VISTA & WIRELESS : HOW TO SOLVE LOCAL ACCESS ONLY?
Thank you for your reading and possible answer(s), UNABLE TO GET "LOCAL AND INTERNET ACCESS" UNDER VISTA, WHILE IT WAS POSSIBLE UNDER XPI used to get connected "home-like" with XP to a "secondary wireless router" (SSID: Wlancomtrend - no authentication needed, no work group, signal strength: Excellent), which gets the internet signal from a "main wireless router", plugged to the DSL line (SSID: Wireless - no authenticatin needed, no work group, signal strength: Good / Low). I am not the administrator of these routers. I used to get DNS automatically under TCPIP properties.VISTA DOESN'T LET ME ACCESS THE INTERNET, THOUGH I MANAGE TO CONNECT TO THE SAME ROUTERIt says: "Access: local only"; and under Network and sharing center it says "unidentified network". I gess I'm a bit unfamiliar with this OS and do not master all its settings. I also marked off security essentials like Firewall under Windows security center, to prevent any possible internet access blocking. My laptop power plan is also set to "High performance".- I suspect my ID network is not well configured. Under System properties (right click on the "My computer icon") > Computer name > network ID > Join a Domain or Workgroup: I'm trying to keep the "This is a home computer" setting, but it goes back to "This computer is part of a business network" all the time, even after reboot. How to fix this, by the way?- Under Network and Sharing center > Customize the current connection > location type > i set it to "public". Other factors maybe irrelevant: / Sharing discovery > Network discovery: "On" / > file sharing: "On".I get DNS automatically under TCPIP properties (as with XP).A couple of days ago, VISTA managed to get internet with the "main wireless router" (SSID: Wireless - no authentication needed, signal strength: Good / Low). I just tried to set ID network to "This is a home computer" and rebooted. Under the network window, I also tried to tick a network location or workgroup. This may not be important, though.I STILL JUST GET LOCAL ACCESS ONLY WITH MY WIRELESS CONNECTION UNDER VISTAAny help? Molta merc / Many thanksAlso tried: - Automatically Detect Settings checked in internet options- Obtain an IP address automatically under TCPIP properties- Enable DHCP- Disable User Account Control in Security Center- Disable most of the Vista security stuff- Remove and set up all connections- IPv6 off- etc.Google Occitan www.google.com/intl/oc/ | http://www.eurominority.org/documents/cartes/occitania.gif
August 3rd, 2007 2:05pm

This is an ugly problem that I'm experiencing as well.. it seems that this is broken in Visa.. I really hope they look into it ASAP, because it's very very painful to use the system in this condition. So.. sometimes I cannot connect to a router at all, but more common is that after I resume the computer from sleep, I get "local only" access.
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August 7th, 2007 9:06pm

FROM SOME FORUMIts all a c-r-a-p shoot. you can try static IP, you can disable IP6v, you can try entering your DNS, you can disable your DHCP broadcast, you can update your drivers, you can restore your computer, you can uninstall/reinstall stuff. Basically what it comes down to is that there is no guranteed fix for any of this. My notebook would come back online local and internet after being in local only for hours for no apparent reason and then just drop off and back into local only for no reason and there was no certain way to get it back online. This goes for both the Wireless and the normal Cat5 wired. Although with it being plugged in to CAT5 i did have more success at it being online after reboots but only 25% of the time.I talked to several computer dealers in town today and they all agreed its a craps shoot for Vista and wireless networking and have been unable to repair alot of the computers that they are seeing. So if you get a chance get a dual XP/Vista machine or just stay XP til MS resolves this issue.
August 7th, 2007 9:48pm

I see the same symptoms on regular cable internet servicethrough a Linksys WRT54G. I just loaded latest Ethernet driverfromNvidia. I'm hoping it fixes this problem for me. If it matters, my sister also sees this, and she's running Windows 2000 Professional !
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August 11th, 2007 4:55am

Still dropping into "Local Access Only". even with the new Driver. Does it happen mostly on weekends? seems so to me.
August 12th, 2007 12:57am

Try http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934430 Disable the advanced scaling feature...
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August 17th, 2007 11:04pm

MS released a Pre-SP1 patch for WLAN. You can get this by eMail: https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix
August 22nd, 2007 3:41pm

Hey. This link doesn't make sense.. I have to enter something called "KB Artcile" - what is that?Is that one of those pre-SP1 patches or something else?Thank youDavid
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August 22nd, 2007 8:39pm

Sorry for this. Didn't see that the link doesn't include the KB. Here is the link to the MS-KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932063
August 22nd, 2007 8:47pm

Hotfix installed, wireless still going "unidentified network" and "local only".I wonder if, in My Computer [left click] > Properties > Network ID > "Join a domain or workgroup" , the computer should be set to: "This is a home computer; it's not part of a business network" instead of "This is a home computer; it's not part of a business network". Probably made this mistake installing vista on the computer. It goes back to "This computer is part of a business network" all the time, even after reboot.Let's keep on trying to solve this.Google Occitan www.google.com/intl/oc/ | http://www.eurominority.org/documents/cartes/occitania.gif
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August 23rd, 2007 8:23pm

Hey there everybody, I'm on the same boat as you occitan. However, I'm an IT Tech for an apartment complex at a state university and we are providing wireless to students who don't have a hard wire connection. They're getting an IP address, but it shows that they have a "Local Only" connection w/ IP, Subnet,and DNS. I was looking through out Cisco fiber switch and I'm noticing errors on our wireless vlanscrolling "%DHCPD-3-WRITE_ERROR: DHCP could not write bindings to [wireless bridge]" I ran the hot fix on a couple Vista test computers and no luck. Microsoft wants to charge me $245 for something they screwed up in their OS. (Not to mention 300 angry students who can't access the internet). I Hope Microsoft can fix this problem ASAP because I heard alot of other campuses are having the same problem and there is no solid solution.
August 23rd, 2007 10:57pm

Got the same problem. i'm using sonyericsson edge modem card. i have noticed that if i download something big then connection is good. but if i don't use internet for some time > my connection goes to "Local only". is there some microsoft guru that can explain this ***?? Is there any patch, fix available??
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August 26th, 2007 10:18pm

ACSheehy wrote: Try http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934430 Disable the advanced scaling feature...Has anyone tried the above solution and had any success?My roommate with Vista is experiencing the "Local Access Only" problem which allows the computer to connect to the network but not to the internet.
September 2nd, 2007 2:49am

I have the same problem that many vista users are complaning about all over the interweb. I can connect via wired ethernet without any problems at all. The problem is with the wireless access, which is the only reason I bought this new laptop (3 days ago).All my other wireless devices work flawlessy within my network, and can access the internet (windows xp pro, and windows mobile 5.0) using a Linksys WRT54GS.When using my new vista business notebook (LG E500 using Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Adapter) , I am able to get connected after doing a few repairs, and reconnections, but the connection doesn't stay connected very long, I just lose the connection and the network goes into the "local only" state. I`m beginning the hate that "local only" message now.The most common error I receive is " Cannot commincate with the Primary DNS Server``, I have no intention of looking at changing any router settings to allow this Laptop access as I will not have access to others routers when I travel, I only have control of my laptop, so we have to find a solution on the client end...I hope windows vista wireless networking is backward compatable with older routers, the thought of not connecting to random hotspots because I`m using Vista would be enough for me to go back to XP.You almost think, that this issue being posted here at MS forums would be enough for MS Experts to take this issue seriously enough to fix, I know may users who have been trying to troubleshoot this problem, when in fact it should be MS employees troubleshootion this major problem...What ever happened to plug and play?
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September 2nd, 2007 9:58am

Yes, I have tried that autotuning option - it doesn't help...
September 2nd, 2007 8:02pm

Same problem here. Windows Vista Ultimate on a new PC with plenty of RAM and a 5.3 performance index. Hardwired FastE connection to Cisco 2950 which goes to Cisco PIX 501 --> Netopia Cayman ADSL Router --> AT&T Internet (static addressing 6Mb).For no apperant reason, Vista switches to local access only mode. Doesn't matter if I use DHCP or statically define IP info. It is not the network because all the Windows 2003 servers, XP Pro PCs, and Linux work fine. It certainly is not happening on wireless connections only. This PC doesn't even have a wireless NIC.From a command prompt, standard or elevated, I can ping internet hosts both by name and IP address. I can resolve the names of the sites that I can't connect to with either Internet Explorer or Firefox. It almost seems as though the problem is related to the way Vista handles http/https traffic, and not necessarily total internet connectivity. Does anyone know what criteria Vista uses to evaluate whether or not it can connect to the internet? If we could manually troubleshoot that process, step by step, we coulld probably figure this out. Otherwise, I think we'll just have to wait on MS to fix this.
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September 3rd, 2007 5:48pm

Hey Everybody, It's been a month and still nothing. I called up Microsoft support, (866) 234-6020, and filed a "complaint" regarding ALL Vista Based OS (Basic to Ultimate). I gave them the link to this forum. Hopefully we'll get some kind of response from Microsoft. If you want to take the time, call that number and do the same thing I did. It doesn't cost anything. Hopefully enough complaints will get to them to actually do something about this rather than have millions of people wait on "SP1" to be released.
September 6th, 2007 10:12pm

I had the same "Local only" access problems with my Vista Home Premium, but it is now working fine after several days of trying various things includingsuggestions in this forum thread. The problem started for me when I uninstalled Norton Security 2007 to install a competitor's product. I got tired of Norton Internet Security's flaky issues with Vista, like LiveUpdate failing to download updated virus defs. I used "Programs and Features" from the Control Panel to uninstall Norton IS, which seemed to go smoothly--I saw no errors, and when I returned to Programs and Features, the product was removed from the list. However, after installing the competitor product (a top pick in Sept 2007's Consumer Reports), I was locked into "Local only" access for both my wireless and wired connection. What finally worked was the recommendation 4 days later from the new security vendor's support organization: I have checked the system information log you sent us and found that you still have components of Norton on the computer. This could be the cause of the problem. Kindly run the Norton uninstall to remove the remaining components of it. For the instructions on how to download and run theNorton uninstaller, please click on this link:http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=EN-1034185&id=EN-1034185 You need this Norton Removal Tool to fully uninstall the product. I soon as I ran it, my connection went back to "Local and Internet." Hope this might help some in this forum who had the same issue due to a firewall/security product that perhaps they tried to uninstall or remove but registry entries and other traces of the product still left hooks in Vista that prevented the system from connecting to the internet. --ITProf
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October 26th, 2007 6:20pm

It sound like your issue is/was "no access at all". That is not the same as the issue here, which is "intermittently no accessfor no apparent reason, then it may or may not recover".
October 26th, 2007 11:32pm

I'm pretty sure I have the same problem as you... When I get this, it happens after about an hour or two of being connected to the internet, and then I just loose the connection. There appears to be a connection for me, but I can't get out. I get this same problem with different connection types (Wireless, and also a PCS Card). Something I found on another board seemed to work for me... Go to Windows Update... Click on "Check For New Updates". When it fails, keep clicking it. After about 10 tries or so, the network mystically comes back... I know this doesn't solve the problem, but it keeps me from having to reboot! Good luck!
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October 29th, 2007 7:46pm

Temporary solution : Assign a static IP address and check for the connectivity .....It would get connected instantly.....Use 4.2.2.2 for the preferred DNS server.....It;s a global DNS server address.....Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!
November 1st, 2007 10:33pm

I'm not sure if this is any help to you guys, but I think this problem is related to antivirus software. I had exactly the same problem and resolved it by turning of the block function in McAffee firewall. I have also seen people having problems with Norton. When uninstalled the problem was solved. Maybe just luck, but it helped..
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November 6th, 2007 2:54am

Installed KB941649. Have not seen the problem lately. If it comes back I'll repost here. P.S. Anyone who is able to diagnose "Local Area Connection Status" please post with the setting for "Log on as" value for Diagnostic Policy Service service. It won't start on my system. (starts, but then stops immediately).
November 6th, 2007 10:02pm

Well as soon as I post this optimistic report I get hit with Local Access Only. So KB941649 is not the answer. However, the system did recover on its own, in a few minutes. Did not have to reboot.
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November 7th, 2007 3:50am

'So unfair: I tried to connect to a router (with a Toshiba TX) with Vista Home premium: it worked!: Local & Internet. Itried to connect to the same router (witha Sony vaio FZ) with Vista Ultimate:Local access only. Where is thebug? during the Vista Ultimatesetup process, I remember having stupidly chosen the "this is a business computer" parameter, instead of setting it as a "home computer". Now, even after reboot, the changes do not apply if I set it to "home computer". WhenIreinstall a fresh copy of Vista (erasing partitions), theOS doesn't ask meto choose anymore.How come? Shall we wait for the Vista SP1?
November 11th, 2007 7:24pm

I went back to XP three weeks ago and everything is alright,again. I used Vista since it was released, installed it twice on my notebook, but a third time I don't want to. Perhaps after SP1 is out for a few weeks/months.
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November 11th, 2007 7:30pm

I am thinking that this is a feature of IPv6 and not actually a problem. If you are inside a business network, you will be using proxies to access outside content so local only is not a problem. If you chose you are on a business network because you thought it would give you features, well more fool you, I am sorry to say... (I had to say it, forgive me!) The next time you get local only, try this: Open the "Netowrk and Sharing Center" Click on Customize next to your network In the"Set Network Location" dialog box, click on "Merge or delete network locations" In the "Merge of Delete Network Locations" box, look for a network location with the status "not in use". Deletethat network location by highlighting it and clicking the delete button. Close dialog boxes. Tell me if your problem goes away (temporarily at least - it will come back again...)
November 11th, 2007 9:14pm

I had the same problem with a new notebook installed with win vista home prem. I pretty much tried disabling IPv6 and deleting network connections but still no go. Finally i resolved it using a work around. I opened the network connections and right click on the wireless connection and click properties. In the Wireless connection properties I highlighted ipv4 and clicked properties. Under the general tab, I left it to default settings which is 'Obtain IP address automatically" I clicked on the Alternate Configuration tab and set it to user configured. i set the IP address, subnet, and default gateway manually. I also added Preffered DNS server to the router address and left the rest blank. I clicked on OK and close all the windows and rebooted the computer. After reboot I opened network and sharing center. Access was 'local' for a while then the diagram changed and the red x was removed. Unidentified network was changed to my network name. Then I tested my connection and browsed to a couple of sites and now I can access the internet. Rebooted a couple of times and it still worked. Please try this and see if it resolves the issue. It's just a workaround so it might not work for everyone. Happy hunting!
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November 15th, 2007 7:20am

And yet another unhappy Vista user experiencing the same problem. One person posted that if the connection says active, it is not lost. This is exactly correct. If the connetion sets idle for more than 8 hours, only a reboot brings it back. Hopefully someone will find a solution (maybe even Microsoft).
November 26th, 2007 6:31pm

Anyone tried KB930517 already?http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930517
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November 27th, 2007 12:50am

I have experienced the same problem and tried everything the previous guy tried also took the laptop back and returned it for a new one thinking that it was bad. Wasted about 8 hours of my time and my clients money trying to resolve this one. Bottom line STRIP VISTA AND REINSTALL XP
November 28th, 2007 1:40am

Same problem here.I just bought a Vista system. I am seriously regretting buying Vista. I new Ishould have bought a Mac. I can't even connect to my own WEP secured network. My wife's Mac connects without a problem!!! Nothing I've done EVEN SETTING THE FREAKING CONNECTION AS PRIVATE WORKS! It still only allows "local access". What a piece of $#%! M$ didn't make it more secure. M$ just made it impossible to stay on the Internet.
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November 28th, 2007 6:07am

I've spent the last week with this problem. Bought an HP pavilion dv6000 with Vista Home. I connect to my home and any secured network without any problem. I get the "local access only" when I try to connect to an open network (Starbucks, hotels, airports, ...). I've tried most of what everyone here's tried (firewall on/off, disabling dhcp broadcast flag, disabling IPv6, ...) nothing has worked. I've seen some progress made when manually assigning IP addresss and DNS but not always an option when at an airport or other places. My wife's laptop running XP connects without any problems. Any chance that MS would let me exchange Vista for XP. ;-)
November 29th, 2007 9:11pm

The only thing that I have been able to do to get "local and internet" access is turn the security off on the linksys router. I'm not to happy about that. Does anyone else have any suggestions.
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December 6th, 2007 9:12am

I've tried everything short of reinstalling Vista. This is actually what the tech support from HP suggested. I connect to my home network wirelessly without any problems. I've connected to other companies' wireless networks without any problems. I hit a snag when I try and connect to an open network (hotels, coffee shops, airports, ...). That's when I get the "local access only". I connect to the network and it identifies but just no connection to internet. Same error that many others see "no DNS". I'm about ready to plunk down the $59 and call MS directly (but then I think that's about 1/4 of the price of XP, maybe I should just spend it on that instead). The only problem is that Vista came preinstalled on my laptop and MS website says to contact manufacturer. I think they should make an exception in this case. I was very wary of buying this laptop since it came with Vista. Was looking for an XP machine. I wonder if MS would accept an even trade. I'll give them back Vista if they give me XP. Or maybe I'll just throw up my hands, reformat the hard drive and reinstall with Linux. I'm kind of leaning in that direction.Good luck everyone.
December 6th, 2007 6:11pm

I have had not luck either in solving this problem. I am reinstalling XP, at least I know that this OS works.
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December 6th, 2007 8:46pm

This morning, I experienced the following behavior:HTTPS access worked.Windows Update worked.VPN to office worked.HTTP to ANY other site would NOT work. Not with Firefox and not with IEPing would worktracert would worknslookup would work.This is Vista Ultimate, connected BY WIRE to a Linksys router. Checked all router settings (nothing had changed).Rebooted Vista. No change.All connections through VPN worked (outlook got its email), Remote desktop worked. Could access the rest of the internetvia remote desktop, but any attempt to directly access with IE/Firefox via HTTP would fail.Now searching web to see if any other people have had similar problems. Vista has been working for over a year; Actually it is pretty close to exactly 1 year - I wonder if some license has expired or something. Vista did not appear to be operating in 'limited behavior' mode.
December 7th, 2007 3:50pm

I am getting the same problem with Vista (local network only). It is happening in a domain netwerk at the office. XP and 2003 are working fine, 2 Vista Business workstations are also fine. But two others are haveing problems. When rebooting the connection is ok to local and internet but after a while (a few minutes) it is local network only. I have tried so many options found on the internet... nothing helps. Is there someone at Microsoft who is (I hope) also reading this forum who can help???? I am running with a Dutch Vista Business on my workstations. Today I had the same problem with a brand new Toshiba notebook for a customer. It works for 10 minutes and then it stops...(local network only).. HELP HELP HELP
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December 14th, 2007 6:10pm

I use a vista laptop, i was using a default connection i pick up at my house, it worked fine for about 2 weeks, and then all of a sudden out of no where my laptop just disconnected from the internet and since then its been stuck at "Local only". if i connect to other connections i get "Local and Internet". So i know this is a stupid question but is this a vista or the internet problem??
December 15th, 2007 6:07am

Sorry for the double post but, i used to use this exact same connection for my PSP and it was fine, now after my laptop disconnected, my psp cant access the internet either...
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December 15th, 2007 6:10am

I have observd many a times that when teh wireless signal is strong (>60%), this problem dosent seem to arise and i can connect to the internet thru wireless !!
December 15th, 2007 11:01am

This appears to be a common problem. I bought my flybook notebookwith vista business hoping to be able to connect to the internet in hotels etc whenever I roam but I always get the same prolem. It sees the network but can't identify it.I can connect to my home network only by disconnecting the power supply to the wirless router and restarting it. Youcan't do this in a hotel! My partner does not have the same problem anywhere running XP.I installed SP1RC hoping it would resolve the problem but it just crashed my system after a reboot and it did not solve the problem anyway. I had to go back to a restore point before SP1 install to get my computer working again. Why does microsoft not sort out this problem. If they want us to spent the money and upgrade!!! the should sort out this problem. This is a microsoft forum so they must read these threads. Has anyone heard from microsoft to say at least they are working on the problem. Please lets get a fix for this or I will have to go back to the Xp OS.
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December 16th, 2007 8:25pm

this is not a driver thing but try right clicking computer (my computer in xp) then click on properties look on the green and blue area for device manager or search device managaer in the search feild of the start menu anyway when ur in the device manager click the + on network adapters and click on properties for the correct device and go to all tabs until you see an option about turning it off to save power make sure its unticked (checked) then apply or ok it then exit device manager it might work it shuld stop it from going local only after a screensaver, asus nap mode, standby etc. i think
December 18th, 2007 12:03pm

I concur My laptop was purchased in August of this year (07) the experience with the laptop is great (Alienware always wanted one), the wireless does not work; has not, will not stay connected under any conditions. I have some input into this as little as it may be, check your network adapter in device manager. I have an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network card internal to this laptop. Does anyone have an external USB network adapter running with the same problem occurring? I was contemplating buying an external network adapter to see if this would solve the issue, but after looking for one many are of course not compatible with vista What is wrong with this OS? Why was it forced out when it is obvious that it is not ready for release? I tried the last suggestion of turning off the systems ability to turn off the network adapter to save energy to no avail, still not resume a wireless connect (even just local after it resumes out of sleep or hibernate. MeH. No one from Microsoft will do anything any faster because of this or any post Microsoft new about this issue how many months ago? They just cant fix it! Just hurry the ____ up! I hate having a nice new laptop that is not wireless WTF!
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December 18th, 2007 9:26pm

