In reply to a post by wanapoo:

Lots of people have asked me about this problem probably hundreds of times before with Vista. Wasn't anything to do with the drivers at all.

On Windows Vista, they set the security settings to check for a DHCP broadcast flag when it connects to any wireless router ( like a special club handshake ). Not all routers have this capability, so Vista wont give you internet access.

Microsoft released a patch for this which turns this feature off which can be downloaded from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233

Applied that fix. The router never had a problem getting an IP address from the router. Tried it with the fix, but still same problem - router can connect to the wifi network, get an IP address but not browse the internet.

Could you post the output of an ipconfig /all here for us?

Any security programs they have installed which might be interfering?

Before going further it might be a good time to totally reset the router to defaults and reconfigure, including setting a new wireless key and changing the SSID.

Edited by Pipexer (Thu 13-Oct-11 12:26:29)

Are all laptops Vista? Is there an Ethernet connected desktop?

Try disabling UPnP in router if it is ON & not needed.

Hello,

Did you download the MSI file from the microsoft website, or did you edit the registry to change the value? The description of the local network only but has the ability to connect to other types of wifi routers without any problems sounds very much like the broadcast flag issue.

Cant be the router at fault as the other 2 laptops work fine.

Edited by deleted (Thu 13-Oct-11 17:20:14)

Surlely as it is picking up an IP address and correct settings (accoridng to OP) this rules it out?

Silly question probably, but it's not a case of MAC filtering on the router is it?

Vista will connect to MOST retail/after market routers as they support the broadcast flag secret club handshake feature. The freebie routers dont have all the bells and whistles. Thats why the Vista laptop can connect without any problems to most other routers which support that feature.

If the driver was faulty, it wouldn't work fine on the other router.
If it had the wrong dns / proxy settings, wouldn't work on the other router.

The only other thing which i was thinking about was that the SKY routers use upper case charactors in the password for the wifi. But the tell tale signs of that would be windows is continually saying aquiring authentication which the OP hasn't mentioned.

You haven't answered my question though, which I am curious about for my own knowledge - If the client has successfully got it's IP settings from the router, does this rule the cause out or not?

AEP suggestion of MAC filtering on the router is the most likely router-related reason I would put it down to, that's usually how MAC filtering works, doles out an IP but won't pass traffic - hence my suggestion to blow away the settings on the router to rule that out, it takes 5 minutes at most to reconfigure a home users ADSL router, may as well just reset the entire thing then you can start clean.

In addition, why should it suddenly stop working due to this issue? Surely it should have never connected in the first place if this was the cause. Then again, as usual the customer/user never tells us the proper story as to why stuff stopped working, the fact they were pushing buttons on the router a couple of days ago never occurs to them as relevant when you ask "did you do anything which may have caused this?"

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Could you post the output of an ipconfig /all here for us?

Any security programs they have installed which might be interfering?

Before going further it might be a good time to totally reset the router to defaults and reconfigure, including setting a new wireless key and changing the SSID.

Hi,

I'm not at the property where the problem is at the moment so can't post an ipconfig /all. Only security program I am aware of is AVG but will double check.

I would rather not reset the router as there are other workstations which are working.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Are all laptops Vista? Is there an Ethernet connected desktop?

Try disabling UPnP in router if it is ON & not needed.

The laptops are all Vista and working (with the exception of this one) wirelessly. There is also a desktop which I think is running XP but can't be sure and that is wireless as well.