Windows Vista "Local only" network access. How to fix???

[redgtxdi]

Working on a wife's friend's laptop. I *think* the problem is the "local access" thing. It won't get out onto the internet. (no globe next to network icons in clock tray)

I've tried this solution here ------> http://www.thebitguru.com/articles/20-Fixing+the+local+only+internet+access+issue+in+Windows+Vista

And that basically points to the microsoft page which I performed manually but still no-joy. I deleted my home network from its list of known networks & tried to jump back on but still no joy.

I'm thinking this has got to be something common??

Suggestions?

TIA! (P.S. It's on an HP dv6000 w/ atheros ar5007 802.11 b/g adapter)

 

[VirtualLarry]

I had a similar issue with a relative's laptop. The solution was to update the wifi driver, from atheros.cz .

 

[Captante]

Try making a new user-profile (admin) use it to login and see if the problem goes away. I've run into corrupted user-profile issues on Vista which for some reason borked internet access several times.

 

[redgtxdi]

Sorry so long to reply. I'm making a habit of long replies lately. Work's too busy to nef lately. I'd call that good, but let's be honest..... this is AT.....that's NOT good!

So far, I was able to plug in w/ ethernet & was able to get on AFTER I noticed that just like one of the youtube videos I saw, the friggin' ethernet adapter's IP & DNS settings were set to something specific so I went automatic on those.....presto....globe's up & internet is available.

Still done a crap-ton of updates & gonna slap some decent AV on there to be safe.

Will get back to the WiFi as soon as I get back from the fight....errr....hockey game!

 

[redgtxdi]

I had a similar issue with a relative's laptop. The solution was to update the wifi driver, from atheros.cz .

Winner!!

I even did an updated driver directly from HP's site using their own scan tool to search specific to the S/N of the laptop in question.....NOPE!

Once I went directly to the atheros website & found a Vista driver 9.x.x the problem was solved!!

LOTS of folks come up as google results with this problem. It's a ridiculous shame that MS/HP couldn't resolve such a situation. (shame is probably too nice of a word)

Thanks again!!! :thumbsup:

 

[JackMDS]

Wireless cards' Chipset are only manufactured by Six OEM vendors, beside Intel the others are mainly in computer chipset/cards business.

Computer manufactures' take the Vanilla Driver's software from the OEM and rework them ("""adapt""") with their signature and at times might add some Junk Utilities as well.

Because of this the computers' vendors do not bother to update the Drivers to new one so that they do not have to spend more money reworking them too often.

The Best performers are plain vanilla Drivers with No Utility, or and additional Wireless Managers.

Example for OEM Drivers....

RealTek http://www.driversinstaller.com/realtek.html

Atheros - https://www.atheros.cz/

Intel - http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-010623.htm

One might need to Bing/Google the model number of the card to find the Chipset manufacturer.