Tried this step by step but am still unable to connect to the Internet via my Motorola router. No problem connecting to the router but I, too, have the pesky Access: Local Only setting. I followed your suggestions above but do have one question - from where did you obtain the IP address you entered into the Alternate Configuration??? I used the ones I found on my "wired" desktop computer that is using the same router and internet connection but they did not help. I've had this problem on and off for weeks. Earlier this week, it suddenly started working. It was fine for two days then on the 18th, it downloaded some Windows Vista updates andnow I'm back to ground zero. I even tried rolling the system back to 12/15 to see if that would help, but no dice. I've never experienced anything quite as frustrating as this. Gateway wants me to start from scratch and reinstall Windows but I have so much software loaded on that laptop, I really don't want to do that. The BEST tech support has come from Motorola but they, too are stumped. To further complicate things, our internet service is broadcast. The receiver is on the roof, and the connection to the router is just a little tiny box (about 1-1/2" SQUARE) which DOESN'T get plugged into the normal slot (WAN) but rather into a regular network slot. I'd sure appreciate some help from Microsoft on this without having to pay $59 a pop. Connie, Pomona, MO
December 22nd, 2007 5:44am

Michael Kleinpaste wrote: Same problem here.I just bought a Vista system. I am seriously regretting buying Vista. I new Ishould have bought a Mac. I can't even connect to my own WEP secured network. My wife's Mac connects without a problem!!! Nothing I've done EVEN SETTING THE FREAKING CONNECTION AS PRIVATE WORKS! It still only allows "local access". What a piece of $#%! M$ didn't make it more secure. M$ just made it impossible to stay on the Internet. Yes I am wishing my flat mate bought a mac as well. we now are just plugged directly into the cable modem and that seems to work fine but I cannot not set-up any sort of wireless router to get my MAC powerbook hooked up to the internet. It sucks because I need the internet for work. I don't know how many hours i've spent trying to figure out what was wrong. Now after another late night trying countless things and researching I come to find out it was MS "issue" to begin with. Frankly I think the computer was a waste of $2400.
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December 22nd, 2007 3:20pm

I finallly returned the laptop and received a full refund from Frys Electronics. Will now look into purchasing an older laptop and install XP onto it.
December 22nd, 2007 6:55pm

Hey guys... I've got it working. Finally, my new Gateway laptop running Vista Home Premium is connecting to the internet via my Motorola wireless router. We turned it off, rebooted, let it go into sleep mode and wake up - connection is still there. Wish I could tell you what we did that made it work but to be honest, we clicked so many settings, enabled and disabled so many properties and tried a little of everything. Finally we "repaired" our connection and just like that - the red X went away and we were on line. At least until the next time it happens. Connie S. Pomona, MO
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December 23rd, 2007 12:00am

With the greatest respect, that reply is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. It's up there with 'I drove past you yesterday when it was raining.' I'm fuming over this from Microsoft - annoyed at myself also for being stupid enough to buy into Vista.Their lack of service and respect for customersshould be answerable by law. I'm off to get XP for the short fix, but will look to a MAC in the future. In short, Ihate Microsoft
December 29th, 2007 12:45am

It'll do that. The issue issporadic. It'll work, then it won't. I put my POS VistaUMPCaway for a week because I was literally ready to throw $1200.00 at a brick wall. I fired it up a few nights ago and it worked. I fired it up again last night and it doesn't. VISTA = POS! I will never, repeat never buy Vista again. The only reason I have a PC at home is for gaming. When XP is no longer supported, I will game on the Xbox, or my Mac now that games are porting over.
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December 29th, 2007 12:59am

Have just purchased an HP notebook with Vista home premium loaded. It only connects local when on wireless. If I connect it via cable it works fine. I tested it in a laptop repair centre and it worked fine on wireless which would indicate that there is a problem with the router / vista combination that I am using. My xp machines work fine on the wireless. Have tried to configure the wireless connection manually but to no effect. Have updated all drivers / software from both Microsoft and HP. Have seen on blogs that the SIP on the router may be causing a problem but can't seem to disable this on the router. have emailed both Hp and my broadband supplier for help. No useful help on theMicrosoft site. Anyone got an answer that works?
December 29th, 2007 3:20am

Hello,I am having the same problem with vista home premium on a dell laptop. I have the intel Pro card. It connects local only for no aparent reason. No problems wired at all, XP or vista. I have a WRT54GL with hyperWRT as well as a belkin 54G extender in wired mode. I have tried relocating the router, reconfiguring the network, everything. Still intermittant local access only. I hope someone from MS is looking at this!Pat
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December 29th, 2007 7:53pm

I feel I've solved the problem. Before I wasn't able to sustain a transfer between computers connected via Linksys router, but last night I transferred 6+ gigs of data and the Vista machine's networking is still working.Over the course of several days, I made only one change at a time, then waited to see if the failure occurred again. I'm an IT networking professional so I based my decisions on my familiarity with network protocols, impact, risk, ease of implementation and fallback positions.These are the steps I took:1. Installed Teracopy, which takes over the file copying function of Windows.http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php2. Disabled IPv6 (Control Panel -> Network Connections -> <your connection> -> Properties)3. Disabled Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper and Responder (Control Panel -> Network Connections -> <your connection> -> Properties)4. Set Power settings to high performance (Control Panel -> Power Options) and disabled the screensaver (Control Panel -> Personalization -> Screen Saver)5. Reduced my Linksys router's MTU to 1480 (although I doubt this was part of the solution)6. Enabled ECN with the following command "netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled" from command line (Start -> cmd)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726965.aspxPossibly step 6 is all you really need to do. Please post if this works for you.
December 31st, 2007 6:51pm

I have never been so frustrated in my entire life. I purchased a laptop for my fiancee for Christmas that's running Vista. it ran fine on our wireless router for a few days, then, like everyone else here, it drops to local only. Sporadically it would work, then stop working, then work, then stop. The entire reason I bought her that laptop was so she could connect to the internet wirelessly. Is Microsoft even paying attention to this? It'd be great to at least get a post here from someone saying they're at least looking INTO the problem. I'm going to have to go home after work today and spend a few more hours working on the bloody thing. Hopefully one of the posts here that I haven't already tried will fix it. I'd hate to have to go out and buy a copy of XP to install on her machine (not because XP is inferior, just because I don't want to dish out another couple of hundred bucks when the program I already purchased should work properly). Grrrr!
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January 2nd, 2008 7:02pm

Has anyone tried this: Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233
January 2nd, 2008 11:58pm

Dear All I had the same issues, tried all the stuff but nothing helped until I stumbled over the following Technet Article http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/3ed3d027-5ae8-4cb0-ade5-0a7c446cd4f71033.mspx?mfr=true And by simply using the command netsh wlan show all I saw that my WLAN adapter (in a 4 years old Thinkpad R50P)was not supporting the WAP PSK option with AES but only with TKIP. After adjusting this little setting, the issues were gone. Cheers and good luck Mark
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January 3rd, 2008 10:47pm

I had the same problem until today. I talked to a Dell tech support guy and the thing that worked in the end was a System Restore. You go "Start - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore". When the window pops up, you choose "Select a different reference point" (or something like that.... It's the one that doesn't say Recommended) , then you choose a previous date from the list... preferably a date when it worked (if ever). Click the Next button a few times, then Finish. A dialog box should pop up saying (" If you do this, it can't be undone... blabla..."), just click YES. The computer should restore itself to the specified date ( took me a few minutes) then it should reboot. From there on, it worked for me. I hope this helps others. James.
January 7th, 2008 3:18am

James,Most of us have already gone down that path. Personally, I've restored this damn thing several times. My desktop has no problem connecting to my router, wirelessly. I've tried emulating every single setting from the desk top on the laptop to no avail. My desktop is running Vista Professional for Business and the Laptop is running Vista Home Premium.One works - the other works only sporadically. it is a real pain in the ***.ConnieS
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January 7th, 2008 3:30am

I've the same issues. I'll try some of these solutions but I'm not hopeful. Why is Microsoft not responding? I'm sure there would be more complaints, but most wireless Vista users are stuck on "local access only" and can't post.
January 13th, 2008 8:19pm

This is someting that really frosts my cake. When I try to repair the connection (or lack thereof), Vista says it cannot repair, would I like more information.... and then tries to connect to the internet and tells me I must have a problem with my DNS server because it cannot connect to Microsoft.com. DUH!!! My problem is that I can't connect to the Internet - don't try to take me to the internet for help. All Vista help files are located online - none are part of the software system itself. If you are working off line or cannot connect, you cannot get help for ANY Mocrosoft Vista based product. period. I thought I had solved my problem - and indeed, I had. I was reliably connecting, wirelessly, to the wireless settings of my motorolla router both local and internet for about five days and then - voila - local access only. Nothing had changed. No new software installed, router had not been powered on or off, no Vista updates installed, firewall turned off, no Norton, no McAfee, nothing. Looks like I have an expensive portable DVD player and laptop solataire game interface. Wonder what would happen if I reformatted and installed Red Hat?
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January 13th, 2008 8:52pm

Not sure if my problem is quite the same but, whenever I turn my computer on I have only local access. So I open a shell and use the "ipconfig /renew" comand and then I can connect the internet no problem. It just seems strange that I have to do this every time, I don't understand why this doesn't just happen automatically.The much more serious problem I uncovered whilst trying to solve this issue is that if I try and change my network configuration to use a fixed ip and "ok" the changes. My computer totaly locks up then gives me a Stop error (BSOD) I've posted about this issue on another thread.It's a right bummer!
January 14th, 2008 1:43am

Hello to all,I have deliberately replied to the first post in the thread to signify just how long it has taken/ and still is taking for Microsoft to take note and give at least some guidance/ notification that they care about those customers who have invested in their new OS..... On their own forums!!!! It all seems incredibly trivial now but I thought i'd put my own twist on things with my horror story...I am currently typing, sitting rather uncomfortably on my desk chair. I'd like to be sitting on my comfy sofa, cup of tea maybe, surfing the internet on my laptop. I cannot do this of course for much the same reason as the numerous other sufferers that have previously posted. The complete annoyance in my case is just how intermittent this ridiculous problem seems to be. Writing this I am using Vista Ultimate, running the internet perfectly (TOUCH WOOD!!!) connected to a belkin wireless router. My housemate is also doing the same with his physical connection, this time using XP home. Other computers also known to share this connection are another desktop running Xp pro and a laptop running Xp home. I recently invested in a laptop purely for the luxury of it and expected, due to the current situation with the rest of the network sharers, that i'd be able to connect to the network no trouble. But of course, this laptop running Vista premium "won't verify" the connection and will only connect locally..... Tried everything within my own knowledge and now trawled through posts who here for help... Still no luck. The silly thing is, I take this laptop round to my girlfriends and, low and behold... IT CONNECTS FINE?!?!?!??! Just what is going on here...Seriously?! When's there going to be answers?!!?Sincerely,Another disgruntled Vista user.
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January 15th, 2008 2:54am

In this situation, Iwould try changing the wireless channel number. Have you tried that ? Can you really blame Vista if you have seen that it workson another wireless network?
January 15th, 2008 3:44am

Well, my original point was regarding the lack of interest that Microsoft have taken into this issue with Vista. Obviously it is up to an individual person whether they choose to rely on an OS that many would say is not ready for an open market, however in many large retail outlets it does now prove difficult to buy a non- vista PC/ Laptop. I may have been a bit hasty to condem Microsoft but, I have literally gone through every post on this thread, sought after, and tried many fixes to this problem with no luck, and this seems to be the most detailed thread on this rather widely known issue. All the above aside, if you have more help then please elaborate!! I'm still more than willing to try ANYTHING Thanks!
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January 15th, 2008 5:34am

the thing to do is check all parameters on the wireless network that works (your friend's) and compare them against your home network. There are 11 wireless channels, so it is sometimes recommended to try to a different channel number. if your channel now is 1 try 6 or10; if it is now 11 try 6 or 2.
January 15th, 2008 4:37pm

Apoligies for my ignorance, but I am not exactly an expert with networks currently. Can I change the channel on the laptop rather than the network because the fact that computers already work on the network strongly suggests it's not the network specifically?
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January 15th, 2008 8:43pm

Well,if i read your earlierposts correctly,it works on one network and not another and that suggests that it is the network. you have to set the channel on the connecting computers, and on the router. Sorry I can't walk you through it.Try the FAQ on your router manufacturer's Web site.
January 16th, 2008 12:16am

This is so not fair!!! Wasting our precious time trying to figure out what is obviously a MICROSOFT DEFECT. Getting aggravated & frustrated & annoyed, so much so, that if this damn laptop didn't cost so much $$$, I swear I would beat the f*** out of it with a sledge hammer. I think that that is probably the only way I'd get any satisfaction from all this BS. We go & spend our $$$ on these computers only to find out that they don't work. WHAT A WASTE OF OUR TIME & OUR $$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So after purchasing, what we think & hope, is a wonderful brand new computer, and probably buying it because we are aggravated and annoyed from our other/older computer(s)....we end up finding out that what we really bought was nothing but a headache, a time waster, and an expen$ive, supposedly"high tech"computer that's greatest asset is to aggravate, frustrate, & annoy us. And remember, we gave our $ for this. So, in essence, we didn't just give our $ away, we purchase DEFECTIVE MERCHANDISE. MICROSOFT SHOULD RECALL ALL COMPUTERS/LAPTOP COMPUTERSWITH VISTA + GIVE US FREE TECH SUPPORT + THE OPTION OF SWITCHING TOWINDOWS XP. THAT WOULD BE FAIR & MAYBE RESTORE SOME OF OUR FAITH IN MICROSOFT. I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE WAY THINGS WORKED WHEN ANY COMPANY MANUFACTURED & SOLD DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS TO THE CONSUMER. SO WHAT DO I/WE DO? SEND LETTERS TO OUR CONGRESSMEN? NO. I THINK THAT THERE IS A GOVERNMENT AGENCY THAT IS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US=THE CONSUMER. If I do pursue this, I will post, as long as, microsoft doesn't delete it rather than post it. One person with one voice is usually ignored, but THERE IS POWER IN NUMBERS!
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January 16th, 2008 3:41pm

Well I was having some problems with my Lynksis wireless network adapter and no matter what I did after sleep mode it was not working I tried several things but still could not get the dam thing to work I had to restart the computer to get the thing to recognize it until I did what was suggested in a post here which was to turn off the disable the power to the adapter in the adapter settings when you go to sleep mode. Now all I do is unplug and plug it back in and it works again I still don't know why it doesn't just work without having to do all this *** but I guess as long as it is working I am happy. I feel for those who are having problems still I know the feeling. This is just another system to learn and debug for You know who LOL.
January 16th, 2008 8:30pm

I am having the same issues. I have made the registry changes posted here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233 and that seems to have improved the situation, however: I have also discovered that I have two drivers for my Realtek 8185 based PCI card. The driver which shipped with Vista apparently only fully connects to an access point which is 802.11b only. It hangs at "identifying network" when trying to connect at an 802.11g access point. When I updated to the current release of the driver, just the opposite occurs. I can connect to G access points, but hang at "identifying network" when connecting to a B only access point. The details tab of that hung connection shows connected at 54mb. Clearly wrong. Maybe it is a driver issue for me. Appears to not correctly identify the network radio type and connect at the appropriate B or G speed. Anyone know how to force Vista to connect at only 802.11b or only 802.11g. This would help me troubleshoot this further. Ken
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January 19th, 2008 4:54am

Replying to myself with some potential solutions....frankly I'm getting tired of the complaining going on in this thread rather than hearing about solutions. Everything was working well for about a month and then suddenly I had the original problem again. During transfer of large folders from a WinXP machine to the Vista machine, networking pretty much shuts down on the Vista machine. I can't ping anything on the local network, and sometimes I can't even reboot the machine to fix the problem. It gets stuck on the logging off screen and I have to hit the reset button. So, I've tried a few more things and seem to have stabilized it again. 7. Using static IP instead of DHCP (Control Panel -> Network Connections -> <your connectiion> -> Properties -> IPv4) 8. Disabled TCP auto-tuning with command "netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled) 9. Disabled TCP receive-side scaling state with command "netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled) interesting articles here: http://blogs.msdn.com/wndp/archive/2006/05/05/Winhec-blog-tcpip-2.aspx http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927168(this article recommends disabling receive-side scalingin a certain situation)http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/vistaTCPtweaks.htm http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932170(REALLY interesting. i've tried all these techniques and they *might* be working. this article is called "When you copy large files to or from earlier operating systems, the copy operation may be slower than expected on some Windows Vista-based computers"
January 21st, 2008 8:19pm

Reading the complaining may be tiresome but please understand that it is done only after trying many if not all of the "solutions" offered by other participants in this formum. AND - the rare occasions when Vista does allow local and internet access over a wireless connection are so unpredictable that it is impossible to say - I solved the problem doing such and such, as we really don't know WHAT solved the problem, just as we don't know exactly the circumstances in the problem reoccuring. On my end, I can drive to town and connect quickly in the parking lot of the local hotel, or go to any of the coffee shops, etc. that offer WIFI. I just can't connect in my own home. This past weekend, I swapped out my Motorolla router in favor of a Linksys router. I rolled my laptop back to the factory settings, (which means I have to reinstall all my software - bummer), tried statip IP, instead of DHCP, disabled TCP auto-tuning as you suggest above, disabled TCP receive-side scaling, as stated above, and am still unable to get on line. I simply don't know what else to do (other than reformatting and installing XP) so I complain. Human nature I guess. Connie Schachel in Pomona, Missouri (ya'all welcome to come by and take a crack at it!!!).
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January 22nd, 2008 1:37am

Same HERE Connie... I just have to complain because AFTER 4 DAYS OF TRYING TO FIND A SOLUTION, of course using a friend's computer SINCE I CANNOT ACCESS THE D*MN INTERNET ON MINE - BTW using my friend's computer ON MY OWN ISP, which of course DOES NOT WORK ON VISTA... I had to format to LINUX - I WILL NEVER USE A MICROSOFT OS AGAIN, F*CK MICROSOFT........You'd THINK the supposed #1 OS system would have a fix for NOT BEING ABLE TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET!... but nope, IN FACT,MICROSOFTS POS UPDATE was the cause of it for me... and the STUPID A*S UPDATE WAS AUTOMATIC / WITHOUT MY EVEN APPROVING, DIE MICROSOFT, DIE....
January 23rd, 2008 3:31pm

i had the same problem spent hours on the phone with different tech supports my cp is a vista home premium built by acer finally i got fed up and called acer customer support wanting vista removed and xp installed the girl that i spoke to was the one that finally helped fix my problem....... RESET OPERATING SYSTEM TO FACTORY DEFAULTS-When system reboots turn off automatic updates. for u people that installed vista yourself reinstall and turn off automatic updates. and yes turn off norton firewall. PS i will let uyou know if connection fails again
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January 24th, 2008 2:49am

I tried for 4 days before i solved it. I had a home network setup that was working fine until I installed an update form Norton. I used the removal tool found here to get rid of it. everything works fine now, I just dont have any anti-viruis software...
February 6th, 2008 1:00am

i have formatted several computers on vista and i have found out that wireless networking and norton do NOT get on especially OEM versions of norton , i installed norton retail on 1 pc got all updatesand everythingand works fine!, when i install OEM on it and get all updates , for some reason when i clean up my computer using , evidence eliminator, cleanup!,ATF Cleaner, after computer restarts it wont connect no more.I have done the same cleaning process on another machine but retail version of norton installed and after restart it works fine! weird, also i can confirm on the OEM system after uninstalling norton it works fine , then when i install it again , it works fine , seems to not work with OEM especially if you use the same cleaning tools as me weird but i no what the problem is now, its just trying to fix it anyone doing anything similar to me at all with the oem like deleting temp using programs? what i can say is DONT else it will like....'trip' norton OEM
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February 13th, 2008 1:47am

I think you may have something here. I know that Vista is incompatible with older versions of Symantec/Norton Antivirus and Vista periodically catches this on boot-up. I loaded the free Avast, ran fine for awhile and then started to get some random BSOD crashing on boot up. Since then I've uninstalled it. A by-product is that I've had no networking issues for the last week. Like you, I'm a little uneasy about running with anti-virus right now...
February 14th, 2008 4:22pm

I have a new Dell XPS M1530 laptop with Vista and have been experiencing *precisely* this problem - upon resume from sleep or hibernation, Vista will not detect the gateway address for the network. One thing that works *sometimes* is to open a Vista Command Prompt and manually release and renew your computer's IP address. If you want to try this, do the following steps: 1. Press "Winkey" + R 2. Type "CMD" and click "OK". A Vista Command Prompt should appear. 3. Type "ipconfig /release wireless*" and hit <ENTER>. 4. After #3 completes, type "ipconfig /renew wireless*" and hit <ENTER> 5. Note the wireless icon in the system tray; if the small "globe" artifact appears between the computers, your gateway has been detected. I have installed the KB article that pertains precisely to this problem and it did *not* help. On this *same* machine, which now dual-boots with XP, XP connects to the network each and every time *perfectly* Gotta love this "new and improved" OS... Thank heavens for XP. -David
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February 15th, 2008 7:36am

