Windows 7 / XP wireless issues

Bsimon

Hey all,

I have searched around and cant find a direct answer.

I just purchased a new laptop running windows 7. My home wireless network has been running perfectly for 2 years with 2 pcs running windows xp.

Now it seems whenever my wife is on the net on one of the xp computers and I am on the windows 7 laptop, the wireless router needs to be re-cycled (powered off then back on) in order to work again.

Any ideas?:scratch

Art Scott

No idea at all......my wireless system runs to xp desktops and my Dell Win 7 Ultimate seamlessly.....all I had to do was power on the Dell and !!!WHAM!!!! i was poking around dgrin and Nikon Cafe.....now all I need to do is get all of my bookmarks and stuff over to the laptop from the desktop...as 99.9% is aLL photo business related.

craig_d

That's pretty strange behavior. I suggest checking the web site of the company that made the wireless router. See if there is a firmware update for your model. If they have forums, see if other people are complaining about this problem. If the site allows you to submit questions to tech support, see if they can help.

Photometric

A couple of questions. Are all of the computers on at the same time? Also, do you have power saving set up so if you walk away the system hibernates?

Which router is it?

The issue could be the following:

Your laptop is on and you walk away for a while and the system hibernates and saves it's setting including the IP address that the router gave to your machine. While it's in hibernation, your wife's PC is turned on and the router is giving it the same ip address as it gave your pc, because it doesn't see it while it's hiberating. You come back to your machine and wake it up and it wants to use the ip address it was given that your wife is now using and it's causing the router to lock up at that point.

If this is the case, you could go into the machines and assign them static IP addresses so they don't trip over each other. The difference is W7's hibernate feature which is great, but sometimes trips up routers.

Bsimon

Thanks for all of the responses!

@Photometric, The router is a 3-4 year old Netgear, I am at my office right now so I cant give the model number.

That being said, we do have a 2 year old linksis (sp?) in the box from my wifes apartment before we were married. It is in perfect shape and I am sure more powerful than my Netgear.

Also, you were able to articulate the IP issue much better than me but that is what I was suspecting as well (all be it, without the technical knowledge).

Anyways, when I get home tonight I will try to set static IPs and if that doesnt work I will switch out the router.

Thanks again to all of you for your input

Ben

Richard

Photometric wrote:

If this is the case, you could go into the machines and assign them static IP addresses so they don't trip over each other.

It's probably a DHCP conflict. I get a popup warning message in XP-Pro when this happens on my home net, though I don't know what Win7 does. Static IP addresses should solve the problem.

craig_d

Photometric wrote:

The issue could be the following:

Your laptop is on and you walk away for a while and the system hibernates and saves it's setting including the IP address that the router gave to your machine. While it's in hibernation, your wife's PC is turned on and the router is giving it the same ip address as it gave your pc, because it doesn't see it while it's hiberating. You come back to your machine and wake it up and it wants to use the ip address it was given that your wife is now using and it's causing the router to lock up at that point.

If that's the issue, I'd replace the router with a less stupid one. A DHCP server shouldn't reassign an IP address to another machine just because the one that had it gets turned off. An address is leased for a period of time and shouldn't be reassigned within that time unless it is explicitly released by the machine that has it. Hibernation should have no effect on this.

Rhuarc

craig_d wrote:

If that's the issue, I'd replace the router with a less stupid one. A DHCP server shouldn't reassign an IP address to another machine just because the one that had it gets turned off. An address is leased for a period of time and shouldn't be reassigned within that time unless it is explicitly released by the machine that has it. Hibernation should have no effect on this.

Just what I was thinking. I don't remember how long the IP address leases last on my home router, but there are time where I may have one of my 4 systems off for a week or more and when I boot it back up it gets the same IP as what it had the last time!

Have you tried doing a hard reset of the router and restoring it back to factory defaults? Sometimes a setting can get corrupted or something and doing this hard reset will force it back to the way it should be.

timparker_NikonD60

IP Leases usually are anywhere from 2-4 Days I believe by Default. If you have a conflict it will be reported on the machines. A bubble will pop with a warning that there are IP conflicts.

My guess would be that the DHCP pool (Addresses that are assigned by the router) is too small possibly. If a machine can't get an IP and network information, resetting the router will clear anything already assigned and will allow it to work.

So if your leases are still in use but not "live" the reset would clear them and it would work again until the max number is reached.

Rhuarc wrote:

Just what I was thinking. I don't remember how long the IP address leases last on my home router, but there are time where I may have one of my 4 systems off for a week or more and when I boot it back up it gets the same IP as what it had the last time!

Have you tried doing a hard reset of the router and restoring it back to factory defaults? Sometimes a setting can get corrupted or something and doing this hard reset will force it back to the way it should be.

Bsimon

Hey everyone. Thanks to all who have answered. In the end, I unplugged the router for about 30 minutes as a last ditch effort and it seems to have fixed the problem. At least for the last day and a half we havent had any problems!

Lets hope it stays that way.

Thanks again,
Ben

MJStevens

If the problem returns go into the wireless adapter settings from the device manager and select b/g instead of a/b/g or b/g/n which ever is the case for you in teh advance options. Some wifi adapters have trouble with N at 2.4/5GHz. My wife's laptop would randomly fall off the network because it was trying to negotiate a N connection and would fail then would re-connect when it fell back to G. Once I disabled the N all was well again.

Strangely enough this wasn't a problem for the laptop under Vista only 7. I tried numerous drivers without success in hopes she'd be able to use N.

Windows7Guy

Hello Bsimon,
Have you checked compatibility?
Just an FYI for you.
It is always best to check with the software manufacturer FIRST. They will tell you if they have tested the product and the version, as well as whether or not it will work with Windows 7.
Check out the Windows 7 Compatibility site: (There you will find out about hardware and software compatibilty.)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx
There is a pulldown from which you can choose "hardware" and "software".
There are also some great articles, instructional videos and such to help with your Windows 7 at our Springboard site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/default.aspx
In any event a lot of the times, Vista drivers will work in lieu of Windows 7 drivers, however, it's not 100%!
As stated previously, it's best to have the Windows 7 certified drivers installed.
Microsoft does have an official Windows 7 Support Forum located here http://tinyurl.com/9fhdl5 . It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support teams. You may want to check the threads available there for additional assitance and support.
Thanks again,
John M.
Microsoft Windows Client Support