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Internet won't stay connected with Vista, will with XP


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#1
magnanimous

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I just got a new laptop, it has Vista, I'm use to XP. My guess is that it's a vista problem I have but who knows, so I'll describe...
The laptop is by Asus, model G50VT
I'm using wireless internet from AT&T, on my old XP laptop it works just fine. On my new Vista laptop it does not.
The internet will say that it is connected and the connection is Excellent, however after a few minutes of using IE it stops working, saying that I'm not connected, even though the bottom right corner thing says I am in fact connected. Sometimes it helps to reboot the computer to get it to reconnect, or if I disconnect and reconnect it helps sometimes. But the problem persists again a few minutes later.
Like I said, the laptop is brand new, just bought it Monday from Best Buy. Their geeksquad had already set it up, i didn't get charged for it since I didn't want them to set it up but it was their only one left other than the floor model. The problem has been there since day one, trying to avoid going to bestbuy to see what is wrong.
I didn't bother starting over with factory settings, but may just to see if that helps.
Any suggestions?
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#2
Broni

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    Kraków my love :)

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See, if same thing happens with Firefox.
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#3
usasma

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How old is your wireless router? If it's older, there's a chance that it's not Vista compatible. If that's the case, here's a workaround from Microsoft (disabling the DHCP Broadcast Flag in Vista): http://support.micro....aspx/kb/928233
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#4
magnanimous

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Same thing happens with Firefox.
Internet stopped working before I could try usasma's suggestion. On another computer to post a reply real quick, then will go back to the laptop to try the other suggestions.
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#5
magnanimous

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The router is new, got it about a month ago. If it were a problem with my router wouldn't it be unable to connect at all? instead of a few minutes at a time. It works for about 5 minutes or so.
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#6
Broni

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Is it router/modem combination, or you have separate modem?
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#7
usasma

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If the router is new, it's most likely Vista compatible - so I wouldn't suspect that that was your issue. I'll post the rest of the info in case it affects someone else who's reading this.

When Vista first came out it enabled the DHCP Broadcast Flag by default (it was disabled in XP). This tended to break connections with internet hardware that wasn't able to accept the calls from the DHCP Broadcast.

In my area there was an ISP that I worked with (on this problem) for a couple of months. I happened to mention it on a trip to Microsoft while talking with the folks who wrote the networking stuff for Vista (I was a Networking MVP at the time) - and they all chimed in with "DHCP Broadcast Flag!" when I related the problems to them.

Sure enough, when I got back home, we fixed all the customer's who came in with Vista systems on that ISP. I also talked to the ISP and they upgraded their hardware within a few months.

We still get a problem or two occasionally at work, so that's the first question that I usually ask with Vista connectivity issues.

There's a registry edit involved, but print the article out (or save it to your desktop) before you get cut off again. In the registry there will be entries for 3 GUID's (on most systems) - 1 for your wireless, 1 for your wired connection, and another that's not needed (it doesn't have the amount of stuff in the key that the other 2 do).

Edited by usasma, 30 May 2009 - 05:06 PM.

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#8
magnanimous

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Took the computer in to the geek squad at best buy since I just got in monday it was still within their 7 day thing. They cuoldn't diagnose what was wrong, the same thing happened with their internet so I know it wasn't mine. So long story short they gave me a new laptop.
However the same thing happened once already...after I installed Avast. However that was the first thing I did when I connected to the internet so either the computer sucks or it's Avast.
So I restored the laptop to pre avast. Now I'm waiting to see if it happens again. If it does I'm marching it back to bestbuy and telling them they suck.
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#9
Broni

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Interesting....keep us posted :)
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#10
magnanimous

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Yup, same problem happened on the second laptop!
OK so the computer was Asus G50VT...
It wasn't vista that was causing the problem...at least we don't think so.
I took the second laptop back to bestbuy...the geek squad guy got super agitated because he couldn't figure it out. Then when he thought he had fixed it, a whole new problem occured so he slammed the thing down and said "screw it, let's get you a different laptop."
So here I am, home again (it takes me an hour just to drive to the nearest best buy), with a whole different laptop. It's a Dell Studio. I'm not typically a fan of Dell but we'll see how it goes. It's a 17" and has a 6 hour battery life. It also has Wireless-N technology which is sweet.
The Asus I got had excellent ratings so I don't know what the deal was.
So far things are going well on here. I think the problem was that particular computer model.
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#11
Broni

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It looks like.
Good luck with the Dell :)
No more problems, please....hehehehe
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