I did it! I found my solution! This all stemmed from me giving my wife my old G4 PPC Apple Powerbook so she would have her own laptop andI could get a newer computer. I guarantee this will work for everyone! Here's what I did, so stay with me here. I put my Vista based PC on ebay and sold it (unfortunately at a loss). I'm using the money I made selling that PoS to buy an AppleMacBook or MacBook Pro sometime next week (haven't decided which yet). I know it works because my old Powerbook can STILL connect to any Internet connection WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS. If I need to run any PoS M$ software (Pretty much NONE!) I will be installing XP via VMware Fusion or Parallels. PROBLEM SOLVED!!! Thanks Microsoft, I never would have thought of this solution if it weren't for your wonderful efforts with Vista. Great Job!! I look forward to renewing my experience with the superior Apple products. Who says Microsoft doesn't encourage competition, eh? Way to promote the other guy!
February 15th, 2008 8:03pm

ok my solution for me that works 100%, non of these stupid answers or commentsis :for me installing OEM version of symantec is fine on vista , getting updates is fine , but i DONT use any cleaning software except vista disk clean up , this solution for me works 100%installing symantecRETAIL for me has no effect what so ever even when i use third party cleaning software. So my conclusion for me that works 100% is that OEM symantec software has got problems when you install it on vista AND you use third party cleaning software. SO if you have any symantec softwareon your machineand vistaon, I.E you got a dell or compaq etc and it came with OEM version on it pre-installed... to fix this problem totally uninstall it of the system , download and run symrnt? or something the norton removal tool , make sure you get the latest 2008 version , use it, then restart , then run it again , use disk cleanup , get yourself , amust regsitry cleaner , run it , get yourself max registry cleaner , run it , get your self tune up utilities 2008 and run registry cleaner , run it (basically several registry cleaning software) defragment your computer, restart and get your self installer clean up , find any symantec or norton in the list and get rid of it , then install norton , this process will get that annoying 'tattoo' that symantec leaves THUS resulting in your network successfully connecting as long as you dont use any third party cleaning software.this for me works 100% guarnteed for me this works and is genuine, people using other internet security software or antivirus software give it a shot and see how you get on , but 1 thing i no for me is this works 100% , try it yourself uninstall your antivirus and firewall and do the clean up process as i explainedHope i help some of you people out , symantec is annoying to PROPERLY uninstall of your system iv had norton since the 2000 build
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February 16th, 2008 8:42pm

one thing i must add to my previous comment is that people who want to maintane vista in a good working order , get your self some basic maintance tools to keep it in tip top shape and error free , i use the following for cleaning up :Cleanup!ATF CleanerEvidence Eliminatorand i use the following to fix errors and maintain the registry :Amust Registry CleanerMax Registry CleanerTune Up utilities<Registry Cleaner>and i use Diskeeper to defragmentThe Local Access Error ICAN fix , andHAVE fixed! any people that want to chat to me or want to find out more give me a shout il be more then happy to help
February 16th, 2008 8:52pm

Fixing the OP problem should not be dependent upon installing half-a-dozen "tuning and maintenance" products. Microsoft has already acknowledged that this problem exists, and has attempted to solve at least one source of the problem through the knowledgebase article described earlier. Unfortunately, that did not solve the problem for me in my installation of Vista. There are apparently multiple causes of this problem, some of which may or may not stem from interaction with certain antivirus products. The greater frustration for me is that this problem is prevalent enough that its escapes me how it could have escaped pre-release testing. Wireless networks are hardly new anymore, and bringing a laptop out of sleep or hibernation is hardly a technological innovation. XP doesn't exhibit this problem when installed on *precisely* the same hardware. I'm sure that's a byproduct of the fact that Microsoft has entirely rewritten the IP stack for Vista. As it appears that MS has not been able to resolve this issue, one possible solution (which, admittedly, is rather drastic) is to roll your machine back to XP. My understanding is that every Vista license includesan implicit "downgrade" license to a corresponding version of XP. I have a laptop with a dual-boot configuration of Vista and XP, with the Vista "version" exhibiting precisely the behavior described in this thread. Conversely, when booted under XP and resumed from either sleep or hibernation, gateway information is *never* lost and connectivity is restored normally. For anyone on this thread who has found this problem untractable under Vista, and found no resolution, moving back to XP is at least an option to consider. -David
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February 16th, 2008 9:34pm

That's great for you. Better to not make presumptions about someone's "stupid answer" though. In my personal case, I experienced this problem from day one. I even removed the entire Security Suite. I too thought I had fixed it on several occasions. In most people's case the issue is sporadic. They aren't reduced to "Local Access" all the time. In fact I installed Microsoft's preferred Security Suite Live One Care. Guess what, problems still exists. One minutes I'm surfing along fine the next I have local access only. My comment is still a valid solution. If M$ is a company that REALLY cares about their customers, they wouldn't have put this PoS out. And by the sounds of the SP1 reviews, it's not going to get any better. By this and all the other *** I have to put up supporting their shoddy products, I'll stick with a company that's resided in the top 10 for Customer Satisfaction and Customer Support for the last 10 years; several of those between #1 and #5. My only real mistake was not trusting my instinct and allowing myself to spend the money on a product I knew wasn't worth the dough.
February 17th, 2008 1:15am

soonerdave wrote: Fixing the OP problem should not be dependent upon installing half-a-dozen "tuning and maintenance" products... The greater frustration for me is that this problem is prevalent enough that its escapes me how it could have escaped pre-release testing... As it appears that MS has not been able to resolve this issue, one possible solution (which, admittedly, is rather drastic) is to roll your machine back to XP... Absolutely David! Wi-fi connection in this day and age is paramount for any mobile person. It should have worked correctly out of the boxwithout exception. This is a serious oversight on their part and the entire QA department should be fired for this release. The fact that people still defend this product, is proof that Microsoft has taught people to accept mediocrity. They should have taken the money they spent on marketing and pumped it into development and testing! I would have preferred a "ho hum" campaign than the B$ parade they put on. "Where's your WOW?" It's certainly not here. For the "Sidegrade" (M$ terminology), you have to contact M$ directly now. Reseller's aren't allowed to ship the sidegrade discs. We ran into this with Dell since I am "Sidegrading" multiple systems at work because of all the issues this PoS has (believe me this is only the tip of the iceburg). Dell isn't even allowed to ship the CD's (Microsoft cancelled the shipment). People's desire to keep XP is proof that prettying up the GUI to keep people from jumping ship isn't the only thing you should concentrate. A lot of the changes I've seen now are "Change for change sake". The AdminPak for managing servers doesn't work correctly and even as an admin I get that freakin' stupid UAC. "You've come to a sad realization. Cancel or Allow?" is right.
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February 17th, 2008 1:36am

Michael Kleinpaste wrote: soonerdave wrote: Fixing the OP problem should not be dependent upon installing half-a-dozen "tuning and maintenance" products... The greater frustration for me is that this problem is prevalent enough that its escapes me how it could have escaped pre-release testing... As it appears that MS has not been able to resolve this issue, one possible solution (which, admittedly, is rather drastic) is to roll your machine back to XP... Absolutely David! Wi-fi connection in this day and age is paramount for any mobile person. It should have worked correctly out of the boxwithout exception. This is a serious oversight on their part and the entire QA department should be fired for this release. The fact that people still defend this product, is proof that Microsoft has taught people to accept mediocrity. They should have taken the money they spent on marketing and pumped it into development and testing! I would have preferred a "ho hum" campaign than the B$ parade they put on. "Where's your WOW?" It's certainly not here. For the "Sidegrade" (M$ terminology), you have to contact M$ directly now. Reseller's aren't allowed to ship the sidegrade discs. We ran into this with Dell since I am "Sidegrading" multiple systems at work because of all the issues this PoS has (believe me this is only the tip of the iceburg). Dell isn't even allowed to ship the CD's (Microsoft cancelled the shipment). People's desire to keep XP is proof that prettying up the GUI to keep people from jumping ship isn't the only thing you should concentrate. A lot of the changes I've seen now are "Change for change sake". The AdminPak for managing servers doesn't work correctly and even as an admin I get that freakin' stupid UAC. "You've come to a sad realization. Cancel or Allow?" is right. Michael, I think MS has a three-fold problem with Vista. First, it's a commercial failure. For all the spin they put on it, you'll never make be believe it is as successful as MS, in its deep, dark meeting rooms, wanted and needed it to be. Yes, they trump how many million copies are in the wild, but we all know the biggest percentage are those bought through OEM's that don't have much of an alternative - and at least two manufacturers are thumbing their nose at MS by continuing to offer some flavor of XP alternative (Dell and NEC). Second, MS doesn't know what to *do* about the first problem, and it has them in a catch-22. Do you fix the problems that seem to be imperiling its success, or do you fast-foward to the next iteration of the same product and hope it catches fire? It looks for all the world like SP1 is really just the kind of basic refinement MS should have put on the product before it was released. Third, howdoes a companywho's throwing $46B at Yahoo plan tomanage and fix a desktop OSproduct that seems to have so many basic problems, particularly in the networking space? This sleep/hibernation issue isn't the only networking problem Vista has; go browse a few thousand threads about Vista's file transfer performance for some epithets that will REALLY give you awarm glow. I don't know that MS really appreciates just how much frustration Vista is inducing. Sorry, I'm wandering off topic.But sometimes I get the feeling if Vista were a ship, if I ran to the bridge I'd find no captain. There's no direction. In my opnion, Vista has to succeed - and succeed soon - or else you will see Windows 7 accelerated to market faster, and arguably more recklessly,than any other OS in Microsoft's history. I guess that's why that previous post about "install these basic maintenance tools...(blah blah blah)" really irritated me. There has to be an expectation that Microsoft can fix basic functionality in its operating system. Considering this thread has been open for close to six months, I guess perhaps that expectation is increasingly unrealistic. It is to boggle the mind. Meanwhile, the rest of us here on this thread are still wondering if MS can figure out how to bring a laptop out of hibernation and back onto a network.....MS, are you listening? -David
February 17th, 2008 2:53am

Oh, you don't have to convince me. Granted I came from the Linux camp and only support M$ because the powers that be don't understand that it doesn't have to be M$. So, I'm a little biased because I've learned to look past the "Windows". Pun intended. I'll give that Linux is definately not desktop ready, but it is getting closer. I'd almost put it at XP SP1 level. I converted to Mac almost 5 years ago when I learned that it's subsystem is Unix. I did a 1 1/2 years research before making the jump. Now that I've seen how an OS shouldoperate it's frustrating as heck dealing with the failings of M$ products. I see it every day and Vista literally P!ss3s me off repeatedly every day. While in the 4+ years that I've had my Powerbook I've had only 1 OS problem where a patch disabled the "Airport" wireless card. The patch was out the next day and fixed it right up. I have NEVER had that kind of a satisfactory experience with anyWindows iteration. As an IT Manager, I am plagued daily by the inadequacies and mediocre implementaion that Micro$haft products delivers; server or workstation. They need to stick to Office. It's the only one they do well.
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February 17th, 2008 5:32am

How I wish people wouldn't post here unless the post is relavant to the issue. Everytime I get a forum alert my hopes go up that a solution is pending and then it's just somebody grinding an old ax or comparing operating systems. The problem being discussed here is Vista Operating System setting wireless network access to Local Only, thus making it impossible to connect to the Internet. Period. If you don't have something to share that might solve the problem, take your MAC vs PC, Windows vs Linux discussions private. If I sound pissy, I am today. Who ever in their right mind designed computer towers with all the weight at the top? Who thought it was a good idea to put USB ports at the BACK? I am so sick and tired of being on all fours trying to get "removeable" (that's a joke)USB devices plugged in, dragging this tower in and out from under the desk, having it fall off it's trolly and on to it's side that I could spit.
February 18th, 2008 8:00pm

ok this is what you need to do , uninstall any antivirus AND firewall, restart your pc , does it seem to connect now again with the globe? afterwards reinstall all your antivirus and firewall and get all updates. This works 100% tested it and done on 3 machines and 5 for my friends as well works fine so far. All it is asking for is 20mins of your time to uninstall any antivirus and firewall then restart and reinstall it and get updates. This works 100% and is a FIX ( if you have any antivirus and firewall software installed) untill microsoft release a patch. DO NOT change any setting in your networking like unticking ip6 etc... keep everything ALL the same.
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February 18th, 2008 10:44pm

H2Hax wrote: ok this is what you need to do , uninstall any antivirus AND firewall, restart your pc , does it seem to connect now again with the globe? afterwards reinstall all your antivirus and firewall and get all updates. This works 100% tested it and done on 3 machines and 5 for my friends as well works fine so far. All it is asking for is 20mins of your time to uninstall any antivirus and firewall then restart and reinstall it and get updates. This works 100% and is a FIX ( if you have any antivirus and firewall software installed) untill microsoft release a patch. DO NOT change any setting in your networking like unticking ip6 etc... keep everything ALL the same. Just to add ,this works for WIRELESS and ETHERNET!
February 18th, 2008 10:46pm

I had the same issue for the past 3 days. I tried disabling ipv6, DHCP Broadcast, enabling/disabling the NIC, changing network type to Private from Public in Network and Sharing Center, etc. It seemed everytime I changed to Private it would end up back at Public. Here's what I did to resolve it: 1. Go to System Control Panel 2. Under "Computer name, domain, and workgroup setting" select "Change Settings" 3. The system will prompt you for the network type: Home, Business and Public 4. Select Home My system immediately connected to my network and everything has been kosher since. Hope this helps somebody out there.
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February 22nd, 2008 3:25am

I solved my "Local access only" problem by: Stop Vista Firewall at Start / Computer (click right mouse button) / Manage / Services and Application / Services / Windows Firewall / Stop Request ip-address at cmd.exe / ipconfig -renew Restart Vista Firewall (There may be some errors in the above terminology, because it is my translation from the Finnish GUI.) So in my case HP laptop Vista Firewall is blocking DHCP-requests. I can also specifically see from the security event log, that firewall is blocking packets related to ports 67 and 68, which are used by DHCP. I have my laptop in a domain environment and I get my firewall rules from the group policy, so I have only limited control overthe firewall. I should study more carefully firewall rules from the group policy editor, when I have more time for this. However at this point there seems to be some strange issues with the firewall: I dont have any problems with the same DHCP-service, if I am connected to the network with an Ethernet cable instead of WLAN. Firewall rules should be the same in both situations. (Sometimes I have seen the same problem also with a cable after switching cable from one network to another.) Not all Vista laptops in the same domain are experiencing the same problem. After using several weeks my WLAN successfully, the problem started unexpectedly. I am not aware of any modifications to firewall rules. I hope this may help someone with the same problem.
February 27th, 2008 5:19pm

I dont have Norton and I have not been able to connect though my WLAN for a wile (worked fine for about a day 2 weeks ago)Now I have the same problem with the LAN.This seems to be a general problem, there are millions of hits on this on the web, and people are spending hours upon hours tying to connect using this half baked junk.I'm never buying anything from this company again, not ever. Can't imagine that the millions that have the same problem will eighther.
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March 2nd, 2008 4:44am

Boy and Girlsits official -Wireless& internet accesson home laptop!!!!... I've been cabled off my router (deskbound)since last yr, occasioanlly wasting a nights effortsattempting to get wireless working. Last night I did the following: InstalledSP1 for Vista (leave running for a good hour or so!) Applied the three other updates that were availableafter I did the SP removed IPv6 from my wirless network card properties Disabled DHCP assigningon my wirless router Manuallyset: IP S/n Mask Default G/W Also manuallyset dns servers AS myISP DNS servers. I alsouse WEPsecurity. once Icompleted this I setup a wiress connection for internet and bobs your uncle I was surfin USA! thought I'd share what worked with mefor you guys, hopingitworks for someone else.. HAPPY EASTER!
March 20th, 2008 5:53pm

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March 23rd, 2008 1:14am

I have my doubts that this is a Norton problem. I was using Microsoft OneCare and I had the same problem. I got sick and tired of OneCare hosing up my system, and uninstalled it followed up by the OneCare cleanup utility. After that, I had to recover to find my CD/DVD drives, but that's another story. I tested without any security software other than the builtin firewall, and the problem presisted. Now I have Norton 360, and although I still get local access only on my wireless, at least I have decent security protection. I've been lugging around a 50 foot CAT5e cable for when I need to get on the Internet. Ah, the joy of mobility. p.s., After having Vista Ultimate for 14 months, with one month on SP1, I'm still using XP Pro as my production OS.
March 26th, 2008 9:51pm

Thank God I've found this thread. My sister just received a Dell Inspiron laptop with Vista Home Premium with the intentionof going wireless, but the damn thing is stuck on 'Local' access only! The router is brand newfrom BT Home Hub and "Vista compatible". Spent several hours between BT support, removing programs, installing drivers and finally a complete reformat.It seems the only thing Vista is good at isquick reinstalls! It's a real pity Dell stopped supplying XP. But... The laptop did pick up a neighbouring router and managed to connect intermittently. Often it was local access, but occasionally provided 'local and internet'. So I guess Vista is refusing to cooperate with the BT router, however BT don't want anything to do with this and I'm on my own in searching for an answer. Vista is an utter sham.
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March 27th, 2008 4:01pm

Try this: disconnect from your wireless connection. In your router, if you currently have no encryption on, enable WPA-TKIP and create a password. Connect with your wireless client (desktop or notebook) again and when asked the passphrase type the password you created. After a few seconds you should be allowed on the internet. If you already have WPA enabled on your router, try changing to WPA2-AES, create a new password and reconnect. This soultion worked for me. Godd luck.
March 29th, 2008 7:24am

Vista sucks - but have a solution which worked for me on an HP Pavillion: Load Vista Service Pack 1 (available on the Microsoft web site) Disconnect wireless network Get into your network settings via the control panel. Uncheck IPv6 Go to propreties of IPv4 Select use IP address Enter in IP address of router, for the last numerics insert a different number, e.g. if router access address is 12.0.0.2 enter 12.0.0.20 as the IP address, submask will auto fill (if have other computers accessing router use 21, 22, 23 etc) DNS - enter your servie provider's addresses Restart wireless connection and hopefully you now no longer have Local Access only In essence it appears as if Vista does not "autodetect" IP addresses Good luck
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March 29th, 2008 5:16pm

Thank-you Happy Bunny - worked for me - I am now one to!
March 29th, 2008 5:33pm

I just receive my laptop about 1 week ago and I too am having the same problem with Vista and wireless connection "Locall access only". (should have read you post before I purchased the system) I am reading the posts and though I applaud you all on thesuggestions on how to fix this problem , I think that it is very unfair that we the customers have to figure out the problem. WE PURCHASE A PRODUCT, WE SPEND OUR HARD EARN MONEY,SO IT SHOULD BE A GOOD PRODUCT THAT WORKS, NOT ONE THAT YOU HAVE TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO . THIS IS RIDICULOUS THAT WE HAVE TO FIGURE OUT THE PROBLEM. I don't know about you all butI am no computer expert, soI don't believe thatI should have to deal with this problem or have to paya computer technician extra to figure out the problem and they still can't figure it out. SoI am still stuck with a sytem thatI can't use . I think that it is about time that Dell deal with this problem. If they can't address the problem, I will say like someone else posted , this product should be recalled and we shoud all get a refundto purchase agood system that works.This is just too ridiclious and they should be mindful of the number of disgruntledcustomers.
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April 3rd, 2008 3:41am

Netgear router? (or other)Change the router settings to g+b only. Voila, instant IP to the vista box.
April 9th, 2008 10:26am

Havoke wrote: I concur My laptop was purchased in August of this year (07) the experience with the laptop is great (Alienware always wanted one), the wireless does not work; has not, will not stay connected under any conditions. I have some input into this as little as it may be, check your network adapter in device manager. I have an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network card internal to this laptop. Does anyone have an external USB network adapter running with the same problem occurring? I was contemplating buying an external network adapter to see if this would solve the issue, but after looking for one many are of course not compatible with vista What is wrong with this OS? Why was it forced out when it is obvious that it is not ready for release? I tried the last suggestion of turning off the systems ability to turn off the network adapter to save energy to no avail, still not resume a wireless connect (even just local after it resumes out of sleep or hibernate. MeH. No one from Microsoft will do anything any faster because of this or any post Microsoft new about this issue how many months ago? They just cant fix it! Just hurry the ____ up! I hate having a nice new laptop that is not wireless WTF! I recently purchased a laptop with the same network adapter you have and after about a week of pulling my hair out, being angry at anything and everything I have the exact same problem that the rest of you have described. Havoke, after not getting anywhere with the internal network adapter, the same one you have (Intel Pro Wireless 3945abg),I did hook up and external network adapter (linksys) and it didn'y change a thing. Still got "local only" So if it helps, don't spend money on one. Some of the changes I tried to make were disabling the Intel adapter, but when I did that it took all the SSID's with it. I went as far as walking around the house trying to see if it would change and it actually did change to "local and Internet" for about 10 seconds. I thought I had something there, but the unfortunate thing was I was walking down a stairway when it hooked up. I've literally wasted a week playing with thisgarbage and dont plan on doing it anymore. How do you delete VISTA anyway, if a person wanted to do that and install Windows XP. Seems like the best fix, unless Billy and hisBrain Trust,figure out a fix, real soon. Instead of wasting all this time again, I was thinking of taking a week and setting up a "class action lawsuit" Someone said there's alot of money up there in Redmond.
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April 20th, 2008 2:11pm

fanfarenj wrote: the thing to do is check all parameters on the wireless network that works (your friend's) and compare them against your home network. There are 11 wireless channels, so it is sometimes recommended to try to a different channel number. if your channel now is 1 try 6 or10; if it is now 11 try 6 or 2. Being in California I read where channels 1, 6, and 11 were the proper ones to use in this area. Tried those as well as the rest and nothing changed.
April 20th, 2008 3:17pm

