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General discussion

Limited Connectivity (Wireless & Cable)

Aug 17, 2010 5:39PM PDT

Hi Guys,
My girlfriends computer has just decided to stop connecting to the Internet by wireless or cable. I have a Linux machine running on the same network so there is no problem with the router. I have read many different forums and tried the following but without success.
I have reinstalled the Network Card drivers but with no joy.
Also, i have tried disabling IPv6 in Wireless connection properties and my Broadcom Netlink Ethernet properties.
The output from ipconfig/all is as follows:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Kasia-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-E8-34-35-89
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.81.106(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-D3-5E-6D-94
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{84816585-8301-4160-9B66-D4D207810748}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 13:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{211BDD80-9C95-4500-A6A2-9F4CB78AAAC8}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Any help appreciated, thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

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Just so we know
Aug 17, 2010 9:49PM PDT

What does that, 'stop connecting to the internet' mean?

Do you mean there is no network connection in the Windows Network Places, or do you mean the internet browsers cannot display any pages?

Any error messages?

What is the setup, eg system specs, and route to the internet, router, cable modem, etc?

Mark

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Sorry, just re-read your post
Aug 17, 2010 9:51PM PDT

with all of the technical information, but that extra I requested may help.

Mark

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Additional info.
Aug 17, 2010 10:32PM PDT

Network connections states that the laptop is connected yet
Access : Limited Connectivity

Internet browsers display no pages.

Acer Aspire 4920
Intel Core Duo, 1.66GHz
Vista Home PRemium 6.0.6002 SP2

Inter connection through wireless although i have connected the laptop to the Internet using cable and nothing changes (i.e still Limited Connectivity).

Currently i have a PC (running Linux Mint, which is the original used to setup access with my ISP) is connected and has no problem connecting to the Internet.
Along with this, i have another laptop running Linux Suse and this still has no problem connecting wireless to the Internet.

Let me know if you need anything more.

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I just wonder
Aug 18, 2010 2:56AM PDT

I'm no expert but I just wonder if the firewall is blocking access. Firewalls usually ask for authority to accept networks. I can't say about the Windows firewall as I don't use that.

If it is not that, then possibly a hardware fault, the NIC may have failed.

Mark

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Not firewall
Aug 18, 2010 5:51PM PDT

Its not the firewall, we have tried to turning it off and still no joy.

Anyway of testing or running diagnostics on the NIC to find out if its the cause?

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Not NIC either
Aug 18, 2010 9:03PM PDT

The computer connects to the Internet using a live Linux Mint CD so the NIC obviously works, its a problem solely with Vista.

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Possible options.
Aug 18, 2010 10:04PM PDT

I've re-read your posts, (again), and I assume this laptop is connected, either wired or wireless, to a router.

If so, can the laptop open the router's setup page? Depending on the router make, this is done through a browser, eg I can connect to my own Netgear router in my browser by typing in 192.168.1.1 in the address bar. I need a username and password. In my case the username is admin, and the password was 'password' but I changed it to a stronger password.

Is this laptop able to do this?

You say that the laptop 'stopped' connecting to the internet. What changed when that happened? Often connection problems can be traced back to malware. If you have antivirus have you scanned for viruses with that? Even if you have, I would recommend scanning for malware, (different to virus infections), using the following scanners;

Malwarebytes' Anti-malware and SUPERAntiSpyware

Obviously this laptop cannot download these, but you could, perhaps, download the setup files on your other computers, burn them to a CD or copy them to some other USB media, then transfer them across to this one. They need updated definitions which is difficult, but look at the post here how this was solved for another user.

If that fails, look at the post in our Networking and Wireless forum here, (post Cool, and below for other options.

Let us know if things develop.

Mark

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malware & spyware scans finished
Aug 19, 2010 9:50PM PDT

Laptop can't connect to router at all.

I ran both full scans and nothing unusual except some adware that was removed. Rebooted and still no joy.

No additional software installed prior to change so i presuem it was an automatic update that damaged it.

There is no anti-virus software running on the machine, i turned everything off.

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"Just started to..."
Aug 19, 2010 9:32AM PDT

Do you mean it worked before ? If so, what has been done to your gf's laptop recently ? [installations,etc.]

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No new installations
Aug 19, 2010 9:04PM PDT

Nothing new installed between time it worked and when it stopped working. I think it was probably due to automatic updates that messed it up.

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Re: no internet
Aug 19, 2010 9:23PM PDT

I googled "MEDIA STATE" "MEDIA DISCONNECTED". Many hits. I checked the first one http://www.duxcw.com/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=17397 and there the solution was to replace the Ethernet cable. But that doesn't really explain that it happens wirelessly also. And maybe you made this output when being really disconnected?

