Wifi connection is excellent. No internet. All devices and laptops work except desktop with vista. Help please

07
2014-07
  • Questioner

    Wifi is excellent. No internet access on desktop with Vista. Devices and laptop work fine. Wires are secure. Please help.

    • Answers
  • Ryan E

    You have a couple of options here:

    • Switching out the cat5 cable that connects the desktop to your router.
    • Switch the port the cat5 cable is plugged into.
    • Check the device manager on the desktop, you are looking at the network card, if there are yellow or red pings it is not functioning properly.
    • In the device manager you can uninstall the network card. Then reboot the PC, windows will detect new hardware and re-install the network card.

    A more detailed question will help as well, I made several assumptions with my answer.


    • Related Question

    networking - Internet connection under Windows Vista stops working until reboot
  • Questioner

    I have a fairly clean Vista Home Premium SP1 install on my desktop. There aren't many applications installed. My Internet connection always seems to stop working after web surfing for a while - sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes half an hour. (It doesn't matter whether I'm in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera.) Nothing restores the connection other than a reboot, which I have been doing at least once a day.

    All other machines on my network are Windows XP, and they all work fine even when this Vista Internet connection stops working. Also, file shares to and from the Vista machine work okay even when I can't get out to the Internet.

    Things I tried:

    • Pinged various websites
    • ipconfig /release /renew, etc....
    • Rebooted router (Belkin - Yeah, I know it's crappy)
    • Rebooted cable modem (TimeWarner)
    • Disabled AVG antivirus and ZoneAlarm firewall
    • Uninstalled AVG/ZoneAlarm
    • Did a spyware scan with several programs - CLEAN!

    Also, I should point out that this machine has been working fine for the year or so that I've had it. These problems have started in the past month or so, although I can't remember anything I did that would have caused any issues. My System Restore points somehow got lost, so I can't do a System Restore.

    How do I fix this problem?

    Also, I tried using OpenDNS and am getting the same results if it makes a difference.

    I am fairly knowledgeable with both Windows and networking, but this one's got me scratching my head!


    • Related Answers
  • Seasoned Advice (cooking)

    From a command prompt run:

    netsh winsock reset

    That will reload the TCP/IP suite for Windows and can correct some issues.

    If you are using a USB adapter, whether wireless or wired, go into Device Manager and turn off the ability for Windows to shut down the device to save power. You may have to do this on the root hub and controller that match your device.