Wince the Wiking wrote: I tried for 4 days before i solved it. I had a home network setup that was working fine until I installed an update form Norton. I used the removal tool found here to get rid of it. everything works fine now, I just dont have any anti-viruis software... I'm a firm believer that when you get all this AntiVirus Software that somes bundled with an Operating System, that continually pops up at every start, and takes hours to uninstall, and then you have to take a survey of why youre uninstallingit, theres gonna be trouble. Norton is garbage...... If you want a great antivirus free software, try "AVAST" Just google it and you get the address. It's free for six months, then just renew it again for free. Mike.......
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April 20th, 2008 3:36pm

Hey guys,I've been having this problem and i've tried setting static IP's, disabling ipv6, etc..What worked for me was checking out the router settings. I looked at the mac addresses and there was an option that was enabled that said "Turn MAC filtering ON". It might be different for you depending on your router.I disabled the MAC filtering and VOILA! The internet worked JUST FINE. Hopefully this helps a lot of people out.
April 24th, 2008 10:15pm

Hello all, I have fixed this problem on a couple of my companies PC's running Vista SP1. Only found this solution yesterday so I don't know if it will hold up. I was reading an article that told me to create a new registry entry called DhcpConnEnableBcastFlag (it's linked a few pages back in this thread). This didn't fix the problem but when I checked to see if my entry was still there after reboot, I noticed another item called DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag. I set this to 0 for my wireless adapter and hey presto - I'm getting the correct Subnet mask and IP address (I was getting a wrong subnet mask and an IP address for a totally different subnet before). In regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\(your wireless network adapter) Set DWORD DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag to 0 No idea how to tell which one is your wireless adapter so I just set this value to zero for all adapters (as wireless is the only one that will get used). Don't know why or how it worked or if it causes any other problems but it did work. As soon as I did this, it popped up a window asking if the network is private or public. Now I get a correct IP address from my router and access to internet is ok. Hope this helps someone out there!!
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April 25th, 2008 12:14pm

Thanks to all for posting and sharing your info regarding this issue. This thread is the best and most informative so far what I've found on the net.I'm experiencing similar problem.I'm running Vista SP1, my wireless internet connection drops to local only every minute.What I've done:1. I disabled the encription on the router - didn't help2. I applied a manual fix in the registry - didn't help3. I disabled TCP/IP v6 - didn't help4. I uninstalled/installed SP1 - didn't helpI borrowed another laptop and was able to connect to my router without any problems. The connection was stable. So there is a problem with my laptop running Vista.What I've noticed.1. If I take a file from another computer and copy it over the network into my laptop then I surf internet for 2 hours non-stop.2. I reboot my laptop. I have a problem. The connection drops every minute to local only. and then gets established to local and internet. I do copy a file over the network - and I'm able to surf internet for 1 hour.It seems to me somethings gets blocked and copying the file triggers an event which resolves the problem with intermittent internet connection.I have a SONY VAIO latop running Vista SP1.your input is appreciated.
April 28th, 2008 5:31pm

I had the local access only problem suddenly appear on my PC today, and spent approx 4 hours before identifying the issue. First of all, let me point out that in my case it was over a wired ethernet connection, not wireless, but I believe the issue may apply equally to all, so here goes. My PC had been working fine, but I left it on over the last 24 hours. When i got back from work, I woke it up from it's suspended state, and it wouldn't connect to the internet anymore. After spending lots of time using my other PC to find possible causes, I read that when Vista awakens from sleep/suspend, it may not be able to recover the network adapters. So, the solution was:1. go to device manager -> network adaptors -> right click on each "properties", go to "power management" tab, and uncheck the box that allows windows to control the power state for each interface.2. hard power down the machine (Hold power button until machine stops - usually about 7 seconds before windows reacts, then about 2 more for the machine to stop dead)3. unplug and switch the machine off for long enough for any capacitors to drain (I waited about 15 seconds)4. power back up, selecting the start windows normally option For the record, the machine in question was running Vista Home Premium SP1 64bitHope that helps some of you
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May 3rd, 2008 3:03am

As silly as it sounds my problem is identical to yours. I walk outside or any other place and mine connects immediately, without a problem. But in my home, a connection is impossible. I sure am tired of wasting countless hours hoping something with work.Mike in Southern California.
May 4th, 2008 1:33pm

Any resolution to this problem MS guys? This is really frustrating. Every one hour or so the internet connection on my Vista Ultimate (recently installed) laptop drops - funny thing is sometimes it keeps on showing "Local and Internet" yet isn't able to browse internet and sometimes it shows Local Only. Tried most of the options on this forum. Nothing seems to be working. Can someone from MS please give a definite solution to this? It is surprising to see there are so many threads on this topic and yet there is not a solution to this problem. Also please do not tell me I have to upgrade my router because I installed vista. That is just ridiculous. Thanks.
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May 5th, 2008 10:32pm

I just got a Linksys G wireless router 4 days ago to go with my HP Pavillion DV6000 laptop with Vista Ultimate installed and with no sucess. However I did manage to see Local and Internet only once, for 10 seconds, the longest time ive ever been on wireless. Ive tried some of the suggested ways in solving this, Vista SP1 - 64 bit OS, Updating Router Drivers, Changing channels, deactivating and reactivate IPv4 and IPv6, giving it different securities keys WPA, WEP. Ive tried router changes, G - only, B - only, and Mixed, renewing my IP Address, specifically puting in my IP Address, Subnet Mask and DNS. Nothing..Also, does anyone know if your able to hook up a wireless router on top of an currently existing ethernet router? This is currently how I have it.DSL -----> Linksys Ethernet Router ------> Linksys Wireless Router ----> LaptopAny suggestions will be appreciated.
May 9th, 2008 10:34pm

In Adress to KW-AdamH's post.. The Ideal wireless setup shld be this way.. ISP/DSL>>> Modem>>>Wireless Router>>>>NB(Note Book) Now There are some routers in the market which have a built in modem. Eg 2Wire. Now As far as your wireless issue is concerned, it has been a major issue and acause of uproar with vista users.. There are a copule of things that I would like you to check first.. Which wireless card u have in the NB? Check in device manager.. if your wireless card is detected under network adapters.. And if there is any unidentified devices with yellow mark. Check if your wireless button in the front is blue... Coz, DV 6000s are known to have this issue.. specially NBs manufactured with IntelPro and BroadCom Wireless Cards. I can tell youthis coz,I am an Hewlett Packerd Employee. So If u see the card not to be there, immidiately call your support line.. Coz Its definately HW issue.. If That Seems to Be OK, Then Your Problem is one of the vista Issues that Millions across the globe are facing.. I had the "Access Local Only" problem on my system too.. Now here are a few things u can try after instaling and uninstalling every things.. Go to the Link.. http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/welcome.html#Support Check the product num P/N No. from the bottom of your NB.. Select Vista in the nxt page.. Update the network drivers, chipset drivers, and BIOS(Pls follow the instructions carefully for this).. Then keep your router in B & G mode.. If you have a Statis IP, Disable IP V6.. Select B&G in the wireless card properties too.. Make sure the Chnnel Number in your wireless card properties and router page are the same.. Preferrably 6,9 or 11. Make sure the MAC Filtering is disabled.( Do this by hooking up with cable) IF nnothing works, then since your Nb is brand New, You can try doing a complete recovery on your NB. You will have to press F11 at startup.. select advanced options >>> system recovery>>>Next. Let Me knw if you require any thing else..
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May 10th, 2008 11:19pm

Thanks Shad0wFax, actually I forgot too include my Webstar Modem after the DSL. Anyway my HP looks fine it was actually my Static DNS setup up on my router. I did do all those thing by the way, which I think helped. I got my NB Local and Internet. This works: DSL >>> Modem >>> Wireless Router >>> NB PCOnly thing is, I cant leave it like this because of the other computer are not wireless and need the ethernet router. Is there anyway I can run my wireless through the ethenet router? Or is there a device that can make 2 hookups to my modem without going through a lan router? Has anyone ever tried it before, im just trying to extend the reach of my wireless service and locate my wireless router somewhere accesible. Im able to get Local only when running throught the other router. DSL --- Modem ---- Ethernet Router ---- Wireless ---- NBBut needless to say I'm able to get online thanks.
May 12th, 2008 5:24am

So i had the problem but i worked out a solution with first making the wired connection and wireless connection working seperately Go to the manage network connectionsand see that none of the two wireless or wired adapter is being shared then select both these and rightclick and select bridge connections Your internet will start to work on your laptop but onemoreadvice set the ip of the network wireless adapter in desktop pc as 192.168.0.1(before bridging) and let the it be automatic in your laptop. this will connect the network fast. I have successfully ran internet on my laptop with this way but i cant see on laptopthe files that i have shared on my desktop pc but i can access my laptop shared files on desktop easily (i m working on this, this isnt a big problem as this has occurred to me while connecting vista and xp via wire) Well before applying the above procedures make sure you havent made and abnormal changes regarding your wireless adapter settings if you have done make them to defaults And if this wont work try to turn off firewall on both the computers (widows firewall + external e.g mcafee) Note my scenario is like this Desktop Pc =XP = Connected to internet via broadband router + ethernet modem (both in one)laptop = vista = connected to desktop via ad-hoc wireless connection
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May 12th, 2008 3:30pm

I, like the rest of us, have the same problem although my problem also exists when I use a wired connection. My setup is : Router --> Watchguard Firewall --> Switch --> Wired we also have wireless from the wireless Firewall, this way we can choose which to use. I get Local Only on wired or Wireless. Looks like i am going to have to go back to XP.
May 13th, 2008 3:54pm

I have seen this problem on several laptops at several locations with different configurations. When you first initiate a "new" connection with the network adapter Vista asks if the this home, work or public and if you chose Home or work, then it labels as safe and connects to internet. I am writing on a laptop that I restored factory settings and still couldn't connect untill I went to another location and connected to their network and I got the question of what type of netwrok, I chose Work (Private) and it connected without any issues. There has to be a way in Visat to change the LOCAL ONLY to LOCAL AND INTERNET. Does anyone knows how to change that or maybe reinitiate the wizard where Visat asks to what kind of network is this?
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May 14th, 2008 3:28am

I replied to another thread on how I finally got my Vista 64 to connect to my wireless successfully. This was a solution for me, hopefully it would work with someone else too.I recently just purchased a new HP Pavilion notebook with Vista 64 installed and had problems connecting to my home wireless network with a Linksys WRT54G. I got many errors, including "wireless association failed due to an unknown reason", problem still exists, etc., and then sometimes would connect but only be local access and/or limited connectivity.After much researching, here are some things I tried after reading many solutions:Updated driver for my Broadcom adapaterUpdated firmware for my routerTried to set static IP addressDisabled the Norton *** that was preinstalledMade exceptions to my Windows Firewall for anything networking and routing relatedEdited my registry according to this Microsoft solution: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us But, ultimately the thing that worked was to set my router to only broadcast in G, and I changed it to broadcast in channel 11 from channel 6. It may have been a combination of things I previously tried or just the simple thing of changing it to G-only and changing the channel. Who knows. At least it works... for now. *fingers crossed*
May 14th, 2008 7:35pm

I am going to try this suggestion in the registry from a few entries back in this forum.In regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\(your wireless network adapter). Set DWORD DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag to 0 I am reading this and other forums hoping the problem was with a Linksys router, but it appears all brands of routers are affected. Both wired and wireless have the same "Access: Local Only" problem, so it is nothing to do with being B+G, B only or G only WiFi. I know XP with SP2 didn't work with WEP, so I am using WPA-2 (which didn't help) and now WPA. The possible solution, as was also stated in this forum a few entries back is to be able to clear all stored settings re connections and start again (without reinstalling Vista). Yes, the latest patches are installed - through a neighbouring unsecured WiFi network - yet this same Vista laptop won't connect to required (and business owned) Linksys router wired or wirelessly!!! Of course the other XP machines in the office all connect flawlessly through WiFi to the same router. A search in Google for the words "vista access local only" shows this issue goes back more than 6 months, yet I am surprised that Microsoft has not responded properly with a solution. Shame on you Micro$oft!!! A small business should not have to upgrade all it WiFi's (and wired) access points just because the one new PC is running on Vista. I am a self-employed IT contractor, and struggling to keep my house away from the bank. This has cost me 3 working days which I cannot afford - and I wont be able to charge my client. If any lawyer is thinking of a class action suite, please count me in. skris88 email: skris88@gmail.com
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May 15th, 2008 4:54pm

I've got same problem, DELL LATITUDE 120L, VISTA ULTIMATE SP1, BROADCOM 802.11 card,& Belkin 54g router, however last night i manage to connect it to the internet bytrying different solution provided by this thread. Things that i've done : 1. Check my antivirus firewall if its blocking my wireless connection(I found it sets to INBOUND ONLY, change it to FULLY ALLOWED) 2. Check windows firewall is not blocking it as well. 3. I used static ip rather than dynamic, cause when i type IPCONFIG /ALL under dynamic it shows that my wireless ip is out ofrange on my router ip addresses, that's the reason why it can't connect on it. That's why iset it to static. 4. I disable the ethernet connection. 4.Remove othernetwork connection available on my laptop. CONNECTION SUCCESS! It can detect my WLAN straight on without any problem. I turn off my wireless card and off for several times and found no more problem. I turned off my computer and on again and it connect on my WLAN straight away. The only problem is its quite a bit slow, but the connection never drops. Does anyone knows what i've missing? that makes my connection slows down? Any help i appreciate.. Thanks...
May 18th, 2008 9:27pm

I think i finally solve my problem. After configuring my pc to static address, and configure my router not to broadcast DHCP(manual assigning of ip on each device) which later i've faced problem on my other wifi enabled device aside from having slow connection. My final decision, reset my router to factory default and change all of my wifi enabled device including my laptop to AUTOMATICALLY OBTAINED IP but leave all of MS Hotfix settings that i modified untouch at the end my connection are perfect and everything are back to normal like i'm using my old pc under windows xp. By the way i set different name on each network adapter. Hope this experience of mine help others facing difficulties on wireless network using VISTA... Thanks to all!
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May 20th, 2008 2:03am

Right here i'am again, back to drawing board because my machine respond weird again. But this time definitely things will work forever for me. I found out that my wifi card(broadcom) is not properly working. I test a usb wireless, works perfect! I borrowed my friends laptop wifi card, brilliant response! Solution, need to change my wifi card. Bought a new one pre-n MIMO, waiting to be deliver. I'll let everyone knows what will happen next... Definitely i'm really surfing in lightning speed.. ABOVE and BEYOND..
May 22nd, 2008 1:54am

CAUSE:The presence of a firewall, in my case ZoneAlarm.SOLUTION:Totally uninstall the custom firewall, turn the Windows Vista Firewall on. Solved the problem.QUIRKS:The red "X" still shows up (Local Only) once in a while between "Network Name" and "Internet", but has no effect on connectivity. The name of the network changes (oh brother!) from the actual name, to linksys, to unknown network randomly (!).ANTI VIRUS:Avast anti virus present and working fine.ANALYSIS:It is 3rd party security tools which cause this. Uninstall 3rd party security tools one by one until the internet conn. works without interruption.americangoy
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June 1st, 2008 4:51pm

The key to this "solution" is the phrase, "in my case." I'm glad your solution worked for you but in MY case, I am not running a third party firewall. I have stripped my OS down to the basic Windows Vista Home with no other software installed, not even an anti-virus. I cannot connect to the internet using the wireless capabilities of my brand new laptop. Vista happily connects to my router but stops there, giving me local acess only. We've installed and uninstalled THREE diferent routers, two G series and one N series and it's made zero difference. I am so frustrated as the sole purpose of purchasing the laptop was to be able to get on line wirelessly. At least laptop prices have dropped to the point where I've thrown away $500 instead of $1500. And I cuda bought a MAC.
June 1st, 2008 7:55pm

If anyone's wants help on the issue, i'll be glad to help you can contact meet me online on msn msngr 05-june-2008 8:00pm GMTasadlarik3@hotmail.comI am using my laptop to wirelwssly connect to my desktop which is connected to the router via cablemy desktop is xp and laptop is vistaultimately i am using internet on my laptop by bridging connections in the desktop cpmputer
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June 5th, 2008 3:18pm

If anyone's wants help on the issue, i'll be glad to help you can contact meet me online on msn msngr 05-june-2008 8:00pm GMTasadlarik3@hotmail.comI am using my laptop to wirelessly connect to my desktop which is connected to the router via cablemy desktop is xp and laptop is vistaultimately i am using internet on my laptop by bridging connections in the desktop computer
June 5th, 2008 3:21pm

Just to add another case to this issue. The problem arose when I installed SP1 for Vista. Firstly I disabled my VMWARE adapters and that seemed to solve the issue but only for 10 mins. I tried several of the suggestions in the thread but none seemed to work. Although manuallyentering the IPv4 settings almost did the trick. But I had no dns servers available, and using OpenDNS didn't work. I solved the problem permanently - I hope - by uninstalling ZoneAlarm and enabling the Windows Firewall. I then reinstalled ZoneAlarm and my Wireless Internet connection still works!! I use AVG Antivirus and Ad-aware but they weren't causing any problems. The wireless router is D-Link 624+ Good luck to all of you trying to cope with this annoying error;-) Personally I think M$ should have responded with patches much sooner than they have...or haven't yet??
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June 10th, 2008 10:05pm

THE SOLUTIONhttp://norton-removal-tool.softonic.com/ NORTON REMOVAL TOOL... RUN IT ... AND BE HAPPY.hello wolrd!!
June 29th, 2008 6:54am

CrystalChic wrote: WHAT A WASTE OF OUR TIME & OUR $$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So after purchasing, what we think & hope, is a wonderful brand new computer, and probably buying it because we are aggravated and annoyed from our other/older computer(s)....we end up finding out that what we really bought was nothing but a headache, a time waster, and an expen$ive, supposedly"high tech"computer that's greatest asset is to aggravate, frustrate, & annoy us. And remember, we gave our $ for this. So, in essence, we didn't just give our $ away, we purchase DEFECTIVE MERCHANDISE. MICROSOFT SHOULD RECALL ALL COMPUTERS/LAPTOP COMPUTERSWITH VISTA + GIVE US FREE TECH SUPPORT + THE OPTION OF SWITCHING TOWINDOWS XP. THAT WOULD BE FAIR & MAYBE RESTORE SOME OF OUR FAITH IN MICROSOFT. I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE WAY THINGS WORKED WHEN ANY COMPANY MANUFACTURED & SOLD DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS TO THE CONSUMER. I'm using a Gateway ML-3109, 2g ram, Vista Home Basic and a Realtek 8185 wireless adapter. The wireless driver that shipped with the laptop has been updated now I think 5x with "upgrades" from Windows update. None of the new drivers have solved the problem of poor wireless connection speeds, random connection drops, losing the wireless connection when awakening from "sleep" and poor signal strength readings even 3' from the router! I went so far as upgrading the router firmware to dd-wrt so that I could overclock the router and crank up the router's transmitter output. Didn't help. VISTA really stinks! While Realtek may be partially responsible for the buggy drivers I've had so many other VISTA challenges that I am ready to wipe all my vista machines (1 desktop and 4 laptops) in favor of Debian. Can't afford to buy six new Apples unless I sell my car. Almost to that point.
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July 1st, 2008 9:23am

Same problem here-- 3 week old laptop running Vista 32. It was connecting to wireless fine, then just stopped dead,no software installed, settings changed or firewalls running etc. it worked - then it dident. Ehxausted all suggested options of solutions provided my Microsoft tech etc.. I have been a loyal customer of Microsoft products for 20 years.. I am fed up of the bugs and lack of support. Today I bit the bullet.. I went out and purchased my first Mac.
July 19th, 2008 11:39pm

July 20th update: After upgrading my Linksys wrt54gs firmware to dd-wrt v.24, my ML-3109 laptop's realtek 8185 wireless connection does seem to be more stable but still fails after the computer goes to sleep. I have tweaked the power management settings in device manager to no avail. When the laptop awakens, the wireless connection is there for about 15 seconds then is dropped. "Repair" doesn't work. Pathetic. I should not have to reboot the PC. The whole idea of "sleep" is for the darn thing to wake up in the exact same state as when it dozed off. A little off topic but still Microsoft - since the dd-wrt upgrade my son reports his xbox 360 has to be re-configured now evertime he turns the xbox off and back on again. It doesn't remember settings. I know, I know - different forum. It's just annoying that an IT professional such as myself has to spend the better part of his days off trying to keep his mostly Microsoft home network afloat. Good thing the kids aren't in school right now and there are no school projects looming. Finally got my Son to go for a dual boot XP-Kanotix installation. His previous XP install had become seriously infected it was unsalvageable.Yeah Microsoft! Another lost customer!
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July 21st, 2008 7:56am

I have tried everything and am wiling to try anything. I have already had to restore my computer back to factory setting three times which works for a few months and then all of a sudden it stops working again. I have alsodone the Norton and Macafee removal tool,and reset my internet settings. I just don't know what else to do. Has anyone found a perm solutions?
July 22nd, 2008 7:18pm

I had the same problem as everyone. The fault is not with your router, anti virus program, or windows well sort of not. The reason why you are having connection problems is that your ethernet port doesn't have drivers which will allow it to work on vista. It took me quite some time to figure this out. If you cant find vista compatible driver than you can do one of two things. buy a pci ethernet Lan card that is vista compatible or buy a motherboard that has vista compatible Lan drivers. The latter is much more expensive. I hope I helped you out.
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July 23rd, 2008 2:27pm

