Changing Wireless Networks While Hibernating Doesn't Reconfigure D

  • Thread starter Thread starter samurainate
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samurainate

I travel between two networks, the public network at the coffee shop and my
private network at home. I have found that I can connect automatically to
the wireless access point and then to the network at the coffee shop without
difficulty. When I go home, however, I find my computer consistently
connects to the local wireless access point, but for some reason it still
thinks it has a lease on a 10.x.x.x address (which I assume is the coffee
shop) despite my home network being in the 192.168.1.x address range. I can
force it to reconnect either by resetting the device or running renewing the
DHCP lease. I am questioning why it doesn't do this automatically, and how I
can correct that flaw. Ideally, when I open my laptop, regardless of where I
am Windows should correctly configure my network settings to reach the
internet on familiar networks.
 
samurainate said:
I travel between two networks, the public network at the coffee shop and my
private network at home. I have found that I can connect automatically to
the wireless access point and then to the network at the coffee shop
without
difficulty. When I go home, however, I find my computer consistently
connects to the local wireless access point, but for some reason it still
thinks it has a lease on a 10.x.x.x address (which I assume is the coffee
shop) despite my home network being in the 192.168.1.x address range. I
can
force it to reconnect either by resetting the device or running renewing
the
DHCP lease. I am questioning why it doesn't do this automatically, and
how I
can correct that flaw. Ideally, when I open my laptop, regardless of
where I
am Windows should correctly configure my network settings to reach the
internet on familiar networks.
Click to expand...


Unless you are using the native OS wireless access tool, The wireless NICs
access configuration tools all work slightly different. So I'll talk in
generalities in order to capture them all. When you are in the window that
shows network wireless access points (WAPs) make sure the ones that you will
never want to connect to are labeled "Disconnected". You might also find
another window that shows your history of WAPs that you have been selecting
and using. You can change the order in this list that will determine the
priority of which WAP(s) to which you want to connect. You should also be
able to cull out WAPs to which you are no longer interested. After these
edits, you should get the behavior you described you wanted. DHCP Leasing
should expire automatically when the one you were connected to previously is
no longer in sight and not connected.
 
Bob F. said:
Unless you are using the native OS wireless access tool, The wireless NICs
access configuration tools all work slightly different. So I'll talk in
generalities in order to capture them all. When you are in the window that
shows network wireless access points (WAPs) make sure the ones that you will
never want to connect to are labeled "Disconnected". You might also find
another window that shows your history of WAPs that you have been selecting
and using. You can change the order in this list that will determine the
priority of which WAP(s) to which you want to connect. You should also be
able to cull out WAPs to which you are no longer interested. After these
edits, you should get the behavior you described you wanted. DHCP Leasing
should expire automatically when the one you were connected to previously is
no longer in sight and not connected.
Click to expand...

"Should" but in Vista, often "doesn't". I had the same bad behavior
with Vista, except in my case, I was going between my home network and
my office network, which both use 192.168.0.x addresses. When Vista
"recycled" the address it had last used from my office when I fired it
up at home (or vice-versa), it would stomp on an IP already in use and
cause whatever device that had it to barf an error and stop appearing
on the network. I usually had to go over to the affected machine and
release/renew to get things working again. Total PITA.

Solution: upgraded to XP Tablet Ed. on the Vista laptop. Problem
solved. Everything works flawlessly. Plus fixed other issues with
Vista.
 
I agree wholeheartedly, DHCP leasing should expire automatically when I'm no
longer connected to the network that provided the lease. That doesn't seem
to be happening in this case.

I think I am using the native windows tools to manage my wireless networks.
It's a Dell machine, but I am not using any Dell software besides the device
driver to my knowledge. Admittedly, I wouldn't know the Vista native
dialogs from a vendor proprietary interface, as this is my first Vista
experience.

Here are some details about my wireless network configuration if it will
provide any more insight.

In the Network and Internet -> Manage Wireless Networks dialog, I have two
WAPs configured.

My home WAP is the highest priority with security enabled, connect
automatically, do not connect to a more preferred network if available and
connect even if the network is not broadcasting.

The second and only other WAP configured is the coffee shop, which is
unsecured, connect automatically, connect to a more preferred network if
available, and do not connect if the network is not broadcasting.

