Wireless keeps losing config

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gerry Hickman
  • Start date Start date
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Gerry Hickman

Hi,

I built a new Win2k laptop. It's a Dell D600 with "Centrino", which
basically means it's got some Intel chips inside. The drivers for the
Wireless NIC are from Intel, and so is the control panel app called
"ProSET".

I set all this up, fired up ProSET as the local admin, set up the
wireless connection and everything works as expected.

I then decide to test a different user "just in case". Guess what, the
wireless config was missing and all I get is a warning on the taskbar
saying "Cable Disconnected". What the hell? It seems connections are
"per user"?? I'm getting worried at this point. I go to Intel's site and
all I can find are documents claiming how great it is that connections
are "per user"! I read their guide, and can't believe what they expect
the end-user to go through to get a connection.

I then notice there's a tab on the WLAN connection itself, where you can
set the SSID of a network. For a minute, I'm thinking I have solved it.
I disable Intel's ProSET, enter my info to this new tab and everything
looks fine. I reboot the machine. Guess what? All the settings have gone!

I tried a few scripts to copy WLAN profiles to user profiles when they
log on, it didn't work (unless they log off and then back on again). I
tried Intel's WLAN profile import feature, but could not get it to work
automatically.

I'm out of ideas. This is a laptop for a seminar room, it will have
dozens of local and domain users logging on and they expect the wireless
stuff to "just work".
 
Something to try. Control Panel|System|User Profiles, select the profile you
just setup (while logged on as another user with local administrative
rights), Copy To, Browse to
%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User
Change "Permitted to use:" to "Everyone" OK


--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Hi,
|
| I built a new Win2k laptop. It's a Dell D600 with "Centrino", which
| basically means it's got some Intel chips inside. The drivers for the
| Wireless NIC are from Intel, and so is the control panel app called
| "ProSET".
|
| I set all this up, fired up ProSET as the local admin, set up the
| wireless connection and everything works as expected.
|
| I then decide to test a different user "just in case". Guess what, the
| wireless config was missing and all I get is a warning on the taskbar
| saying "Cable Disconnected". What the hell? It seems connections are
| "per user"?? I'm getting worried at this point. I go to Intel's site and
| all I can find are documents claiming how great it is that connections
| are "per user"! I read their guide, and can't believe what they expect
| the end-user to go through to get a connection.
|
| I then notice there's a tab on the WLAN connection itself, where you can
| set the SSID of a network. For a minute, I'm thinking I have solved it.
| I disable Intel's ProSET, enter my info to this new tab and everything
| looks fine. I reboot the machine. Guess what? All the settings have gone!
|
| I tried a few scripts to copy WLAN profiles to user profiles when they
| log on, it didn't work (unless they log off and then back on again). I
| tried Intel's WLAN profile import feature, but could not get it to work
| automatically.
|
| I'm out of ideas. This is a laptop for a seminar room, it will have
| dozens of local and domain users logging on and they expect the wireless
| stuff to "just work".
|
| --
| Gerry Hickman (London UK)
 
Hi Dave,
Something to try. Control Panel|System|User Profiles, select the profile you
just setup (while logged on as another user with local administrative
rights), Copy To, Browse to
%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User
Change "Permitted to use:" to "Everyone" OK
Click to expand...

A few days ago, I tried something similar, in that I used Windows
Explorer to copy the WLANProfiles folder into \Default User while logged
on as local Administrator (this account had the settings I wanted), but
when I logged in as a different user, it didn't seem to pick up these
settings. I've made a note of your text above for future testing.

I've "kind of" solved it in the mean time, in that I noticed ProSET
loads an exe file called zCfgSvc.exe even when the main ProSET program
is disabled from loading in the HKLM\...\Run key, not sure how it does
this, but I uninstalled ProSET all together, and now I can enter an SSID
for the Wireless NIC from within "Network and dial-up Connections", and
guess what - it works for every user!

The main downside is that I've lost the nice ProSET taksbar icon that
shows the signal strength, and obviously this method would be useless
for multiple WLANS, but for my situation where we only have one WLAN and
totally non-technical users, it's probably a good solution...
 
Glad to hear you got something going.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Hi Dave,
|
| > Something to try. Control Panel|System|User Profiles, select the profile
you
| > just setup (while logged on as another user with local administrative
| > rights), Copy To, Browse to
| > %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User
| > Change "Permitted to use:" to "Everyone" OK
|
| A few days ago, I tried something similar, in that I used Windows
| Explorer to copy the WLANProfiles folder into \Default User while logged
| on as local Administrator (this account had the settings I wanted), but
| when I logged in as a different user, it didn't seem to pick up these
| settings. I've made a note of your text above for future testing.
|
| I've "kind of" solved it in the mean time, in that I noticed ProSET
| loads an exe file called zCfgSvc.exe even when the main ProSET program
| is disabled from loading in the HKLM\...\Run key, not sure how it does
| this, but I uninstalled ProSET all together, and now I can enter an SSID
| for the Wireless NIC from within "Network and dial-up Connections", and
| guess what - it works for every user!
|
| The main downside is that I've lost the nice ProSET taksbar icon that
| shows the signal strength, and obviously this method would be useless
| for multiple WLANS, but for my situation where we only have one WLAN and
| totally non-technical users, it's probably a good solution...
|
| --
| Gerry Hickman (London UK)
 
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