Jkmatt wrote: I had the same problem as everyone. The fault is not with your router, anti virus program, or windows well sort of not. The reason why you are having connection problems is that your ethernet port doesn't have drivers which will allow it to work on vista. It took me quite some time to figure this out. If you cant find vista compatible driver than you can do one of two things. buy a pci ethernet Lan card that is vista compatible or buy a motherboard that has vista compatible Lan drivers. The latter is much more expensive. I hope I helped you out. Thanks for the suggestion. Which route did you end up going?
July 23rd, 2008 6:03pm

ANOTHER SOLUTION:OK, After having the same problem myself with wireless access only on a brand new laptop with Vista installed.I had tried every suggestion in this thread and more to no avail I installed hotfixes etc ... still dident work.Here is what eventually did work for me:In my wireless routers setting menu - the one you can access by typing the modems IP address into the browser(It will show you what the IP number to enter is in the routers manual, if you are unsure)Anyway..There was an option to 'Restore Default Settings' I was reluctant to try it as I hadent changed anythingand dident think it would have any effect but figured there was nothing whatsoever to lose so I did and low and behold I am now back online again after being on a limitied/local only connection for 6 weeks.I spent countless hours on the phone to tech support and over 100 hours trying to sort this problem,I realise that it seems one solution isent the same for us all, but hope this at least helps someone else.
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July 28th, 2008 11:40pm

Enjoy the access while you have it. It won't last long.I have a brand new laptop with Vista Home installed. It will connect Local and Internet for days at a time and then, for no reason at all, simply stop connecting. I still turn it on, every day, hoping it will start to work again and eventually it will - for a while but I know as I know my own name that it won't last for long.What really toasts my bread is that I can get in my car, drive down the highway and sit outside a local hotel and connect to their internet connection just fine. I'm now on my third router - a Lynksys this time - but the problem continues.My husband also connects to our internet service via the wireless router and he has no problems what-so-ever. Of course, he's on a MAC, not a PC. I think that's the final solution to this vexing problem.Connie Schachel - online by virtue of having yet a third computer hardwired into the wireless router.
July 29th, 2008 12:28am

Well it's been running fine for a week now - fingers crossed. But if it happens to go *** up again, I'm glad I now know the steps to perform to get me back online again. Before performing this simple step. I had literally tried everything, static IP, disabling IPV4/6, ipconfig renew, system restore, driver- re installation, disabling network security, SP1 update..The list go's on...Like I say, it won't be everyones solution, as they all tend to respond to different remedies which makes this problem even more annoying to diagnose than it already is - but it's certainly worth performing as it only takes a second and it's often the simple things that get over looked in the midst of re-installing windows...etc..I am not sure whether the hard reset button at the back of the router performs the same reset as the one that is accessible via the IP configuration page, so it may be best to use the IP method to 'restore default settings' as appose to just pressing the reset button on the back of the router.
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July 29th, 2008 2:32am

Hello all, Im Guido from Holland and i am having problems connecting to my router too. Here's my setting: DSL -> Zyxel Modem (which is de DHCP server in my lan) -> Linksys switch -> Linksys WAG54G V2.0 wireless router. In the switch there are a couple computers (Vista, XP,Linux)pluggedin which have no problems going online. I recently bought a BTO Notebook which has aIntel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG Wireless network card onboard. This is the case: When setting the router to none encryption nor authentication i can connect to the router, but i get the Local Access only error. I've been reading this thread from post 1 to the last and tried all the given possible solutions. Nothing works for me. Ive been trying all of the channels i can set, none works. Even in some channels he cannot even find the network. And sometimes he is trying to connect and after 2 minutes it says this is taking longer then normal, to not even connect at all. Try again a few times and it works. When setting the router to WPA Security, i cannot even connect to my router. It prompts me for my passkey, i give the correct key and after trying to connect, it prompts again for the correct passkey. That goes on infinitly. Trying to analyse the problem and find the cause. After reading this thread im starting to get the feeling the problem is (ofcourse Windows Vista but im happy with it for the parts that do work, for instance DirectX 10) the combination between Vista and the Intel Pro/Wireless network card (a collegue tried to connect to my router with a Vista laptop and that looks to work fine. He only tried to connect to the router with WPA though). So my conclusion of that could be, its not my router or the settings in my router. I updated the drivers of my Wireless card and fully updated Vista including SP1, still the problems occur. I never encountered a problem which i couldnt solve, this is starting to look more and more to become the first one... I didnt buy my NB to always have to get a wire from my switch to my laptop. Im starting to consider downgrading to XP which always is my last resort. Please Microsoft, come with a solution for this. To many hours have been spent in this one... Kind regards, Guido
July 30th, 2008 11:58am

Ok i got at least 1 step further. In Device manager goto the properties of you wireless network controller. Play some with these settings, i set Wireless Mode to Value 3. 802.11g and suddenly i had Local & internet access. After turning off the radio and turning it back on it only gave local only. Almost... i have a good feeling about this... Anyone tried this before?
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July 30th, 2008 3:16pm

well im noot totallt regreting my new system. cause i do love my new dell 1525 but i am wishing i could have had xp insatalled instead of vista. the last dell i had ,just a year younger than this one runningxp, and i never had to plug it into anything or plug anything into it! all i did was turn it on and and go to my network and man i signal like you you would not belive. but not here i guess. so now im going to purchace a pocket router for 39.99 i guess thats the only way ill be able to leave the house on a budget. oh well, other wise i ike vista its fast and kinda cool. and if i ever dont like it i think i could alwayd down grade. but not for 700.00. pocket router unless you live in the sticks i hear thats the way to go. connor
August 2nd, 2008 5:22pm

Thank you for posting this solution -I wasted 3 days struggling with this problem until I read this post - Norton can be very sloppy, and it destroyed my internet capabilities after removing it.
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August 6th, 2008 7:55pm

ITProf wrote: I had the same "Local only" access problems with my Vista Home Premium, but it is now working fine after several days of trying various things includingsuggestions in this forum thread. The problem started for me when I uninstalled Norton Security 2007 to install a competitor's product. I got tired of Norton Internet Security's flaky issues with Vista, like LiveUpdate failing to download updated virus defs. I used "Programs and Features" from the Control Panel to uninstall Norton IS, which seemed to go smoothly--I saw no errors, and when I returned to Programs and Features, the product was removed from the list. However, after installing the competitor product (a top pick in Sept 2007's Consumer Reports), I was locked into "Local only" access for both my wireless and wired connection. What finally worked was the recommendation 4 days later from the new security vendor's support organization: I have checked the system information log you sent us and found that you still have components of Norton on the computer. This could be the cause of the problem. Kindly run the Norton uninstall to remove the remaining components of it. For the instructions on how to download and run theNorton uninstaller, please click on this link:http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=EN-1034185&id=EN-1034185 You need this Norton Removal Tool to fully uninstall the product. I soon as I ran it, my connection went back to "Local and Internet." Hope this might help some in this forum who had the same issue due to a firewall/security product that perhaps they tried to uninstall or remove but registry entries and other traces of the product still left hooks in Vista that prevented the system from connecting to the internet. --ITProfDo this!!I ran this on a brand new laptop that had, what I thought, no Norton software on it, and apparently there was something that was clogging the pipes... I ran the removal tool, and everything is working now!
August 7th, 2008 8:02pm

I've also had this problem and I hope Microsoft are working to fix this bug!I've had one laptop running Vista Home Premium for around 4 months with no issues (much to my surprise), but another laptop delivered last week connected wirelessly to my home network for a couple of days and then abruptly stopped and nothing could shift it from the old 'local access only' connection. Connecting to a wired network at my office also would only yield local access - though bizarrely every now and then I'd get full Internet connection without actually doing anything.I went through every suggestion from numerous forums, updated drivers, disabled ipv6, plugged in IP settings, disabled firewalls and most of the other security etc etc all to no avail.Then one day I downloaded Mandriva Linux One to a CD, popped that in the troublesome laptop and rebooted. Within SECONDS of Mandriva Linux booting up it connected effortlessly to my wireless network and has done ever since.So, since MS seem incapable of solving this particular problem I'm solving it myself by taking Vista OFF all my computers and switching to Linux.
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August 11th, 2008 6:18pm

scrubs121 wrote: ANOTHER SOLUTION:OK, After having the same problem myself with wireless access only on a brand new laptop with Vista installed.I had tried every suggestion in this thread and more to no avail I installed hotfixes etc ... still dident work.Here is what eventually did work for me:In my wireless routers setting menu - the one you can access by typing the modems IP address into the browser(It will show you what the IP number to enter is in the routers manual, if you are unsure)Anyway..There was an option to 'Restore Default Settings' I was reluctant to try it as I hadent changed anythingand dident think it would have any effect but figured there was nothing whatsoever to lose so I did and low and behold I am now back online again after being on a limitied/local only connection for 6 weeks.I spent countless hours on the phone to tech support and over 100 hours trying to sort this problem,I realise that it seems one solution isent the same for us all, but hope this at least helps someone else.Yes.I struggled with the local access only -problem for several days, ever since I moved and got my self a brand new Siemens SE551 WLAN router. I also tried every trick in this theard, however stupid it sounded, to no avail.Then, on another thread, someone had changed network topology and solved the problem. Some other thread talked about incompatible DHCP servers in WLAN routers. These got me thinking ...I have an old HP ProCurve Access Point 420. I took that out of the box, set it up by connecting its LAN port to the Siemens router with a crossover cable and disabled the WLAN in the Siemens box. All the seurity and encryption settings were copied over from Siemens box and all my clients could connect to the HP box. Then I set up a DHCP server on my Windows 2003 Server and again, disabled DHCP in the Siemens box. Now the Siemens only acts as a router/firewall and doesn't provide any other services. Ever since my Vista have had stable Internet connection and all my VPN connections work as well.I think Vista has some issues with newer WLAN AP's ... just a hunch though Hena
August 14th, 2008 10:43am

Got a Dell laptopp "half a years ago" with Vista. Using the wireless at home or internet cafe never hap a problem... until~ I tried to use it inanUniversity wireless net work (free access to everyone and no limit.) Same old story: XP all worked fine what so ever... start looking for a solution on the web... After spending hours, and days, and weeks, months, trying all the suggestions... May I ask all of us look around hereif any got theyour problem solved? What I am surprised about is that, this post with the issues has passed it's anniversary here, look at date of the first post! (Congratulations?) OK don't tell me I am supposed to do something with the routers belong to school to make it work. It's not even funny anymore.
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August 16th, 2008 4:04am

I have been battling this issue on and off for 18 months on my Dell Latitude 820. This happens on several networks, I have changed routers and various fixes posted here and on the internet. I am at my wits end and ready to throw this 8 pound brick against the wall. There are other people with the identical hardware SKU and OS and configuration that are able to connect without issue to the same wireless access point. Any help or suggestions are appreciated. There has to be someone from Microsoft that knows what this issue is and how to resolve.
August 28th, 2008 5:57pm

I have just moved out from home, to a mates place. I used to have a Netgear router + Netgear wireless cards in 3 PC's at my house and had no problems connecting with Windows 98/XP and Vista 32bit+64bit. Never any problems at all.My mate has a Belkin 54g and I set my stuff up, got the WEP key and added a profile into my wireless Netgear card and the connection started up with local only. I have ESET smart security which came up with a new network was found and I believe I was asked if I wanted to accept the connection etc which I would have said yes to. Still cannot get from Local only to Local and internet.This is really starting to bug me now as before at home I never had a problem connecting wirelessly to any of the Netgear routers that I have had in the past nor the one that's there now.I will be going home after work today to see if some of the suggestions here work (or atleast the ones I hadn't already tried anyways)I for some reason have a feeling it's to do with the firewall but I may be totally wrong as I have disabled the firewall and had no luck with that.Advice very much welcome!
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September 1st, 2008 11:20am

1st Solution (Works 100%) Un-install Vista Install Windows XP 2nd PotentialSolution (not permanent, but it fixes it for me) -Right click on the little wireless icon on the bottom right of the screen and select Network And Sharing Center -Then Click on Manage Network Connections -Then select the wireless connection and click diagnose, if it doesnt not fix it, then it should let you reset the network adapter. When you reset it, at least in my case it brings local and internet access back.
September 12th, 2008 5:10am

Cant believe that after a whole year M$ still havent even responded to the thread, and its on their own website. As with everyone else Im at the end of my tether with this issue. Tried all the fixes to no avail and am ready to give up and revert to XP. If I pay for something I expect it to work, wont be spending a dime on MS again.
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September 12th, 2008 10:02pm

MetaSamim,MAC filtering is a security feature of your router. Turning it on allows only MAC addresses in a list manually put into your router to connect to it. Apparently whatever network adapter you were using was not in the list, so now that you have disabled MAC filtering anyone will be able to connect to your router (if its wireless) unless you also use WEP or some other encryption.WHAT WORKED FOR ME:I tried all the suggestions here. I was able to connect to the Internet via Ethernet through my router, but not wirelessly. After struggling for almost a day (off & on) I noticed the MAC address for my wireless adapter was wrong when I opened the command prompt & did an ipconfig /all - it was all zeros except for the last pair of characters. After searching through the adapter settings, driver details, etc., I stumbled across a wonderful,amazing FREE little program called 'MAC Address Changer' available at http://tmac.technitium.com/tmac/index.html. Luckily for me I use MAC filtering in my router so I knew what the address was supposed to be. I changed it & it didn't work, but then I went back & clicked on 'Enable DHCP', rebooted & am now surfing successfully. Perhaps it was a combination of disabling IPv6 & the wrong MAC addy, plus I've always used static IP's; I'm not sure. If anyone has questions about specific settings feel free to reply.Hope this helps someone!
September 15th, 2008 2:06am

Hi, Yesterday i woke my computer from sleep mode and to my surprise i had no internet connection, i checked the Network Connections and Network Sharing Center and instead of displaying my router name, it just said "Unidentified Network" and Access Local only. I rarely ever have my computer in sleep mode as i usually shut down if i know im away for 3 or so hours but this has never happened to me before. I did some research only but to only come up with a ton of work arounds and fixes and such which i have got lost in.I have Wndows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition OEM, i can connect fine to my router using my Netgear Wireless PCI Adapter WG311T, but when i use my Wired Connection all i get in Local Area Connection 1 & 2 is "Unidentified Network" i see that i am not the only person to have had this problem but i've spent the last day searching for answers to fix this problem or work around it so i can finally use my Wired Connection again.I have tried a couple of things that people said could work but to no avail.If i cannot get this fixed by next month then ill be re-installing vista and doing a system restore to get files back, hopefully that'll fix it. (i don't want to have to take this route)
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September 15th, 2008 5:41pm

I fixed It! I did everything suggested. But today I uninstalled Norton. I went to the control pannel / progams and selected Norton. Hit uninstall and then restarted. After the reload I had full internet access. Now I don't have virus protection so I am about to getAVGand download it from the net. It has a better reputation and it is free. Get rid of Norton Everybody!
September 16th, 2008 3:05am

I have the same problem and have tried, with varying success, several of the methods suggested on this forum. After carefully reading most of the 12 pages of suggestions and rants regarding this problem and I think I have some solutions of my own. Here are some incantations and ceremonial offerings that that I have tried which seem to work as well as, if not better than, those methods suggested here or anything that Microsoft has provided. I'll provide details since I'm not sure which variable makes the difference. Here goes .. 1. Pruning tomatoes. Time: 9:30am EST. Sept 19, 2008. Weather sunny and 9C. Tomatoes - Heirloom. Duration: 20 minutes. This successfully solved my most recent (and longest) "local access only" problem that began at approximately 6pm last night. 2. Accesssing the internet via my neighbor's unsecured wireless, logging into her router using the default passwords, and just browsing around for the *** of it. Didn't change anything. (That would be bad!). Her router: DI-524. Time: 11:30pm. Checked my email. Logged off and then back into my own wireless. Worked great. Successfully resolved a 20 minute outage. Neighbor remains unaware. 3. Calling my sister on the phone. Time 2:15pm. Her location: New Jersey. Topic of conversation: kids, school, work, husbands. Neither the words Microsoft nor Vista were uttered. Length of phone call: 67 minutes. Successfully resolved 3 hour outage. It was summer. Gibbous moon. 4. Cooking Italian. Time 5:20pm. Duration: 75 minutes. Recipes: Pasta Carbinara (but I was out of ham.. I mention this only because it may be important) and Gorgonzola celery stalks (organic from the farmer's market). It was Wednesday. Weather partly cloudy (cumulus) and warm 22C. Resolved a 40 minute outage. 5. Making kids to their chores. Kids: 2 (boy 13, girl 15). Chores: bathroom, livingroom. Day: Saturday, 11:30am. Internet access was restored after the livingroom was vacuumed. Bathroom not quite completed. Grandma (71) was visiting. She's an Aries. I'm not. 6. Staring at Network Sharing Center, clicking icons randomly, and uttering expletive-laden prayers for a positive and miraculous outcome. Approximate number of clicks: 347. Expletives launched directly at Microsoft: 79. Beverage: Valpolicella Ripasso 2007. Quantity: approx 4 (?) glasses. Internet access restored at some point during the 3rd glass, but I may have lost count. Sorry. ALSO --- THINGS TO AVOID THAT MAY CAUSE THE OUTTAGEIn my experience (and in browsing this forum), the following behaviors have resulted in "local access only" issues. Since you can't avoid every single trigger, I'll just provide the most common and urge you strongly to avoid them: 1. Using a browser to access the internet2. Accessing email or instant messages3. Using software4. Playing a game (either on the pc or on a console in the other room)5. Washing colors with whites6. Forwarding email to your entire address book7. Being oil-dependent8. Voting Republican9. Consuming bioengineered food. 10. Thinking bad thoughts about Microsoft or Vista in particular. Hope this helps. Maybe you have other suggestions. Rosetta ~
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September 19th, 2008 6:22pm

Same problem here. I wish I bought a Mac. Rosetta Stone wrote: I have the same problem and have tried, with varying success, several of the methods suggested on this forum. After carefully reading most of the 12 pages of suggestions and rants regarding this problem and I think I have some solutions of my own. Here are some incantations and ceremonial offerings that that I have tried which seem to work as well as, if not better than, those methods suggested here or anything that Microsoft has provided. I'll provide details since I'm not sure which variable makes the difference. Here goes .. 1. Pruning tomatoes. Time: 9:30am EST. Sept 19, 2008. Weather sunny and 9C. Tomatoes - Heirloom. Duration: 20 minutes. This successfully solved my most recent (and longest) "local access only" problem that began at approximately 6pm last night. 2. Accesssing the internet via my neighbor's unsecured wireless, logging into her router using the default passwords, and just browsing around for the *** of it. Didn't change anything. (That would be bad!). Her router: DI-524. Time: 11:30pm. Checked my email. Logged off and then back into my own wireless. Worked great. Successfully resolved a 20 minute outage. Neighbor remains unaware. 3. Calling my sister on the phone. Time 2:15pm. Her location: New Jersey. Topic of conversation: kids, school, work, husbands. Neither the words Microsoft nor Vista were uttered. Length of phone call: 67 minutes. Successfully resolved 3 hour outage. It was summer. Gibbous moon. 4. Cooking Italian. Time 5:20pm. Duration: 75 minutes. Recipes: Pasta Carbinara (but I was out of ham.. I mention this only because it may be important) and Gorgonzola celery stalks (organic from the farmer's market). It was Wednesday. Weather partly cloudy (cumulus) and warm 22C. Resolved a 40 minute outage. 5. Making kids to their chores. Kids: 2 (boy 13, girl 15). Chores: bathroom, livingroom. Day: Saturday, 11:30am. Internet access was restored after the livingroom was vacuumed. Bathroom not quite completed. Grandma (71) was visiting. She's an Aries. I'm not. 6. Staring at Network Sharing Center, clicking icons randomly, and uttering expletive-laden prayers for a positive and miraculous outcome. Approximate number of clicks: 347. Expletives launched directly at Microsoft: 79. Beverage: Valpolicella Ripasso 2007. Quantity: approx 4 (?) glasses. Internet access restored at some point during the 3rd glass, but I may have lost count. Sorry. ALSO --- THINGS TO AVOID THAT MAY CAUSE THE OUTTAGEIn my experience (and in browsing this forum), the following behaviors have resulted in "local access only" issues. Since you can't avoid every single trigger, I'll just provide the most common and urge you strongly to avoid them: 1. Using a browser to access the internet2. Accessing email or instant messages3. Using software4. Playing a game (either on the pc or on a console in the other room)5. Washing colors with whites6. Forwarding email to your entire address book7. Being oil-dependent8. Voting Republican9. Consuming bioengineered food. 10. Thinking bad thoughts about Microsoft or Vista in particular. Hope this helps. Maybe you have other suggestions. Rosetta ~ I love you!! hahahahaha
September 20th, 2008 8:17am

I have been having this issue also, and have finally found something which works. After much troubleshooting the lower level network layer (I'm a Cisco guy), I discovered that the MAC (hardware) address assigned to the network card wasn't valid.Long story short, check in the advanced properties of your network adapter for a setting called "Network address". This is the unique hardware address assigned to the card. This is normally hardcoded on the card, but can be set by software. For some reason the automatic default MAC address on my card started with ed-0b-00 (Organisation ID), which doesn't seem valid. Hence devices on the network which need a valid MAC address were rejecting packets, e.g. the router. This was causing Vista to freak out because it couldn't talk to the router. What was weird is that Windows Server 2003 would communicate, but my XP PC wouldn't.To resolve this, run an ipconfig /all on your Vista PC, and check what the "Physical address" says. If it doesn't start with "00","02", or "08" then it is possibly wrong. You can set a valid Physical Address in the advanced adapter properties. I suggest you just use a valid address from another PC, and change the last 2 numbers.Worked for me.Mark
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September 22nd, 2008 9:12am

