Anyone know what process controls wireless network connection under XP?

[ColKurtz]

The wireless on my wife's Thinkpad has gotten a bit flakey in the past couple of months. Every day or two, it will completely lose internet connectivity and the only way to recover is a reboot. While it's hung, I am unable to right-click the Windows wireless icon on my system tray (the one that appears when you click "show status" under the nic properties). There are no "not responding" apps, nor any processes sucking up CPU in Task Manager -- System Idle process is usually 90%+

If I try to use the connection manager (IBM Access Connections) to scan for networks, it immediately comes back with no results. I can tell from the behavior that it's not actually looking - it comes back too fast.

This isn't a signal strenght/quality issue. I'm convinced some underlying process is hung but I can't figure it out. When I reboot, one of the items that hangs is "wireless connection 1" - which I eventually must click "end task" to complete the reboot. But I can't figure out that process.

Is there an identifiable process that I can kill and restart, or is does networking fall under one of the svchost processes and it won't be easy to identify. Depending on the timing, it can be very inconvenient to reboot, so I'm hoping there's a way band-aid the networking until she can reboot.

XP Home SP2, latest driver applied. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Nothinman]

If none of the service names seem related to it you might be better off contacting the manufacturer of the laptop, it's possible it's the driver that's getting confused and I don't think you can unload/reload them easily in Windows.

 

[stash]

Wireless Zero (WZCSVC) runs in svchost on XP.

 

[AsianriceX]

Have you installed the latest wireless drivers for your Thinkpad? As far as I know, Access Connections requires a specific driver set from Lenovo in order to control the wireless card.

Edit:
I just saw the last line in your message. Are you using a wireless card made specifically for Thinkpads? I remember there being discussion where you had to purchase wireless cards directly from IBM/Lenovo due to branding and compatibility issues. You couldn't just buy an Intel wireless card without modding the firmware in order for it to properly work with ThinkVantage software.

Also, Access Connections replaces Zero Config, so I assume it shouldn't even be running.

 

[stash]

Maybe you should try using Wireless Zero instead of the IBM stuff.

 

[drag]

I just saw the last line in your message. Are you using a wireless card made specifically for Thinkpads? I remember there being discussion where you had to purchase wireless cards directly from IBM/Lenovo due to branding and compatibility issues. You couldn't just buy an Intel wireless card without modding the firmware in order for it to properly work with ThinkVantage software.

No branding or compatability issues.. Just IBM being huge dicks. They had a whitelist of allowed wireless cards built into the BIOS to make sure that people didn't try to buy much cheaper cards then what they were offering. (well the whitelist was there, them being huge dicks is my idea about why they did it)

I don't think they are doing that anymore.

 

[ColKurtz]

Thanks. WZCSVC sounds like what I was looking for. The Access Connections was just for troubleshooting - but once the problem starts it doesn't work either.