconnect, This is driving me insane!!! I have read that this seems to happen alot to Vista/Xp users and I also read that setting my computer to a static IPaddress may resolve the issue, but from what I understand to do this you need to have access to log onto the wireless Router you are using to connect? If so that's a problem for me, because they are not my Routers, as I said before I Travel and am constantly on others. Can anyone help with this until I can get my Windows 7 back? I really need to be able to work online for more than the 2-10 minute windows I am getting now.

Discussion is locked

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Long story but I'm going to try one thing.
Jul 12, 2012 1:22AM PDT

Sorry but if this is true on a laptop you just bought then this is a WARRANTY ISSUE and you should take it back to them,.

--> There is one dumb thing I ran into Vista and let's change that. And no, assigning the IP has never helped in the case of when I'm at the airports. Let's change that setting I find to help.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233 has the fixit for "Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers"

The 2 to 10 minute issue is related to this and a few won't change the broadcast flag because of the inexact match of symptoms. To those folk I let them swing in the wind so they can ponder about it.
Bob

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Limited Access, Local only Wireless messages with Vista
Jul 12, 2012 5:26AM PDT

Sorry I know the original post was long winded and a bit hard to pull the facts out of.

The Laptop I am using is not new, it is 2+ years old. It originally started with factory installed Vista, was upgraded to Windows 7 (which ran fine without incident), and is now back to Vista.

When I get home tonight where I can obtain a stable connection I will try the http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233 registry fix that you suggested. Thank you.

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Back to Vista.
Jul 12, 2012 5:46AM PDT