I've been having this problem ever since moving and changing to one of the BT Home Hub systems.Purchased a new wireless N network card and then exchanged it for a wireless N USB dongle....all failed. Te only way that I could connect my Vista machine was by connecting through an old XP laptop. It connected fine wirelessly then I used a cross-over cable to link my Vista machine to it.It all worked, dropping off occasionally so I got the local only problem, but in the main it was ok.However, when reading this post today I noticed that most people can connect old technology and not the new stuff in Vista - my Wii / Xbox 360 / Windows XP machine all connected...the only thing that wouldn't was my Vista machine.....so I thought lets try switching off some of the new stuff on Vista.....and it worked.All I have done is to switch IPv6 off, I haven't played with any more settings other than that and I'm connected. Now I know loads of people will say they've done that and it hasn't worked. But when you think logically, if old stuff works and new stuff doesn't then the problem has to be with the new technology that has been implemented....it's not the whole of Vista that's got the networking problem it's just the new stuff. I must add, I don agree that XP was superior in some ways, especially networking....but I remember when Win95 came, I thought that tooth and nail preferring DOS/Windows - but now I wouldn't think otherwise. I would go to a Mac, but I have too much software for PC that the investment is prohibative.
September 22nd, 2008 10:01pm

i had the same problem as everyone else here local conection only.i couldnt connect throught wi-fi on my vaio with vist to my linksys.after doing a lot of the stuff i read i decided to make a backup of the setting of the linksys router,after restore factory deafult and then again restore the backup and now its working,i will also like to add that i could connect to the internetfrom my neigbhours wifi and with cable to my router as well.
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September 23rd, 2008 1:29am

This problem has been doing my head in for days - but now I've finally fixed my problem and thought I would share it. I've used XP for about 6 months with a Linksys WAG160N using WPA 2 Security and it's been flawless. So I knew therewas nothing wrong with my Wifi setup. But Vistarefused to connect no matter what I tried giving me the Local only problem and unidentified network. I tried all the disabling IPV6, hacking registry entries, netsh commands, differentWAN setting securitysettings but got no where. The solution was simple in the end - I have Windows Live OneCare - went to Change Settings and turned off Firewall protection. Job done - I'm surfing again I could probably tweak the settings so that I don't have to turn the Firewall off completly, but this problem has got me so close to throwing my pc out the window I'll live without it and rely on the one built into my router.... So if you're having problems, try disabling your Antivirus/Firewall software to see if that resolves anything. Hope this helps someone. FYI: I'm using Vista Home & SP1
September 24th, 2008 12:50am

please don't yell at me....im using a mac book dual booting leopard and vista business x64 sp1. CRAZY I know but i need it for programming... proff. is a jerk...but anyways in leopard both my home WPA and the schools unsecured wireless network connect to the internet fine buttttttwith vista only my home wpa will connect to the internet. When using the schools network I get a private IP, local connection only with the computer in the taskbar without the globe does anyone or microsoft have any definate fixes for this yet? I've seen alot of speculation in this fourm but not much else so any help?thank you
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September 24th, 2008 5:30am

I've just edited this post because within 2 hours of posting about my woes of not being able to connect to the internet at all, I managed to fix the problem!It turns out that it was a very slight mis-configuration in my wireless bridging setup. Why the other PCs and notebooks etc on my network didn't pick it up I don't know but they're still all working fine so no worries there!Basically, VIsta had assocciated the wrong MAC address to the gateway IP of the network. It was actually routing packets to the bridge Router which of course, wasn't able to connect to the internet directly through it's WAN port. So it was returning errors.As soon as I set the bridge's static WAN ip to the ip address of the gateway router, my globe magically appeared in Vista networking and the world was sane again.I just wanted to post back in case this helps anyone - I know I've struggled with this for the past week or so and all it took was for 1 digit to change in one place to fix it.
September 26th, 2008 4:13pm

Hi ITProf, It Really Work to total uninstall Norton! Thanks! Walter
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September 27th, 2008 10:33am

Sweet message Rosetta! Thats about the gist of it too. I really dont know how Microsoft is getting away with this. Its kind of like that Disney movie "Bugs Life"... and the ants just let the grasshoppers push them around. And finally the ants realize that they have the numbers in thier favor and (more importantly) get the balls to attack! Thanks for making my evening Rosetta! You ROCK!!! Late... CLINT
October 5th, 2008 8:21am

I agree with you my friend... and it seems that we are the only two. PLEASE EVERYONE WATCH THE DISNEY MOVIE "BUGS LIFE" I think we (the consumers) should attack!!! The Government is owned by Gates too!!! Late... CLINT
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October 5th, 2008 9:40am

My machine (new):HPlaptop tv2500 with AMD 64 bit, NetGear WNDR3300 (upgraded for Windows Media Center Extender), wireless adapter Broadcom 802.11 b/g, I also have HP MediaSmart to view media files thru HDTV. Programs: Norton virus (trial 90 days), Windows Vista Home Premium (with SP1), Comcast internet Issue: (1) Globe symbol (for internet) disappear and appear on/off for suddenly for first 2 weeks after purchasing new PC. Usually it happened for 10-15 min. Then it gets longer during 'weekends'. Yeah, I saw other postings - someone said it seems like 'Local Only Issue' happends more during weekends. (2) About3 weekslater, Globeless time gets longer. 5-6 hours. Then 1 month later, it is totally 'globeless' and it appear as 'Local Only'. (3) Week 4. Able to use neighbor's wireless network. My other laptop (company's) is still connected to my own home wireless network and had an access to internet. Weird! (4) Week 5. 'Globeless' for both laptops. No internet at all for both machines. Personal laptop can't even connect to internet with neighbor's wireless network. Company laptop still can 'communicate' to internet via neighbor's wireless network. Both laptops were showing 'Local Only' (5) From this point, I tried all kind of tricks and tips on this forum. I even faced worst problems like 'no local connection, no internet connection' while trying some of suggested solutions. Tried: (1) Uninstalled Norton virus (trial version). When I uninstall, I remember that I clicked on 'delete all quarantined items'. I suspect this was the reason why I faced harder problem later. Maybe not. Anyway, I am a finance person, not techy at all. Still 'Local Only'. (2) Tried Static IP. Tried disabling Iv6. No avail. (3) Performed cmd.exe and checked MAC address.and cross checked with wireless router and adapter. No avail. (4) Checked internet and ensure my wireless adapter and my wireless router are both Vista compatible. Upgrated drivers too but no avail (5) Disable wireless adapter - reboot laptop -enable adapter. No avail (6) Went to 'systems and maintanance>Windows update'. I noticed a green check box with 'windows is up to date'. But there was something else underneath. There was a link with a description saying 'review for update' (or something like that). Clicked the link and I saw 30 or 50 items were in the 'queue' for my approval/acceptance. I clicked 'ok'. Then all of them were installed. I guess some are related to my adapter or router etc. Somehow it's related to 'Local Only' issue. Still no internet (7) I explored few more options and I even brought my machine to my company to check wireless adapter. IT WORKED FINE. So I confirmed the issue is something to do with my home wireless network. Came home. Stragely I couldn't connect to neighbor's wireless network again. (8) Tried (6) againthen I reinstalled NetGear WNDR3300 wireless router, step by step as per the exact instruction in the manual. (9) Voila, it works!!!!!!!!!!!!! (10) My suggestion is combination of (6) and (8). And you must follow the exact instruction for (8), Actually I performed (8) two times. On my first attempt, I didn't bother turning on/off modem and router in the sequence in the manual. Then I failed. On my second attempt, I performed the exact steps. Then my GLOBE was back alive!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope this helps everyone. FYI, I am working in finance line and I have no IT background whatsoever. I enjoyed 'searching for cure' in this forum Good luck to you all!
October 9th, 2008 7:29am

I've been reading these posts and similar ones for almost a year. I've been so frustrated.Briefly:Netgear WPN824 router (version 1 - this is very important) used wirelessly and with EthernetOne XP laptop computer (three years old)Newer Vista laptop computer (one year old)XP has no problem getting connected. But the Vista machine has had problems from day one. After resuming from sleep, I'd lose the Internet connection almost every time either immediately or after about one minute. It would say "Unidentified Network" or "Access: Local Only."I'd do a Diagnose and Repair, or I'd reset the network adapter, or finally I might have to reboot. It made no difference if the Vista machine was connected directly or connected wirelessly.I figured it was just Vista's annoying increased security measures that was making it so difficult to resume a connection after the machine had been in sleep mode. It was not a constant problem, but happened at least several times every week. I wanted to throw the new computer out the window.WELL, I FINALLY FOUND THE SOLUTION!! EVERYONE: TAKE NOTE:I bought a new router!!!My Netgear router, because it was not Vista compatible, was the problem! A few days ago I bought a new, highly recommened D-Link DIR-655 router based on many users' opinions. I decided in advance that if it didn't solve the problem, I was simply going to return it to Amazon for a full refund.However: From the moment I set up the new router, my connection problems completely disappeared. 100% gone. Forever.ADVICE: Put up with the connection hassles by keeping your current router or spend a few bucks to eleminate the Vista connectivity problem forever. Why did I wait so long?
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October 21st, 2008 8:50pm

Well, I found something odd with a friend's laptop (Asus, Vista Home Premium). He had the exact same problems (local access only), so I had him check the details of his wireless connection and found that when he had his wireless adapter to Automatically Obtain IP Address, his DHCP server and DNS server IP's were different - when they should have been the same, as he is on his home wireless network (192.168.xxx.xxx). I had him manually configure his IP Address / Subnet mask, and made the Gateway and DNS server have the same IP and that fixed the problem. I know there's 12 pages on this, so I haven't read every post - but if anyone is still having this problem, try this out!
October 28th, 2008 2:30am

My son's friend brought his laptop into me, totally frustrated trying to obtain a wireless connection to my router. Same problem - only local access. After hours of playing with the network connections, I finally simply went into the connection properties, then clicked onand installed the LLTD (Link Layer Topology Discovery) protocols. They were checked, so looked deceivingly active, but click on them, click on install, and install the protocols. Worked like a dream for me, and the boy was thrilled he could download the patches for his game (only dial-up at his home). Hope this helps some out.
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October 30th, 2008 2:55am

Ok, I just wrote a full length answer how to fix this! Basically change the power settings (clicking the battery or control panel > power options) to high performance. I just tested this and it worked, changed it back again, it still said I was connected, so I thought ok, went to post the info and I/E crashed, No data flow ! How poor is that!! Gutted In vista changing the power options will give you better wireless distance, better quality of data (less ECC and CRC) and stronger signal (which results in better distance). So for me, ive found the holy grail ! Dan!
October 30th, 2008 9:29pm

I've had this problem and I think I fixed my issue. This may or may not work for you. If it doesn't work, just change it back.Go into "Network Connections"Right click your "Wireless Network Connection" and click propertiesClick continue at the pop upYou should now be looking at "Wireless Network Connection Properties"Click "configure" in the upper right hand cornerGo to the "advanced" tabGo down to network type. If "infrastructure" is selected, change it to "ad-hoc". Network will disconnect and then re-connect. My globe came right up. Hope this helps.
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November 1st, 2008 5:26pm

I've had my new laptop for two months and have been dealing with issue for the last 4 weeks. I could kick myself for not getting a Mac. I've browsed numerous forums trying to resolve this issues wasting many hours. The removal of norton, ipconfig/renew, turning off ipv6, the microsoft support recommendations (the Dhcp and power management), contacting my internet service provider, entering the IP manually and numerous other possible solutions have not worked. From what I have read this is a common issue that has been occuring for over a year with this product that has no real solution. In the last week or so, not just my home is getting "local acces" or unidentified network, but three other networks I tried to connect to are not working. The only solution I have not tried, is getting a new router, but I can't very well get a new router for the local coffee shop, my friends house and a local bar.(yes, this issue has driven me to drink). I now cannot gain any internet access from my what is now a glorified typewriter that can play music. I've run system restore twice in the past couple weeks to see if going back to the original settings prior to having the problem helps but, that has not worked either.I am beyond frustrated with this issue and the hours I have wasted attempting to resolve it. I feel as though I'm down to two possible solutions, find a copy of XP to download onto my system, but I'll be ******** after this if I'm going to spend more money on Microsoft or just sell the thing and use the money recouped to put towards a Mac.Anyone have any other possible solutions other than the ones I've already tried before I toss it against a wall and sell it for scrap?
November 4th, 2008 10:36pm

This is not limited to wireless connections. I have several computers running Vista, two of which connect using wireless and one with a wired connection. Within the past month or so, the wired connection also goes to the "Local only" state, accompanied by the system tray icon dropping the blue globe that indicates Internet connectivity. Same behavior as from a couple of laptops that also drop into the local only state. I've found that I can clear the problem on the wireless connections by right-clicking on the wireless connection icon in the system tray and selecting another protected network. When it asks for the code, I just hit Cancel, and then it reconnects to my normal network and always achieves both local and Internet connectivity. Dropping into the local only state typically occurs on both laptops and desktop computer when the computer has been asleep. With the wired connection, I go into Manage Network Connections and disable the offending connection. Then I re-enable it, and it reconnects properly.
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November 5th, 2008 12:09am

Fixed:Okay, after some time with Dell tech support. The Vista "local only" wireless issue is fixed. He had me change the "wireless channel" on my linksys wireless router. I changed it from 6 to 11. I am not sure if it matters what channel you select.I wonder if this will work for more people? It was a lame experience, but I'm not sure on who's part. Dell, Microsoft, Linksys, network engineers?
November 5th, 2008 7:56am

check your IPv4 settings welli had the same problem and i fixed it by changing the IPv4 settings(its ip address should be set to something esle. just select the"Obtain an IP address automatically" option and the same for the DNS.now try reconnecting.Start>networks>network and sharing center>Manage network connectionsnow right click your connection and select propertiesnow select IPv4 and again select propertiesenow click on obtain an ip address automatically. hope it helps
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November 6th, 2008 6:18am

I disabled MAC Address Filteringon the router and it works like a charm.Seems if more than 2 computers are on the router it causes it to block the 3rd and 4th etc.Hope this helps at least someone
November 8th, 2008 6:09am

Hummmm, the Holy Grail....perhaps; DAMN, it worked for me!!!!!! I've been working on this issue for what seems like forever, as a matter of fact I just returned, back to Fry's, a NetGear router I was going bridge on my ActionTec (FiOS)to see if that would fix my "Local Access Only".Dan, since doing what you suggested in your post I have had "Local and Internet Access" ever since....I even allow my laptop to go to sleep and when it awakes I still have local and internet access.I have read nearly all the thread's here and that's a lot, going back before SP1 for Vista was released, and I saw a lot of fixes and I tried NONE of them....yours was the last message read and it looked easy enough to try so I did and so far so good!Thanks for sharing is about all I can say....I just hope it holds! By the way, for others who might read this post, I'm on a HP Presario A900 laptop, connected wirelessly to my ActionTec router upstairs.Rod
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November 9th, 2008 5:16am

So what did you do to fix it? Which post did you use from the above notes?
November 12th, 2008 11:07pm

I have been fighting with this problem for the last day after I got my new work laptop. I found a solution that lets me get rid of the problem and bring it back at will - so at least on this laptop - its consistent.Go to the network connections and disable all but the network connection you wish to use.In my case, I disabled both the LAN cards and the 4 VMware adapters I had installed.Restart the wireless - bingo bango - I have access to teh internetz.Microsoft solution:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947041/en-usNot much of a solution as I need to use my other network cards, but at least it allowed me to get online.. If I find a better solution I will come back and post..Good luck- Muk
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November 13th, 2008 2:45pm

jknowles37 is dead on worked like a charm on my laptop after much frustration! Thanks jknowles37 posted below is what he suggested and worked for me. "i had the same problem and i fixed it by changing the IPv4 settings(its ip address should be set to something esle. just select the"Obtain an IP address automatically" option and the same for the DNS.now try reconnecting.Start>networks>network and sharing center>Manage network connectionsnow right click your connection and select propertiesnow select IPv4 and again select propertiesenow click on obtain an ip address automatically. hope it helps" And it did thanks again!
November 15th, 2008 7:07am

ok sounds like good advice but where would i go to change the channel ?
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November 17th, 2008 9:43am

The fact that you sister's Windows 2000 sees the problem does not mean the problem is with Windows 2000. It most likely is with your Vista machine. when it goes into the 'local only' mode, it also fouls up the IP Addresses on your network, which brings down all the machines using that network due to conflict. We have 2 XP Desktops (1 RJ45, on Wireless), 1 XP Notebook and a Vista.(and an iPhone - Wi-Fi/Wireless) When the Vista is OFF - or the Connection 1 is DISABLED on it, the problem does NOT occur on any of the XP machines. If the Vista is on and it goes into the 'Local Only' mode, all the machines - including the WiFi on my iPhone - go down - can not access iNet.... It looks like Vista to me. My Vista box ran ok for over 6 months - then started. (AFTER transferring everything and setting it up as my 'prime' computer) Now it may run for two days, a week, or 5 minutes. Tonight it has been going down in less than 5 minutes. I get the most stability when I shut off ALL computers, unplug cable modem and router (both Linksys) , the re-plug modem - wait - replug router - wait - bring up computers one at a time. Wired or wireless does not seem to matter. All machines on the networkgo down. I have tried most if not all the 'fixes' and still can not get it to STAY - eventually (10 minutes or 3 days later) it goes. is getting worse. Am writing this from my XP machine. Thinking of putting everything BACK on XP. Never did convert notebook or other desktop. Also shopping for Mac - looking at either iMac Pro or Mac Pro (big bucks - but very nice). Don't need AV with Mac and folks I talked to do not have problems very much at all. This probably doesn't help you or anyone, just another 'testimonial'I guess - but those are the symptoms I experience. If you think about it, thisVista problemis worse than most viruses!
November 26th, 2008 8:20am

frazel wrote: Ok, I just wrote a full length answer how to fix this! Basically change the power settings (clicking the battery or control panel > power options) to high performance. I just tested this and it worked, changed it back again, it still said I was connected, so I thought ok, went to post the info and I/E crashed, No data flow ! How poor is that!! Gutted In vista changing the power options will give you better wireless distance, better quality of data (less ECC and CRC) and stronger signal (which results in better distance). So for me, ive found the holy grail ! Dan! I'm not sure how you can say you have it fixed when it may work for a week or more on its own anyway.... you posted this back in late OCT - almost 1 month. is it still working ok? i have the problem on my desktop.
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November 26th, 2008 9:10am

I had the very same problem tonight and I was running round in circles. I removed Norton 360 AV and problem has now been solved, The DHCP does not allowcate an IP address, I looked in the setting and found its been turned off, Im quite sure it a firewall lockdown. I done the and Ipconfig /all and low and behold its says DHCP ACTIVE= NO Its a global problem, load of stuff on the web.
November 27th, 2008 3:24am

I have spent around 4 hours fighting this fracking issue only to have a "I shoulda had a V8" moment (i.e. smacking my forehead) Working on a neighbors computer with Home Premium 32bit, had Norton Internet Security 2007 on it. Ran the Norton removal tool ( Found Here ) and rebooted. FYI you have to run the removal tool.After the reboot everything is as it should be, downloading updates this very minute.Again, results may vary but if you have a store bought computer, odds are there is some trial version of somebody's antivirus software installed on it, don't just assume it's not there.Hope this helps someone!!!
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November 27th, 2008 7:17am

I've only had my computer for about 4 weeks and just started having problems last night after my system ran an automatic windows update. Now my connection has been intermittent "local only" and when it is "local only" my iphone will not connect to the router either. when i turn off the computer, the iphone works fine. very exasperating.
November 28th, 2008 10:42pm

Wife just had the same issue on her BestBuy purchased HP laptop running Vista 32 bit Home. Didn't rear it's ugly head until the pre-installed Norton AntiVirus trial had run its course and was reporting a "subscription error". Very foul practice. I uninstalled it via add/remove programs, being certain to tell Norton not to save any passwords or quarantined files or anything, and the problem was resolved on the reboot. Worked for me.
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December 2nd, 2008 10:35am

Quote:"ok sounds like good advice but where would i go to change the channel ? " Well I have a linksys wireless router, so the factory defalt address was something like "192.168.1.1" just type that into your address bar in you web brouser. You will have to connect to it with a cat5(ethernet) cable, because your wireless access is local only. somewhere in the router menu you can change the channel. For mine it was under the "wireless" tab. If you have a differeent router, just do some searching to find out it's IP address, and how to change the channel. Learning is life long.
December 5th, 2008 9:25am

Ken, my situation is exactly like yours. I'm not feeling so alone now. Everyone talks about this LocalAccess Only problem, but I wasn't able to find one post where someone had a problem with all the network coming down. Since I had the first laptop with Vista, the entire network keeps coming down. When this happens I just reboot the router remotely, and I have Internet again, but it is a break in all the connections, downloads, etc. Not good... Just leaving my testemonial... and hoping this gets fixed really fast... Thank you!
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December 5th, 2008 10:29pm

HOLY *** IT WORKED!!!!!! you are the man or women w/e! I LOVE YOU! haha
December 6th, 2008 5:07am

