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I have a Vista desktop wired to a Linksys WRT54G router. I have a XP SP2 laptop connected to it wirelessly and a Linksys Media center wirelessly on my home stereo.

Everythng worked great for about a month or two and suddenly the wireless stopped.

The Media center gets 0% signal and the laptop doesn't see my network signal/name at all to connect too.

I don't have internet connected to any of them. It was just a home file/printer sharing network for the time being.

Any ideas? I have reset the router numerous times. Made sure no firewall software was turned on. And many other things.

I can hard wire the laptop to the router and it sees it. I have also brought the laptop to a friends house and connected to his all XP network and it works so the wireless card works fine.

I have static IP address's on all 3 components (desktop, laptop, media center)

I read a post about the IPv6, and disabling that. I'll have to try that when I get home tonight but is there any other thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

I spent all weekend on this problem.

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Quick summary and targeted next steps (based on scenario and the solid checklist from ): when the laptop and Media Center stop seeing the SSID (one reports 0% signal) the cause is often the router’s wireless radio/configuration or an addressing mismatch — not just the client drivers. Start with a small, repeatable set of checks that isolate “radio visible” vs “IP/addressing” problems before trying lots of tweaks.

Use these quick diagnostics from an elevated command prompt on the Windows machines to see what the OS actually has and what it can see:

ipconfig /all
ping <router-ip>
arp -a
(netsh wlan show networks)   <-- on Vista to list visible SSIDs

Look for a valid IPv4 in the router subnet (not 169.254.x.x), correct Default Gateway, and any Address Conflict messages. These commands and their output are the first thing to capture when troubleshooting. (learn.microsoft.com)

If the SSID truly isn’t visible to multiple wireless clients (not just one laptop), check the router’s wireless radio / antenna and regulatory/channel settings. Some region/channel combinations and radio-mode settings will make a network invisible to certain clients; standard practice is to use non-overlapping 2.4 GHz channels and confirm the AP is broadcasting on a channel your clients support. Also verify the AP’s wireless mode (b/g/mixed) and disable any MAC-based access control temporarily to rule it out. (metageek.com)

If the diagnostics show correct addressing but no connectivity, capture the router status page/logs and try a second AP or a phone’s Wi‑Fi scan to confirm whether the router radio is the problem. If the router’s web UI shows no wireless clients or the wireless LED is dark while wired ports work, the radio or its configuration is the most likely culprit. If needed, document outputs from the commands above and then pursue hardware swap or replacement testing.

Member Avatar for dfamqwrkrten

I'm posting this because I suffered through an increasingly bad wireless connection for months, even though an XP machine in my house had zero problems connecting. It would drop the connection to the Internet, then drop the connection to my Network/Router, then connect again after a few minutes but go agonizingly slow. Finally last weekend, it hardly connected at all despite repeated attempts to Repair Connection, Reset Adapter, get new IP Settings, etc.

Now that I've got it fixed, I wanted to put all the things I did into one post in case it helps someone else.

I sifted through at least a dozen websites and ultimately I tried 11 tweaks. It's now been 8 days without a single dropout, AND my connection speed is much faster. Here are the 11 things I gleaned from across many sites (including this one), in the hope that these help you. I won't describe exactly how to do each of these or why it *might* be important, because it's covered in lots of other posts here.

1) Change the channel on your router from 6 to 12. Ultimately, I think this was the most important thing for my situation.

2) In your Wireless Connection Network Properties, "Networking" tab, disable QoS Packet Scheduler. Don't need it.

3) In your Wireless Connection Network Properties, "Networking" tab, disable Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). You must leave IPv4 enabled, you need this.

4) In your Wireless Connection Network Properties, "Networking" tab, disable both of the LinkLayer Topolgies. Don't need it.

5) Switch the power setting on your Wireless Adapter to "Max" or "Always On". Powering it up and down to save energy *might* cause connection problems.

6) Disable UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) on your router. This feature can be handy in some cases, but *might* cause connection problems.

7) Get the latest firmware from your router manufacturer's website, and install it. Some router manufacturers have updated their router firmware for Vista.

8) Enable "Broadcast my SSID" on your router. Some people think that unbroadcasted SSIDs don't connect properly in Vista. A diagnostic test on my machine flagged this too. It *might* cause connection problems.

9) Disable Wireless Security on your router. I've since turned this back on (WPA-TKIP) with no connection problems, and it's critical to turn this back on if you broadcast your SSID.

10) Turn off Windows Firewall. Some folks think the handling of packets by Windows Firewall (and other firewalls) *might* cause connection problems. I've since turned this back on just to be safe, even though I'm behind a router.

11) Turn your Wireless Adapter's romaing tendency to "conservative" or "minimum". Don't let it roam in "aggressive" or "maximum" or "seek best connection" mode.

I hope this post helps you, since it took me the better part of a day to sift many, many forum posts across multiple web sites to find all these possible fixes.

In case any MS staffers see this post and want to know my equipment: Dell Inspiron 530, Vista Home Premium, Core2Quad, 4GB RAM, with Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter.

BTW, it's obvious after going through so many posts (including some posts where MS staffers were asking questions) that Microsoft knows this is widespread and doesn't know how to fix it yet. It's increasingly hard to believe they didn't see this problem before they released Vista.

Good luck!!!

Keywords to help others find this information when they search like I did:

Windows Vista Dropped Wireless Connection Network Won't Connect Slow Drop Internet Connectedness

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