Limited Connectivity

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I have a Toshiba Satellite A200 notebook with Vista Home Premium and an Apple
Airport Extreme wireless router. I have no problem when I'm connected to the
Airport by ethernet cable. However, when this is removed the wireless
network shows but I'm told I have "limted connectivity". This same issue has
been brought up by others on this forum but being new to the world of
computers I can't understand what the solution is eg REGEDIT solution,
disabling DHCP broadcast flag, etc.
If anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it.
I am finding this very frustrating as Apple says to talk to Microsoft,
Microsoft says talk to Toshiba and Toshiba says they won't assist in
connecting to a wireless network.
 
You may want to install MS update. this search result may help,

Vista Wireless IssuesPost Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:26 am Post subject: Vista: Wireless connectivity issue ... The wireless connection may drop when you use battery power. ...
http://www.chicagotech.net/vista/vistawireless.htm


Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
I have a Toshiba Satellite A200 notebook with Vista Home Premium and an Apple
Airport Extreme wireless router. I have no problem when I'm connected to the
Airport by ethernet cable. However, when this is removed the wireless
network shows but I'm told I have "limted connectivity". This same issue has
been brought up by others on this forum but being new to the world of
computers I can't understand what the solution is eg REGEDIT solution,
disabling DHCP broadcast flag, etc.
If anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it.
I am finding this very frustrating as Apple says to talk to Microsoft,
Microsoft says talk to Toshiba and Toshiba says they won't assist in
connecting to a wireless network.
 
Carolyn said:
I have a Toshiba Satellite A200 notebook with Vista Home Premium and an
Apple
Airport Extreme wireless router. I have no problem when I'm connected to
the
Airport by ethernet cable. However, when this is removed the wireless
network shows but I'm told I have "limted connectivity". This same issue
has
been brought up by others on this forum but being new to the world of
computers I can't understand what the solution is eg REGEDIT solution,
disabling DHCP broadcast flag, etc.
If anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it.
I am finding this very frustrating as Apple says to talk to Microsoft,
Microsoft says talk to Toshiba and Toshiba says they won't assist in
connecting to a wireless network.
Click to expand...

I don't know any easy fix for this, other than doing what I did, i.e.
spending a couple of hours on Google (both groups and websites) and reading
about the various fixes people have tried. Microsoft has a couple of
patches for somewhat related issues, but has not acknowledged that this bug
exists; these patches result in incremental improvements, but are not a
complete solution. Disabling the DHCP broadcast flag is also not a complete
fix, nor is removing the TCP/IPv6 service, though both will help. The
problem appears to be the result of the OS losing (or losing track of) the
DHCP and/or DNS servers -- I find the problem particularly troublesome with
weaker (but not necessarily weak) WiFi signals. Through a combination of
the various fixes, removal of a couple of programs that appeared to
interfere with wireless connections (the Sphinx front-end to the Windows
Firewall was one of these), re-installing driver support for the WiFi NIC,
and placing a hardware signal booster on the somewhat-distant WiFi router
that I use on a daily basis in my office, I've been able to get reasonably
reliable WiFi internet connections on my Sony Vaio laptop, i.e. I lose
connectivity once a day or once every two days. Despite this, my system
takes an inordinate amount of time, far more than should be necessary, to
initially establish internet connectivity. I have similar problems with my
home WiFi network, though the three XP computers on my home system have no
such issues.

My understanding is that Microsoft rewrote, from scratch, its IP stack for
Vista. My belief is the code is defective and, until Microsoft addresses
this issue that it will not even acknowledge, there is no complete fix.
Hopefully, it will be addressed with the forthcoming service pack, but who
knows?
 
Now I'm really depressed. There's no way I can do any of those things you
listed, I have no idea what you're talking about. One comforting thought is
that at least it's not me that's the problem.
 
Does this mean that with Vista there can never be a decent wireless
connection? Or is my problem related to the fact I'm using an Apple router
and would it be resolved if I used a different router?
 
Carolyn said:
Does this mean that with Vista there can never be a decent wireless
connection? Or is my problem related to the fact I'm using an Apple
router
and would it be resolved if I used a different router?
Click to expand...

Your problems may be ameliorated by using a different router. I think
Microsoft has a list of "approved for Vista" routers somewhere on its
website. As for having a "decent" wireless connection, I suppose the
connection I get after all the tweaking is "decent," though not as reliable
as I get with XP. This is part and parcel of being an early adopter of a
new technology. The standard advice with respect to an MS operating system
is to wait until SP1 (the first service pack released by Microsoft that
fixes the major bugs), unless you're willing to experiment.
 
I am having a similiar problem with our wireless network connection. We
recently purchased a new desktop and laptop computers with MS Vista operating
system. We hooked up to cable this week and I bought a D-Link router to
connect to the internet. The laptop has a built in wireless card and I have
had no problems connecting to the network and internet. The deskptop did not
have a wireless card so we purchased a D-Link wireless adapter. We got
everything setup and connected but the desktop keeps dropping the connection
and the network status shows it has "Limited connectivity". The desktop will
not reconnect to the network unless it is restarted or rebooted and we never
know if it will have the correct "Access Local and Internet" or "Limited
Connectivity". I tried searching through MS help document with no luck.
Before I contact MS customer help support, I wanted to see if anyone else is
having this problem and it looks like I found one. I don't think the problem
is with the router or the wireless adapter since my laptop is not having any
problems. Any other suggestions from anyone out in this community. I like
to know what causes the connectivity to show "Limited Connectivity" versus
"Access Local and Internet".
 
Please reread the posts in this thread. I've identified the primary steps
to take, e.g. change the DHCP broadcast flag and remove the TCP/IPv6 service
from the NIC.
 
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