Hi, for the past few weeks my roommates and I have been having the same problem. We just moved in to a new apartment and bought the wireless router about 3 months ago. It worked just fine for the first 1,5 month, then it started to go 'Local Only' sometimes, for a night or so, which made us have to reset the router all over again. About 1 month ago, the internet went off again and it has been dead ever since. We even got the internet and the router company to exchange our modem and router to brand new ones. But the problem persists. I tried some methods posted in this thread with no luck and I really need help. So prepare for a very long post.I tried:1. Disabling TCP auto-tuning with command "netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled"2. Disabling TCP receive-side scaling state with command "netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled"3. Enabling ECN with the following command "netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled"Result: "Set global command failed on IPv4 The requested operation requires elevation"Tried:Disabling Ipv6 and assigning static IP address (192.168.2.1, don't tell me that's the wrong IP because it's written on the router and I think that's what we use here in Japan) but the pc refused saying other computer is using the same IP (I live with 2 other persons) and 4.2.2.2. for the alternate DNS server as suggested by someone in previous page.Tried: "Merge or Delete Network Locations" and deleting all network locations that are 'not in use'Tried:ipconfig/release wirelessResult: "The requested operation requires elevation"Tried:ipconfig/renew wirelessResult: "The operation failed as no adapter is in the state permissible for this operation"Tried:Changing the channel from Auto to 6 and 11. Should I try every channel available?Tried:Changing the setting to B only then G only then B/GTried:Restoring the router to factory defaultTried:Uninstalling anti-virus and turning off windows firewallTried:Using windows diagnoseResult: It said they can't connect/find the DNS server. What is that supposed to mean?Some (maybe) weird things I found:In the router set-up page, it's writtenLAN Configuration IP Address 192.168.2.1 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 DHCP Server Disable MAC Address 00:01:8e:bc:b3:60 Wireless Configuration Mode AP ESSID logitecuser Channel Number auto Security WEP Attain IP Protocol : PPPoE disconnected IP Address : Subnet Mask : Default Gateway : 0.0.0.0 MAC Address : 00:01:8E:BC:B3:61 Primary DNS : Secondary DNS : 1. Is the DHCP supposed to be 'Disable'? I tried enabling it, but it only stayed for a few minutes then it went back to 'Disabled' by itself2. Why is the PPPoE disconnected?Also, in the place where we can see how many wireless networks are around, I hovered my mouse to the one I'm using and it said that the radio type is 802.11n. N instead of B or G. Is that normal?Side note:Maybe the same with every other routers, to set it up we have to connect the router with the internet modem, and the laptop with the wireless router. That way, first we can connect to the IP address via cable first, set the thing up, then the wireless work. Before if I connect my laptop to the router via cable, I could still use the internet, without using the wireless. Now, NO internet whatsoever coming from any direction. Unless I connect the internet directly to the internet modem.Please and thank you and, again, really sorry.
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December 10th, 2008 12:09pm

Hi all - OK solution. I've had this problem for some time. I came to the realisation that it's not any particular machine /driver /software ... /router type/ av/ firewall - or anything like that. There has been some suggestion about turning security off on routers/ av's / firewalls etc - do not do this - it's there for a reason. SImilarly - there is no way to control other wireless networks you have no control over - eg airports / hotels etc - so changing those settings on 'your' router will do nothing for the problem - it will still exist! I found the solution after running a cmd prompt - it was one of those smack head routines. You will probably all know by now that if you try to ipconfig /renew or release - it will not work - if you wait long enough - you will get the message that DHCP is not broadcasting - THAT IS WHERE THE PROBLEM is... You need to edit the registry - the prolem is the stack in this VISTA. THE SOLUTION Run regedit and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\ In there you will see 5 or so hex folders - that mean nothing at all - they are your network interfaces - but as per-se with MS they label them with hex ionstead of their names!!!. Go into each one and you will see a DWORD called DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag Double click that entry in each folder and set DWORD DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag to 0 (it is by default set to 1). Now go and disconnect yourself from your WLAN or any WLAN you are in 'LOCAL ONLY' mode - and reconnect - BINGO!! Works after restart / hibernation etc etc. I have ran this solution on 'every' vista laptop that has had this problem (all sorts of makes) and there is no problem connecting to ANY wireless router - airports/ hotels /your own etc... EDIT: ps - there is NO NEED to modify anything else - disabling IPV6 etc is unneccessary - keep everything else as it is - you ONLY need to change this DWORD value - nothing else. This is obviuosly only related to Vista - if you look in the same reg key in XP - you will notice that there is no key with that name - obviuosly MS changed the stack in Vista - why this is there - I have no idea. THere is no adverse affect any any other aspect of security - either in your domain or anywhere else - and nothing seems to be compromised by making this change - but it DOES work and is a permanent solution. Hope it all helps you.... Have a nice day :-)
December 10th, 2008 5:28pm

I tried your solution, it does not work. Plus, there are only 3 hex folders, what does that mean?
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December 11th, 2008 12:00pm

Hi.I have had this problem for several weeks now with my new Lenovo but I noticed that I could ping IP adresses on the internet but not the URLs. Since my problem seemed to be DNS-related,I tried to setstatic DNS-server 4.2.2.2 + our own DNS server and voila - everything is up and running.Hope this can be of some help.Regards
December 18th, 2008 3:33am

I have run into this problem. Drov eme up the wall. What seems to cause it is when you have multiple wireless network adapters configured. If you disabled one of the wireless network adapters, then reboot, the problem will go away on the other adpater.In my case, I have a linksys N adapter, and my old notebook has an a/b adapter. The "local access" seem to be random, but once I disabled the wireless a/b adapter, the problem went away and allowed me to use my n adapter at max speed.Matt k.
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December 25th, 2008 6:52am

Hi,I'm struggling with the same issue. Is there agreement on the functional symptoms ...- Wireless strength OK (or using a wired network)- IP address looks OK, as does default gateway- Can ping router OK- In spite of all this, Vista flags the network as "Local Only", and you can't reach the InternetDoes that sound right? If so, any clues as to what Vista is seeing that causes it to enter this failed state? The symptoms I've listed don't suggest its actual wireless problems as such, but people seem to be experiencing more problems on wireless than on normal networks.Or does the error reporting get confused because on a flakey wireless network the PC sometimes reports "Local Only" as the first symptom of a general network fault? Mine has sometimes done that since I relocated the PC - but "Local Only" has in each case been quickly followed by a complete connection failure.I can't even find definitive information from Microsoft as to what a "Local Only" network means in terms of actual low-level operation. Does it mean the PC refuses to send to addresses outside the local subnet? Or refuses to process replies that originate off the local subnet?I'm not taken with Microsofts recommendation that we should buy new routers with a Vista badge on it. Apart from anything else the "Vista Approved" routers are comsumer grade kit (Linksys, Belkin etc). What's the solution for professional use? MS surely doesn't expect people to rip out their Cisco, Checkpoint, Nokia etc and replace with home gateways. There's got to be a way of making Vista comply with normal IP standards, hasn't there? Tony S
December 29th, 2008 7:04pm

I ALWAYS do the following steps to solve this problem in many computers, and it never fails:1) Power Settings to High Performance2) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\[guid]\DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag 0 wireless interface3) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\[guid]\ArpRetryCount 04)HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\DisabledComponents255 (hex)5) Start -> Run -> services.msc -> Disable "IP Helper"6) Start -> Run -> ncpa.cpl -> Right click urwireless conection -> Uncheck TCP/IP 67) Start -> Run -> cmd -> netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled8) Reboot
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December 29th, 2008 9:11pm

Seems that after removing Norton some files are still there. The solution is to use Norton Removal ToolThank you for the solution, after removing NORTON with the removal tool it worked, the networkconnection came like magic.You can download the tool at:http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039once again, thank you
December 29th, 2008 11:50pm

I thought my prob hadgone away since I set the"autotuninglevel=disabled", although since that's a TCP performance setting you wouldn't think it should affect a routing issue. Now it's just done it again, but by the time I'd saved the outputs from "route print" and "ipconfig /all" the network had mended itself. Both the routing table and the IP settings looked OK to me, but of course I can't guarantee that they weren't taken after the fault had corrected itself. For what its worth, here they are ... C:\Users\AES>ipconfig /all Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . :xxxxxxxxxxxxx Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : WAG54GS Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : WAG54GS Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Belkin Wireless G Desktop Card Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1C-DF-2C-8A-0D DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 30 December 2008 10:29:06 Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 31 December 2008 10:29:06 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 158.152.1.58 158.152.1.43 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled C:\Users\AES>C:\Users\AES>C:\Users\AES>route print===========================================================================Interface List10 ...00 1c df 2c 8a 0d ...... Belkin Wireless G Desktop Card 1 ........................... Software Loopback Interface 1=========================================================================== IPv4 Route Table===========================================================================Active Routes:Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.101 25 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.1.101 281 192.168.1.101 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.101 281 192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.101 281 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.1.101 281 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.101 281===========================================================================Persistent Routes: None IPv6 Route Table===========================================================================Active Routes:If Metric Network Destination Gateway 1 306 ::1/128 On-link 1 306 ff00::/8 On-link===========================================================================Persistent Routes: None
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December 30th, 2008 7:00pm

There was a major Internet security fix in 2008 that all Internet related vendors had to fix-- operating systems for computers and routers were patched.THIS BROKE MANY FIREWALLS and other security related programs.Getting the latest version or uninstalling them usually fixes the connectivity problems.I know some versions of McAFee and Norton were affected, and many others...This might not be the cause of everyone's problem, but it sure has fixed alot of them.
January 8th, 2009 1:28am

This issue is related to "NLA", or Network Location Awareness. Norton replaces the MS NLA with their own, which explains the posters that resolved their issues by running the Norton cleanup utility. Others noted that disabling unused network adapters resolved their issue, this is consistent with the MS KB article that addresses the problem(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947041). Here's an excerpt:"To first determine connectivity, NCSI (Network Connectivity Status Indicator) performs an active probe that is based on HTTP traffic or on DNS traffic. In an environment that does not have a visible proxy, a DNS probe will be used if the system remains in the same network as the network that a previous active probe detected. If more than one network adapter is present, after the DNS probe succeeds, the system cannot determine which network adapter has Internet access. Therefore, all the network adapters continue to indicate a Local only status."If you have more than one network adapter (nearly all laptop and more than a few desktops) make sure you disable any unused network adapters. This should resolve the issue in the vast majority of the cases. You may have to disconnect and reconnect to the wireless network after disabling the adapter.Some modern Vista-aware routers will respond to the above mentioned probes in a manner the operating system is expecting, thusresolving theDNS queriesof the NCSI regimen.Expect MS to fine-tune this functionalityin future service packs, as it has become a thorn in the sidefor many users. XP users don't experience this issue since they lack the added security Vista affords.In other words, it's for your own good.
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January 13th, 2009 11:07pm

It sounds like NLA is something to get shot of, then. I can't think of many scenarios where it would be of any benefit. For example on my PC here I have an Ethernet (disconnected), a wireless LAN, and some VMware logical adapters. The wireless may sometimes have the odd glitch, but its the only way to the Internet from this PC so switching it periodically onto "Local Only" doesn't achieve anything. I note the Technet article doesn't suggest any solution, only agrees that "Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section."There's a strange logic to their comment ..The incorrect network status may remain awhile until programs generate Internet traffic." .. because as far as I can see once the connection is flagged as "local only" then the PC refuses to take part in any Internet traffic.Unfortunately stopping the NLA service doesn't seem possible without side-effects. I wonder is there a way to hard-code the network discovery process?
January 17th, 2009 9:01pm

Follow up. I've been running for a few days with the "Network Location Awareness" service stopped (which also stops the "Network List Service"). This seems to have stabilised things, and so far it looks like the solution. Annoyingly it means the network notification icon shows as with red cross, as if disconnected, even though it works fine. However I'd rather have a solid working network with that notification broken, than a constantly flapping network with an icon accurately reflecting those faults!Tony S
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January 22nd, 2009 9:19pm

Ok now this is not the only problem Im a computer tech support rep for MatcoTools and we deal with this problem on a daily basis with vista business 32bit, Yes indeed vista does show that you are not connected but however you do have internet access...There is more problems then this however, it reverts the VPN connection if you use one, to a dialup connection which makes the VPN not work since it puts the host ip in the phone number field... it makes your WIFI connection if you use a verizon/sprint type of air card service it makes that connection a dialup connection as well and of course making it not work...another problem programs like spyware removal / or anything that needs an update doesnt see you as being connected to the internet when you are and wont let you update...Of course now microsoft update works fine go figure...When you first connect to a network, vista wants you to set a location home, work, public - make sure you choose work as long as work has been chosen from what i have seen it does help from this problem to even arise... come on microsoft fix this , this is really rediculous...So there is still no fix for this problem other then reloading the machine? Anyone?
January 24th, 2009 1:02am

First thing you can try is disabling ipv6. I also know that NIS causes some issues with networking. If disabling ipv6 doesn't work then download and run this program as an administrator (dhcp fix) this will take care of the problem of only getting a "local connection" it also takes care of the always present "identifying network". (instructions are on the website) make sure to grab the most recent version http://www.reviewingit.com/index.php/content/view/61/1/ I have applied this program to many computers and it fixes the network problems. Here is the knowledge base article about the issues your are most likely having http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928233 *it is very important that you run this as an admin
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January 24th, 2009 11:37pm

Try this one guys...apologies if it's been posted already. It definitely fixes the VPN issue where it thinks it's a dial-up connection, but it may also help with the Wifi / NLA issue. Please check your IT policy first before using the below in case you've got specially configured registry permissions...usually high-sec companies only. Reset the permission of the entire registry using the following commands. For Vista secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose for XP secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose p.s why do people insist on telling others their job title, company name and usually the amount of years they've fiddled aboutwith computers? if you've got so much experience, why haven't you fixed it yet you smarmy f...
January 26th, 2009 8:29pm

I am getting so angry this is just stupid... heres my situation:computer: Dell inspiron 1520 w/ vista & 4965agn card; lynksys wrt54gs router @ homeI have had this system for over a year with FEW problems, every now and then it would cut me off and I need to reboot or play with something and then its good for another month or 2, until LATELY:I have done everything from driver updates (both dell and intel), firmware upgrades (dell and linksys), dhcp, static addresses (used to fix most problems, not anymore), wireless security configuration changes, rf channel changes, registry changes, netsh changes, installing "Vista AntiLag", power settings, and a few other things I cant think of.I have never (to my recollection) had problems with wired connections but wireless is lucky to work at all... Usually either turning off the computer or uninstalling and reinstalling the wireless card drivers would make it work most of the time, but next time it disconnects it wont reconnect. Sometimes it will connect as local only, other times it wont connect at all. If you try to troubleshoot it will claim low signal power (even though it shows 75% or better signal!) or a router configuration issue (which works with other machines, and used to work fine most of the time on this machine). Sometimes it will recover on its own if left alone, but for the past week it has barely worked at all. I travel alot and need to connect to routers out in the world (hotels, hotspots, businesses, etc) and most of them are unconnectable!When I am in local only mode, I notice that there is no received data coming from the router, and I cannot ping the router either -- hence NO CONNECTION, NOT EVEN LOCAL (even though it reports a local connection). If it DID work and then goes into local only mode, all received data halts. If I then disconnect and try to reconnect, it tells me that it CANNOT CONNECT to this network!!!!!!!!!! At that point the only 2 options is to reboot or uninstall/reinstall the driver, and then it MIGHT reconnect to the router and if it does it MIGHT actually talk to the router and be usable!I am ready to throw this out and buy a mac, which I know nothing about, because I do know that it works more than 5% of the time!!!!! (more like 99.5%) I have scavenged ALL OVER THE INTERNET looking for answers and tried everything I could think of, but nothing fixes the problem, sometimes it seems to go away for a week or month, but then it comes back, and usually is 1 or 2 days of NO connectivity AT ALL (Without a wire). My brother WORKS FOR MICROSOFT and tells me how Vista is not the problem and its the hardware vendors / drivers that are INCOMPATIBLE with all the GREAT features vista has to offer, and thats how the world moves on to better things because older inferior things get left behind as new technology supercedes it... but seriously, WHAT IS INFERIOR HERE the OLD windows XP or the VISTA??????Can anybody tell me if theres a setting on the router that will make it more compatible? How about the driver settings or anything else that will stop the LOCALONLY message and just let it talk to the gateway it is being told to talk to???????? IF I have LOCAL access then I should be able to talk to my gateway, right????? ps the intel system checker tool thingy says all checks ok EXCEPT for pinging the router!!!!!(funny my xp machine pings just fine, and even my little mobile device works all the time!!!)My problem seems to fit the description of 2 or 3 recurring problems that are ALL over the internet with little or no WORKING answers. If anyone has actually fixed this or has good insight to a new idea, then HELP US ALL PLEASE!!!!!!!
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February 19th, 2009 9:46am

IT PROF. YOUR A GENIUS. I TRIED THE NORTON UNINSTALL & IT WORK FOR ME. I WILL BE FOREVER IN YOUR DEBT. I HAVE BEEN TEARING MY HAIR OUT TRYING TO SORT OUT THIS PROBLEM. I HOPE THAT IT WORKS FOR EVERYONE ELSE. I WAS REALY CLOSE TO TROWING MY 1200 LAPTOP ACROSS THE ROOM 7 GETTING A HAMMER TO IT. I WILL CHECK IN AGAIN & SEE IF I CAN HELP SOMEONE ELSE IN RETURN. GOOD LUCK EVERBODY.
March 5th, 2009 7:25am

I had the same trouble with my HP laptop not recognizing the network adaptor, wouldnt let me use wireless, would connect via cable only, I called my provider and found out it was an issue with my particular laptop (running Vista, not sureif thats relevant). I was told that since its widespread, it was warranty. They sent me a kit to mail in my laptop which I did on a Friday, I had it back and fully repaired by the following Wednesday and havent had a problem since. Cost me nothing.
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March 7th, 2009 7:32pm

For my case, I tried below to make it working:1. Uninstall Anti Virus S/W (e.g. Norton)2. Restart3. If still not working, try to follow above reply to run Norton Remove Tool4. Restart5. Wireless is working, and can connect to internetHope this is helpful.
March 10th, 2009 4:37am

I GOT THIS PROBLEM FIXED!!I am an IT technician and was having a bear of a time getting our Vista machines to work over the wireless signal - they would get LOCAL ONLY access and never connect to the internet.I tried firmware updates to the router, assigning Static IPs to the workstations, hotfixes, Windows Updates, and other "solutions" ... all with no luck. Finally, I just replaced the router with a new one that was made during the Vista era as a last-ditch effort. To my surprise, it worked! Now all of our XP and Vista machines connect instantly and without issue.For those of you still pulling your hair out over this problem, I would recommend upgrading your router. But save the receipt in case it doesn't work.
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March 10th, 2009 8:24pm

I'm having a similar problem. but in my case, the wireless adapter will not connect at all to ANY wireless network.I have looked all over the web for a solution, and tried various things but noneof them work at all, and some make things worse.But nobody hasany good answer.If anybody has any information or insight on this problem I would be much obliged if they would give me a reply.
March 14th, 2009 7:49am

I'm having a wireless networkproblem with my Vista based Delllaptop with an Intel 4965AGN NIC.My adapter will not connect underANY circumstance to ANY wireless network with ANY security setting.I'velooked forall sortsof troubleshooting websitesand fixes, But none of them seem to apply to my situation. I've also tried updating the drivers for the NICNeedless to say this has become frustrating to the point where i'm considering buying a Mac and being done with it. if anybody has information about my situation or needs to ask questionsin order to solve the problem, my e-mail is wilsonm93@live.com Thanks...
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March 14th, 2009 8:03am

I was able to SOMETIMES log onto a router, but there would be no actual data transfer between the router and my computer. Sometimes I would not get a dhcp address, and other times I would, but there is still no data transfer.I detailed my problem in an earlier post, and it got worse, before it got better......Just YESTERDAY I found a driver for 4965AGN on the intel website dated January of 2009. I am PRETTY SURE I tried it before, but not positive. Anyway I d/l'ed it and installed it, and suddenly I connected right up and stayed connected until now (1 1/2 days later). Tomorrow I am going out of town and will need to connect to a hotel router and/or my travel router, and to atleast 2 other routers related to my work.... WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS THEN!!!IF that file doesnt fix your problem, I was using an earlier dell driver that seemed to work a little better than their latest driver (well it SEEMED better but it still would connect and work 1/10 of the time) and I would give it a static ip whenever I could (eliminates not getting dhcp address problem) and I found that going to the device manager and either disabling/re-enabling or uninstalling/reinstalling would SOMETIMES make it work; or re-starting the computer! If you uninstall your driver and re-install, it will lose any stored info about your connections (like passwords, etc), but if you simply "update" to a new (or old) driver, it usually keeps all that info, but re-starts the hardware from scratch so it might work... If you are connected but not transferring data, or "this network is incompatible with your crappy dell computer" (or similar message) then you need to re-initialize the hardware by disable/re-enable, uninstall/reinstall, or restart the computer; then you can try again.GOOD LUCK!!!PS, for those who recommend getting a new router, I agree that might be the best solution (how about a new usb wifi card to replace the crappy internal one!) but I use my laptop for traveling and need to connect at hotels, sometimes airports, and on my job to various routers, so there has to be a better solution than "buying a new router" because I cant change out the routers at all the hotels around the world!!!
March 14th, 2009 10:17am