The "limited connectivity" of one your posts below is common when the PC didn't get an IP-address from the router and you haven't configured a fixed IP-address either. Getting an IP-address is is called DHCP and your posts says it's turned off for the wired connection. So for that maybe it's just a setting: obtain IP address automatically. See http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/network/dhcp/configure.html. And the wireless connection does have an IP-address. And still it's limited? Another reason for that is a bad password. Can you check the state of the router via the router management interface?
I don't like the default gateway being blank either. The gateway is the first device to talk to so it should be the router.

Assuming this is a laptop can you try it somewhere else (public hotspot, friend or family)? If it doesn't work there either it's a hardware issue, a software issue or a settings issue. If you suspect automatic updates (unlikely that it happens only with you) you can undo those by System Restore. To check the hardware, boot from a Linux live cd and see if that works. You won't find that difficult if you already have a Linux machine.
Bad settings are the most difficult things to diagnose, if you don't have another Windows XP machine (preferably with the same hardware) available.

Kees

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Harware fine, could be settings
Aug 19, 2010 9:56PM PDT

I think you may be right about the settings.
I've tried a Linux live cd and everything worked fine, connected to the Internet straight away so the hardware is fine.
The laptop is running Vista not XP.

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System Restore back to when it worked ...
Aug 19, 2010 9:58PM PDT

might help. If it works, immediately make a new restore point.

Kees

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Yep, that would be my next suggestion
Aug 19, 2010 10:01PM PDT

(Note, I deleted my first reply to correct a spelling mistake).

Mark

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restore points
Aug 19, 2010 10:50PM PDT

If what works??
The restore points i see are only back to 14th Aug, which is after the problem occurred, how do i access restore points before this?

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Oops.
Aug 19, 2010 10:57PM PDT

That's only 6 days. Defeats the purpose of System Restore. Why not keep it for a few months?

Now, if you can't find the right way to change the settings, all you can do is undo the Windows updates from the hidden $ntunstall folders in the windows folder (because you suspect that updates) and hope for the best. If no luck, it's time for a repair or clean install of the OS. That certainly resets everything.

Kees

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System restores
Aug 19, 2010 11:14PM PDT

Do that mean there are restore points until Aug 14th, is there way of accessing restore points before this date?

If no restore points prior to Aug 14th, where are the $ntunstall folders stored? I will take all personal files off the machine and try to rollback one update at a time if no system restore can be found.

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Re: $ntunstall
Aug 20, 2010 3:39AM PDT

Those are folders in the Windows folder. They are blue, because they are compressed. Open one of them and you'll find an spuninst folder that contains an exe. Run the exe file.

It helps to set the folder options (in Windows Explorer or Control Panel) to show hidden files and folders and to NOT hide file extensions.

More info in http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Hotfix_backup.htm

Kees

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One thing that stands our is ...
Aug 20, 2010 6:04AM PDT
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.81.106(Preferred)


When you boot your computer it attempts to obtain a lease from a DHCP server. If no server responds and APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) is enabled (the default) your computer self configures with an IP address ranging from 169.254.01 to 169.254.255.254.

Open Regedit and browse to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\your-network-adapter

Now, with that key selected you add the registry entry IPAutoconfigurationEnabled and provide it with a REG_DWORD data type value of 0x0 (zero) - Specifying a value of 1 for IPAutoconfigurationEnabled DWORD entry will re-enable APIPA, which is the default state when this value is omitted from the registry.

Since the Apipa address happens because a DHCP server is not found it might also be helpful to re-boot your router and make sure it is still configured to provide DHCP (The Linux installation and other functional computer might have fixed IP addresses assigned).
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Which interface?
Aug 20, 2010 9:28AM PDT

Under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
there are 4 interfaces. How do i know which one is the network adapter?

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If memory serves ...
Aug 20, 2010 11:30AM PDT

You can browse to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Adapters and find one or two keys that are named the same in both ...\adapters and in ...\parameters -- that or those would be the one to add the IPAutoconfigurationEnabled name and value to.

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Still the same, time to say goodbye to Windows
Aug 24, 2010 10:04PM PDT

I've tried everything and still can't connect. I can't think of any more ways to fix it and have managed to convince my girlfriend to make the switch to Linux. As an avid Linux fan and user, i can no longer see the point of Windows anymore, its just badly designed and unsecure. Thank to you everyone who tried to help us and we wish you all the best as windows users as we think you will need it.

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Sad, but sometimes
Aug 25, 2010 2:57AM PDT

nothing you try is going to work.

Fortunately for your girlfriend she has you as an experienced Linux user to help, and that will make the transfer easier.

Good luck.

Mark