Both networks connect automatically when they are in range, and both will
automatically get a new DHCP lease with exception of the case where I am
connected to the second WAP, close my lid and hibernate, then wake my
computer in range of my home network. As stated before, the wireless network
connects, but the DHCP lease still appears to be the from the other network.

This has occurred three times now. I've not changed any settings, today,
but I did reboot a few times. I don't think I have rebooted since the first
occurrence, so maybe that will change this behavior. Unfortunately I will
not be able to test it again today. Tomorrow morning I'll take the laptop
out again and when I come home I will see if there is any change.

Is there somewhere I can view a history of what wireless networks I
connected to, when I hibernated and when I woke, and when the dhcp
release/renew occurred?
 
samurainate said:
I agree wholeheartedly, DHCP leasing should expire automatically when I'm
no
longer connected to the network that provided the lease. That doesn't
seem
to be happening in this case.

I think I am using the native windows tools to manage my wireless
networks.
It's a Dell machine, but I am not using any Dell software besides the
device
driver to my knowledge. Admittedly, I wouldn't know the Vista native
dialogs from a vendor proprietary interface, as this is my first Vista
experience.

Here are some details about my wireless network configuration if it will
provide any more insight.

In the Network and Internet -> Manage Wireless Networks dialog, I have two
WAPs configured.

My home WAP is the highest priority with security enabled, connect
automatically, do not connect to a more preferred network if available and
connect even if the network is not broadcasting.

The second and only other WAP configured is the coffee shop, which is
unsecured, connect automatically, connect to a more preferred network if
available, and do not connect if the network is not broadcasting.

Both networks connect automatically when they are in range, and both will
automatically get a new DHCP lease with exception of the case where I am
connected to the second WAP, close my lid and hibernate, then wake my
computer in range of my home network. As stated before, the wireless
network
connects, but the DHCP lease still appears to be the from the other
network.

This has occurred three times now. I've not changed any settings, today,
but I did reboot a few times. I don't think I have rebooted since the
first
occurrence, so maybe that will change this behavior. Unfortunately I will
not be able to test it again today. Tomorrow morning I'll take the laptop
out again and when I come home I will see if there is any change.

Is there somewhere I can view a history of what wireless networks I
connected to, when I hibernated and when I woke, and when the dhcp
release/renew occurred?
Click to expand...

I know of none. Now I understand better what you are talking about but
unfortunately, I have run into the same thing and I just release and renew
the connection. I am not sure the connection management tools are smart
enough to recognized it was in hibernation. I don't use hibernation or
sleep mode when traveling very much and that's one of the reasons. Someone
else will have to jump in if they heard of a fix, operational or otherwise.
 
Some additional details for anyone who may have seen this before. I scanned
the event logs, and it appears my laptop is waking on it's own when it comes
in range of my home network. I had no idea it did this. The logs even show
it waking, disconnecting from the remote network, connecting to the home
network and going back to sleep when I get home. I have confirmed that no
DHCP-client events occur automatically until I run the network diagnostics
and tell it to reset the adapter. I do have a DHCP error "The IP address
lease 10.0.0.57 for the Network Card with network address 001644800B58 has
been denied by the DHCP server 192.168.1.254 (The DHCP Server sent a
DHCPNACK message)." after I run network diagnostics, before I choose reset
network connection.

Does anyone know where I can submit this bug? A search for "windows vista
bug report" turns up nada.

Thanks,

Nathaniel
 
samurainate said:
Some additional details for anyone who may have seen this before. I scanned
the event logs, and it appears my laptop is waking on it's own when it comes
in range of my home network. I had no idea it did this. The logs even show
it waking, disconnecting from the remote network, connecting to the home
network and going back to sleep when I get home. I have confirmed that no
DHCP-client events occur automatically until I run the network diagnostics
and tell it to reset the adapter. I do have a DHCP error "The IP address
lease 10.0.0.57 for the Network Card with network address 001644800B58 has
been denied by the DHCP server 192.168.1.254 (The DHCP Server sent a
DHCPNACK message)." after I run network diagnostics, before I choose reset
network connection.

Does anyone know where I can submit this bug? A search for "windows vista
bug report" turns up nada.

Thanks,

Nathaniel
Click to expand...

Might not be a bug. Might be expected behavior when "Allow this device
to bring the computer out of standby" is enabled in the Power Management
tab of the Properties of the wireless adaptor.

Try clearing the checkbox.

If it's already cleared, then you're right, it's a bug...
 
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