Vista WIFI Limited Connectivity problem

by BlackDog667 Feb 2, 2010 3:20PM PST

Hi and thanks for helping. I have a Dell 1520 Vista laptop with a WLAN 1390 internal wifi card. I travel a lot and use hotel WIFI for my connection. Last week it suddenly dropped the hotel WIFI and gives me a Limited Connectivity issue on the connection. I assumed it was a hotel issue, went home to my home network where the WIFI worked fine. Note: no changes to any systems in that time. Came back to the same hotel, same problem. Tried it at another public wifi spot and same issue. I can get access via a CAT5 and /or the hotel CAT5 box. Searched the web and found a lot of XP related issues, and the few vista issues. The hotel login is basically a open setup, you load up a IE window and enter the weekly password to gain access. My home system is WEP encrypted, but the hotel is set for a public location, open, no encryption other than the password IE setup. I tried the vista hotfix, no luck. Resetting doesn't change anything either. Not completely saavy in the way of networks but can handle simple instructions well. If there is a generic post on this please link it as well. Modem shows excellent signal strength, but lists no default gateways or DNS in the info.

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Did your research find this nugget?

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Feb 2, 2010 10:49PM PST

VISTA BROADCAST FLAG

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Research nuggets

by BlackDog667 Feb 4, 2010 5:36AM PST

I did not have this info, thank you. However, it and all its trail failed to solve the issue. I did not manually edit my registry, I used the programs provided, rebooted, then tried it again. Next idea?

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That's a problem

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Feb 4, 2010 6:09AM PST

In open networks there are kiddie scipts (see google) but one of them is to smack down or hijack your connection. This is very popular with hotels where you pay for access. Once you log in then on the wifi the kiddie wants to use your connection. All apologies about the terms as they are used when we talk networking.

Here's an example -> http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=651

And there are plenty more. Open wifi connections are just trouble.
Bob

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Problem

by BlackDog667 Feb 5, 2010 10:31AM PST

So, as I understand it, "someone" is using a kiddie script to override my access on the open wifi? Or is this the hotel internet security such as it is negating my access? I can accept the fact that open wifi is bad but it seems strange that it affects my logging in in two separate (by miles) open wifi connections within the same town. More to that, is this a failure by Vista or the wifi server? From the article referenced, it seems a failure of the host network to securely protect the user. Thanks for explaining in such detail.

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it seems a failure of the host network to securely protect

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Feb 5, 2010 10:37AM PST

"it seems a failure of the host network to securely protect the user. "

That has been discussed. The wifi design was meddled with by our governments. Security means that some governments would block export or imports so that is the explanation for the lack of security. Later the makers showed up with a WEak Protection called WEP and a better WPA then WPA2 but we gotta cry as your average wifi hotspot is woefully open.

So there's the choice. Give access and let you deal with security or lock it up and suffer users that can't connect? What happens is you end up with both problems.
Bob

Vista WIFI Limited Connectivity problem

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