*Help needed: Vista wifi connectivity problem*

hybernia

Finances being what they are, we can’t afford to send our home computer in for repair, nor upgrade to an operating system which isn’t as riddled with faults as Vista. Sadly, it seems that the Vista OS is the cause of all our current problems with Internet connectivity: time and time again, connection is lost, or pages fail to load, or freeze, or, most often, the connection icon in the tray reports ‘Local Connection Only’.

Looking on the Net we see that there’ve been hundreds, if not thousands, of complaints about Vista’s inability to handle wireless connections, a situation initially denied by Microsoft but then acknowledged with a special ‘fix’. We have, of course, downloaded that and used it, but no, it hasn’t fixed anything.

Solutions to the dropped connection / Local Connection Only problem are many and varied but even though hubby has struggled to work through them (or at least, those he can actually understand: so much 'technical' advice on the Net turns out to be too technical for those who aren't that computer literate) we’re still unable to depend on our Internet connection when using our Vista OS computer.

(NOTE: Other devices, which aren’t running simultaneously, but which we can switch on as and when include my HTC Desire HD cellphone and Asus Transformer TF101, and my husband’s Asus Prime and his back-up lap top which runs XP. All four devices can be positioned in any part of our home and all four get instant connectivity to our BT Home Hub and keep that connectivity.)

We’ve now discovered a post on an Internet forum which seems to offer some hope: a poster who says that after spending ages trying to solve his connectivity problems, he’s discarded all the so-called ‘expert advice’ and uninstalled the “wireless driver for Vista” and replaced it with “the wireless driver for XP”.
The poster never did say what was involved in that process, presumably thinking that everyone knows what a Vista wireless driver is and where it is, and what an XP wireless driver is -- and where it is.

We don’t. We haven’t been able to get anywhere with any clear, simple, straightforward advice about changing the drivers -- that is, copying the XP driver from hub by's laptop to our Vista desktop -- so I’ve come here in hope someone on this sub forum can help?

I'm sure that an MSEr more knowledgeable than we are will likely find this post pretty silly, but I don't mind being embarrassed if only we can have a functioning, reliable, Internet connection.

(Must rush to finish this because any moment now, we'll lose wifi connectivity and be back to 'Local Connection Only'. Grrrrrrrrrr.) :mad: :mad: :mad:

NiftyDigits

Brand and full model number of offending laptop?

martinthebandit

Google for Ubuntu or similar

macman

Go to your PC manufacturer's support site and search for the relevant wireless drivers for both XP and Vista (32 bit or 64 bit). You can try them in turn.
Can you not use ethernet or Homeplugs as a more reliable alternative though?
What wireless device are you using (PCI card or USB dongle) on the PC, since most desktop PC's of Vista vintage don't have built in wireless? Swap it out for a better USB dongle?

hybernia

Thanks everyone for quick response: much appreciated, though I should clarify:

NiftyDigits: the problem we're having is on our Dell Studio desktop computer. Not our laptop. And:

martinthebandit: why?:huh:

macman: many thanks for the tip, we'll head over to the Dell support site where (I think) they have a record of our actual computer and build details. I hadn't thought to check there, thinking it would simply be a case of finding the wireless driver thing in the XP laptop and copying it to this Vista desktop.

And yes, you're right: the wireless signal from the router is picked up by a USB dongle, in this case, a Netgear WG111v2 54Mbps. Are you thinking, the dongle might be at fault???

Oh, and we tried the Homeplugs idea, bought a set from Amazon. We spent two days trying to get them to 'pair' but no matter what we did, even if they were in sockets directly next to each other, the 'pairing' never happened so we gave up and sent them back and received a refund.

Johnmcl7

I doubt this is an issue inherent with Vista, if you search online you'll find numerous wireless issues for pretty much any operating system and device plus I've used a lot of Vista systems wirelessly without issue.

I'm not a fan of wireless USB dongles as I tend to find their performance intermittent on different operating systems which I assume is partially down to their small aerials. Laptops, tablets etc. can have large wireless aerials which go round the screen or the edge of the device which give them much better reception. For a fixed machine I'd also recommend homeplugs which is what I use for my desktop machines, it sounds like either you've been unlucky with the ones you bought or there's some issue with the wiring in your house. It should be as simple as plugged in each homeplug into the mains then a network cable into each and away you go.

The advice you've found to use the XP driver for your wireless card sounds strange and I'm not convinced it's the way to go, if your version of Vista is the 64 bit version then the XP driver definitely won't be compatible but with Vista being quite different underneath (Windows 2000 and XP are Windows NT5, Vista, 7 and 8 are NT6 based) I can't see it being a good idea. I take it you're using the latest driver Netgear offer?

Is the dongle plugged directly into the PC? If it is then it may be worth considering getting a cheap USB extension lead so you can position the dongle further up the wall or something and see if that helps the performance. Either that or see if you can pick up a cheap PCI/PCI-E wireless network card with an external aerial that you can plug inside the PC and position the aerial as needed.

I'd be inclined to try the homeplugs first though because they should work without hassle and once they're going you're pretty much guaranteed a solid, reliable connection.

John

closed

backup, reinstall windows from factory restore partition, put avast free on, let vista manage wireless, not 3rd party drivers and/or check wireless signal using inssider.

NiftyDigits

the problem we're having is on our Dell Studio desktop computer

Still need a full model number

martinthebandit

http://www.ubuntu.com/

I used to have vista on a PC, eventually it annoyed me enough that I gave up and installed Ubuntu on it, I never looked back.

If you have the vista instal disc then what have you got to loose? Yes there is a learning curve with Ubuntu as there is with any new (to you) operating system, but trust me Ubuntu is far far better than vista.