Look at this. Eleven pages. Started in 2007 and continuing with no sign of resolution for most of us two years later. I've had it. Some of you may enjoy "the thrill of the hunt" trying to solve the puzzle, but I'm not a computer geek and I paid around $900 dollars for something that doesn't work. Not now, and apparently not ever. Microsoft isn't concerned because they know we won't go anywhere else. We never have before. But for me this is different. I can't afford the time or the money to play with this anymore. I'm taking this machine back where I got it. I'll make whatever deal I can get to at least get something back. No more Microsoft.
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March 18th, 2009 11:48pm

I got a new Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Ultra RangePlus Broadband Router and the problem went away instantly. I had an older, wired linksys BEF SR41 router that was connected to a linksys WAP54-G wireless -G access point. This combination was working pretty good with my xp desktop, two xp and one vista wireless laptops for about a year. Suddenly on the vista laptop I was getting the error that headlines this page (local access only). One xp laptop was connecting fine and the other xp was connecting fine.....most of the time; it was going in and out some. Anyhow, I initially cussed MS Vista up and down and tried several of these solutions listed but to no avail. I was getting ready to reinstall vista when I decided to take all my laptops downtown to see if they could pick up the free wireless down there. When I got next to the coffeeshop all my laptops including the vista one connected instantaneously with no problem. After cursing my late troubleshooting techniques for blaming Vista for a whole day I went to the store and replaced my older networking units with a new Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Ultra RangePlus Broadband Router and the problem went away instantly. I figured the the old, wired router was starting to go bad and started to feed bad dhcp addresses to the access point. Don't get me wrong though, I still have issues with Vista. That's what worked for me anyway. Hope you guys find a solution - John
March 30th, 2009 2:24pm

Hello, just bought a new laptop this week that came with vista basic. Having the local access only with wireless since. Router is a dlink 615 which is a recent purchase. Have tried the registry changes, uninstalling norton using norton removal tool, adding in norton my network as a trusted network. Still cannot solve the problem but on occasion do find it able to connect 10 per cent of the time. I have other wireless computers, win2000pro, winxp and the are rock solid. Vista Basic is flaky for wireless. Please suggest a solution.
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April 1st, 2009 4:46am

I had the same "Local only" access problems with my Vista Home Premium, but it is now working fine after several days of trying various things includingsuggestions in this forum thread. The problem started for me when I uninstalled Norton Security 2007 to install a competitor's product. I got tired of Norton Internet Security's flaky issues with Vista, like LiveUpdate failing to download updated virus defs. I used "Programs and Features" from the Control Panel to uninstall Norton IS, which seemed to go smoothly--I saw no errors, and when I returned to Programs and Features, the product was removed from the list. However, after installing the competitor product (a top pick in Sept 2007's Consumer Reports), I was locked into "Local only" access for both my wireless and wired connection. What finally worked was the recommendation 4 days later from the new security vendor's support organization: I have checked the system information log you sent us and found that you still have components of Norton on the computer. This could be the cause of the problem. Kindly run the Norton uninstall to remove the remaining components of it. For the instructions on how to download and run theNorton uninstaller, please click on this link: http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=EN-1034185&id=EN-1034185 You need this Norton Removal Tool to fully uninstall the product. I soon as I ran it, my connection went back to "Local and Internet." Hope this might help some in this forum who had the same issue due to a firewall/security product that perhaps they tried to uninstall or remove but registry entries and other traces of the product still left hooks in Vista that prevented the system from connecting to the internet. --ITProf I've search long and hard for the solution to my Firefox connectivity woes. I thought it was a firewall issue at first, but couldn't quite figure it out. I tried uninstalling my copy of Norton AV as well, bt still no cigar. BUT This Norton removal tool did the trick! Thank you soooo much!
April 3rd, 2009 9:03am

Hello, just bought a new laptop this week that came with vista basic. Having the local access only with wireless since. Router is a dlink 615 which is a recent purchase. Have tried the registry changes, uninstalling norton using norton removal tool, adding in norton my network as a trusted network. Still cannot solve the problem but on occasion do find it able to connect 10 per cent of the time. I have other wireless computers, win2000pro, winxp and the are rock solid. Vista Basic is flaky for wireless. Please suggest a solution. I just had the exact same issue. I'm trying to get away from Norton Anti-Virus as it's been causing me more headache than it's worth. At this point, I thought I've uninstalled Norton AV. It wasn't until I ran the Norton Removal Tool that my wireless connection was restored. Credit goes to ITProf for this link: For the instructions on how to download and run theNorton uninstaller, please click on this link: http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=EN-1034185&id=EN-1034185 Try the removal tool after you do an uninstall and see if that restores your connection. If it does, then Norton AV is your problem. I'm installing Avast anti-virus to replace Norton. Good luck!
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April 3rd, 2009 10:44am

Hi all! I've got plenty of gray hairs because my (NEW Vista HP based) computer didn't want to connect every time after wakeing from sleep. Now finally I solved the problem - in my case I had to turn ON the option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" in Device Manager/ WLAN card Properties/ Power management. It seems easy but before that I tried millions of things and read million forums ... I hope I will help someone ...
April 7th, 2009 10:27pm

I have had this same problem after owning a Studio XPS 64-bit (wired with Bountiful router). Everything was fine untill this past Sunday, Norton did a Live Update. BINGO!!! Local acces only, limited connectivity, unidentified network. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I have a laptop in the house and it connected fine. I called Dell, Microsoft, Bountiful and even my ISP. Nobody had a clue. I logged onto this forum and tried everything everyone was saying to try (except throwing the computer against a brick wall). The last thing I did was to go to the device manager and right click on the network card adapter, click properties, go to power management and uncheck all of the boxes. Close out everything and re-boot. BINGO BANGO!!! We love using Vista but this problem was very annoying to say the least. It took me 2 days to get it right but it seems to be back to normall now and I am posting this using my desk top. I re-installed Norton 360 because I just don't like haveing no protection. If it happens again, I will know a little more on how to fix next time. I hope this helps someone out there. Good Luck!!!
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April 8th, 2009 3:16am

disable everything Norton - including the uninstall fix here change channel on router to 11, and encryption to tpik? (not aes) disable ipv6 change to high power as outlined here did this on two vista laptops and both are now working, for the time being. msft is a HORRIBLE company and should be ashamed of the trash they call a product. i HATE them and beg god, or satan for that matter, for a valid alternative. apple?
April 8th, 2009 8:00pm

Change settings on your wireless router from WEP to WAP Personal thats how i fixed my computer having the same issue. You may have to make a new key if you dont know what to do call your ISP and ask them to walk you through changing from WEP ecryption to WAP encryption. Besides WAP is safer anyways but many routers dont use it.
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April 21st, 2009 1:58am

I have been having this issue also, and have finally found something which works. After much troubleshooting the lower level network layer (I'm a Cisco guy), I discovered that the MAC (hardware) address assigned to the network card wasn't valid. Long story short, check in the advanced properties of your network adapter for a setting called "Network address". This is the unique hardware address assigned to the card. This is normally hardcoded on the card, but can be set by software. For some reason the automatic default MAC address on my card started with ed-0b-00 (Organisation ID), which doesn't seem valid. Hence devices on the network which need a valid MAC address were rejecting packets, e.g. the router. This was causing Vista to freak out because it couldn't talk to the router. What was weird is that Windows Server 2003 would communicate, but my XP PC wouldn't. To resolve this, run an ipconfig /all on your Vista PC, and check what the "Physical address" says. If it doesn't start with "00","02", or "08" then it is possibly wrong. You can set a valid Physical Address in the advanced adapter properties. I suggest you just use a valid address from another PC, and change the last 2 numbers. Worked for me. Mark ^ | This --------- Mark hit the nail right on the head. Check the Advanced properties of your network adapter (specifically the Network Address field). My field was empty. I took the MAC address of my DWA-556 wireless N card (ipconfig /all ) and put the hex address into this field. Apply/OK. No more shenanigans. I don't normally trust the network guys (being a desktop monkey) but it seems my doubt, on this occaision ;p , was unfounded. Well done, matey - and THANKS :) Mr P.
April 24th, 2009 6:41pm

I have been having this issue also, and have finally found something which works. After much troubleshooting the lower level network layer (I'm a Cisco guy), I discovered that the MAC (hardware) address assigned to the network card wasn't valid. Long story short, check in the advanced properties of your network adapter for a setting called "Network address". This is the unique hardware address assigned to the card. This is normally hardcoded on the card, but can be set by software. For some reason the automatic default MAC address on my card started with ed-0b-00 (Organisation ID), which doesn't seem valid. Hence devices on the network which need a valid MAC address were rejecting packets, e.g. the router. This was causing Vista to freak out because it couldn't talk to the router. What was weird is that Windows Server 2003 would communicate, but my XP PC wouldn't. To resolve this, run an ipconfig /all on your Vista PC, and check what the "Physical address" says. If it doesn't start with "00","02", or "08" then it is possibly wrong. You can set a valid Physical Address in the advanced adapter properties. I suggest you just use a valid address from another PC, and change the last 2 numbers. Worked for me. Mark I have been fighting this problem, disabling and re-enabling my wireless connection multiple times until suddenly it works for a little while! After seeing this post, I checked my mac address and the first 6 digits (which signify the manufacturer of the card - I did some google research) is 00-13-e8; That signifies a company called Kingjon Digital Technology (even though ipconfig reports a intel wireless 4965agn). I wonder if this company doesnt have good hardware (or the software drivers are not 100% compatible???) what do other people with the same problem have? I might try changing to another address and see what happens, but its working right now so I'm afraid to change it! edit: I just tried to change it but could not find the place to set the physical address. I tried going to adapter properties (from the top of the properties page where you could select tcpip settings) and then to the advanced field; but there's nothing about mac address in there on my system!. Any thoughts???
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April 25th, 2009 7:45am

Well I should have known better, but I bought a couple of vista laptops with the WiFi issue. Macbooks work fine on all the WIFI services that Vista will not. The idea that we should dump our otherwise viable networks because MS produced this horror story is absurd. I have tried everything above by now - and I get some interesting and random results. A toshiba Satellite Pro was working - mostly, until a recent batch of "updates" - now isn't at all - it's just inserting a random IP address and shows no sign of finding DHCP. And a newer HP 6735s was conecting to DHCP just fine - but LOCAL only on either a DLINK or Belkin access point - but then on a Zyxel HW622, router it is worked to the internet only - although local access was implied, it isn't happening. I believe the Zyxel bridging is correctly configured. Having read all that has been said about this around the web, there is a hige problem here, and it is simply not right that paying customers should be saddled with trying to fix it. Maybe MS knows it simply cannot be fixed, hence the rush to get Windows 7 out..?
May 1st, 2009 2:45am

I am not any computer genius, and I was having the same problem. I fixed mine, I hope, lol, by doing the following:I used this fix I had found that said to go to th start panelThen to the control panelThen to system devicesClick on your network cardClick on advancedGo to link speedChange from auto to 10 or 100 half I noticed that one link that I had accidently melded with an old dial up service was working. It was working this morning, but I lost it, and had only local access again. I merged the local access only with the dial up, as I had the other network and I am online again. The dial up service is no longer an active account.I had tried every fix you can think of or find. Why this works, I don't know. I just know it worked for me.
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May 20th, 2009 2:47pm

Good news for those waiting for Vista SP2. Installed it today, as it came in through windows update. 350mb plus...boy sounds like a few things were fixed.... This issue is STILL NOT FIXED. I continue with the same problem in this thread, I only manage to get a wireless connection 1/10 tries. I have been managing using hibernate, it seems to maintain the wireless connection after hibernate. Can't believe MS didn't come through on this one. I am using a new laptop and router. Does anyone from MS Support read this thread, please help out by logging a bug etc. Post some suggestions for us here, its abysmal.
May 27th, 2009 4:24am

My laptop is having this problem, but it is getting worse and worse. I regularily use about 6 different secure wireless networks at family locations etc, and I am only getting the local only fault at 3 of them now. It started with just one, then another a couple of weeks later, now another!! I have Vista Business with SP1 and all current recomended updates. Why are only some of the networks I use affected? Why can I use it quite happily where I am now?!!!!!!
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June 1st, 2009 12:48am

This post doesn't fit the actual issue I am researching, but I came across something else not yet mentioned here that may or may not help those of you with this specific problem. Microsoft Article You cannot connect to the Internet from a Windows Vista-based computer that uses a local .pac file at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937151 addresses the following symptom:When you try to connect from a computer that uses a local proxy autoconfiguration (.pac) file, the proxy server is not detected successfully.and cause:Because NCSI cannot find the proxy server, the computer is reported as having only local connectivity. I hope this might help someone out there. Good luck!
June 6th, 2009 11:00pm

So... read through all of this and I know this is going to sound like the dumbest solution ever... but I just had the same frustrating problem on my new dell laptop, so i called my work helpdesk. We uninstalled the driver for the wireless card and restarted the computer. Now it works flawlessly. I used to work as a helpdesk lacky, so I was skeptical to say the least, but everything works now. hope this helps someone, it's a crazy easy fix to try before going too crazy and it worked for me!!! (and just realized i hit "propose as answer" to the post by nanny ruth above, sorry about that... hopefully that's an answer too!)
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June 9th, 2009 4:45pm

fantasy, I expect what it did was revert to the original driver that came with the operating system as it can't work without one!To all those bashing Microsoft, they don't make the wireless cards or the drivers for them. Intel are as much to blame for it as any of them, has anyone seem them dive in to help? No.Yes you may get less problems with a Mac because Apple make all the hardware and drivers for it. Less variety of hardware, more expensive. It all depends on what you want to use your PC for.Finally, to any IT tech/engineer/consultant who's whining about this issue and how they want to sue MS for their wasted time...you're in the wrong job.
June 9th, 2009 4:56pm

Hi everyone.I have been working on this issue for the last 4 hours now. I have finally found a solution that works for my friends PC.I have downloaded the Norton Removal tool which I ran and hey presto the PC now connects to the internet. As it was not my PC and I believed that Norton was removed previously I had no reason to suspect it was the problem. However after a while I started to review the folders in the Program directory and found a Norton Folder. I deleted this rebooted the PC and discovered that the Firewall was not working properly. It would not start no matter what. So I decided to restore the folder and then reset to an previous restore point. I then ran the tool which resolved the issue.So for those of you who have had Norton (I will refrain from cursing at this point) on your machine but removed it I would download the removal tool and run it to see if it helps.by the way the PC does have Vista.I have not read through all of ,this post as I have been looking elsewhere for a solution so forgive me if it has been mentioned before.Good luckRob
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June 12th, 2009 2:52am

Bloody ____ - I have never read such a harrowing litancy of incompetence. I have the same problem and I am just working through it now - reading this almost makes me sick - how is it possible Microsoft can be so incredibly incompetent and get away with it - surely they are breaking some fundamental laws of decency - I am lost for words.....
June 18th, 2009 6:33pm

So i had the problem but i worked out a solution with first making the wired connection and wireless connection working seperately Go to the manage network connectionsand see that none of the two wireless or wired adapter is being shared then select both these and rightclick and select bridge connections Your internet will start to work on your laptop but onemoreadvice set the ip of the network wireless adapter in desktop pc as 192.168.0.1(before bridging) and let the it be automatic in your laptop. this will connect the network fast. I have successfully ran internet on my laptop with this way but i cant see on laptopthe files that i have shared on my desktop pc but i can access my laptop shared files on desktop easily (i m working on this, this isnt a big problem as this has occurred to me while connecting vista and xp via wire) Well before applying the above procedures make sure you havent made and abnormal changes regarding your wireless adapter settings if you have done make them to defaults And if this wont work try to turn off firewall on both the computers (widows firewall + external e.g mcafee) Note my scenario is like this Desktop Pc =XP = Connected to internet via broadband router + ethernet modem (both in one) laptop = vista = connected to desktop via ad-hoc wireless connection This worked great for me. Connected LAN and wireless (internet works fine on LAN), bridged LAN to wireless, unplugged LAN, Vista still shows LAN still connected, internet works great.
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June 23rd, 2009 8:29am

Hello, I changed the wireless settings on the router as follows http://www1.linksys.com/support/troubleshoot/wireless/access_point_config/advanced_settings.html RTS Threshold Beacon Interval Fragmentation Threshold -fixed
June 24th, 2009 1:14am

Hey folks, I had been facing the same problem as you people and once thought to format my laptop and have XP instead of vista. But fortunately I discussed this problem with my friend Hardik (IT Admin, Indusa Infotech Pvt. Ltd.) and he told me to do few settings which led me to have successfully connection to internet with my wireless router. Here are those steps: 1. Connect your Laptop to the Modem / Router provided by ur ISP and connect to Internet. 2. If you are able to access Internet via LAN then this solution should work for you. 3. Go to command prompt and type ipconfig /all. You will see Windows IP Configuration details and note down values of following categories from Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection Section:IPv4 Address Subnet Mask Default Gateway DNS Server 4. Exit from the command prompt and go to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Manage Wireless Networks. 5. Click on Adapter Properties. 6. In Networking Tab, uncheck Internet Protocol Version 6(TCP/IPv6). 7. Select Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties. 8. Select Use of the following IP address option. 9. Configure values forIPv4 Address Subnet Mask Default Gateway which we have noted down in Step 3. Also select Use the following DNS server addresses option and fill up the preferred DNS server as the value of DNS Server which we have noted down in step 3. Press Ok every where nd come to the desktop. 10. Now restart the computer and check if you are able to access internet via the router. I wish these points be helpful to many of you.All the best. -- Tiks
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June 26th, 2009 5:50am

Thank you - your solution worked fantasticaly for me.
June 29th, 2009 7:50pm

This is what helped me finally get my Vista connection to connect to the Internet. I was baffled that I could connect with a couple of my wireless networks/routers, but not others. I'm guessing that was because I had set up those other networks before uninstalling Norton 360 and somehow "registered" those routers with the remnants of Norton's that remained. Running the uninstall tool cleared it out and on the reboot, I was connected to the internet. Thanks! (BTW, I had problems with the wired connection too connecting only Local. That too is solved.) Chuck
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July 1st, 2009 3:08am

Thanks ITProf! Your "solution" worked fine for me for about 5 hours. Now I'm back to square one.I've read thru all 239 replies to this thread and there are only about 99 that were worth my time. If more people applied their energies to the problem at hand, instead of whining & cryingabout it, we could probably have the issue resolved by now.I began having this problem around the beginning of March. I have two wireless adapters that I have the problem with and I had the problem with Windows 7 Beta. What is the common denominator?I DON'T have the problem with Windows 7 RC !!! So, let me investigate what I can and I'll get back to you.
July 6th, 2009 7:15am

Also, you might want to try a TCP/IP reset at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357
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July 6th, 2009 7:55am

I just tried this KB on a friend's Vista laptop that was experiencing this exact problem and found it to resolve the error. Very odd bug. I'm a developer so will have to ask my colleagues on the networking side to explain this to me further.
July 11th, 2009 5:08am

Make sure your routers time and date are correct.
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July 27th, 2009 12:49pm

I hate to admit it, but the cause of this is norton, While I was uninstalling norton, I saw my wireless start to connect towards the end of norton uninstall. REMOVE NORTON.
July 29th, 2009 2:18am

I think everyone on this thread is suffering from slightly different problems. I've seen stuff like ZoneAlarm can block your internet connection if not unistalled properly and I'm sure it is the same with other firewall software. However, the workaround I found in my case, when I couldn't get a connection, was simply to assign my laptop an IP address on the router. In a lot of cases it seems to be a DHCP problem whereby the router doesn't want to lease an IP but if you register one on the router (using the MAC/Physical address) - this might work for some of you!!.
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July 31st, 2009 1:46pm

I will tell you somthing, dont bother hp support at all (dont do nothing) and dont get another wifi adapter, i tried it today and no, it didnt workIve Got Windows vista home premium 32.bit and Norton Antivirus Im using Mobile internet by 3 in their router Dongle: E156Grouter: Huawei D100ive had this problem for about 3.3 months :@ gettin angryi have tried eveything, SP1 doesnt do anything to help, Reply back if anyone here wants to go to the good old xp, when MS knew how to make an os with networking THAT WORKS!!!
August 1st, 2009 10:46pm

I solved my "Local access only" problem by: Stop Vista Firewall at Start / Computer (click right mouse button) / Manage / Services and Application / Services / Windows Firewall / Stop Request ip-address at cmd.exe / ipconfig -renew Restart Vista Firewall (There may be some errors in the above terminology, because it is my translation from the Finnish GUI.) So in my case HP laptop Vista Firewall is blocking DHCP-requests. I can also specifically see from the security event log, that firewall is blocking packets related to ports 67 and 68, which are used by DHCP. I have my laptop in a domain environment and I get my firewall rules from the group policy, so I have only limited control overthe firewall. I should study more carefully firewall rules from the group policy editor, when I have more time for this. However at this point there seems to be some strange issues with the firewall: I dont have any problems with the same DHCP-service, if I am connected to the network with an Ethernet cable instead of WLAN. Firewall rules should be the same in both situations. (Sometimes I have seen the same problem also with a cable after switching cable from one network to another.) Not all Vista laptops in the same domain are experiencing the same problem. After using several weeks my WLAN successfully, the problem started unexpectedly. I am not aware of any modifications to firewall rules. I hope this may help someone with the same problem. Thanks this solution worked for me
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August 2nd, 2009 4:10pm

I installed a new different anti-virus and it appeared the problem came back. Had to manually create a wireless connection, the first time using it worked but afterward it did not work unless I did a manual setup. Vista has a mind of its own...
August 4th, 2009 3:28am

I have disabled UAC on windows vista and my problem is nearly gone, ive had it working for 5hrs straignt using a new belkin G usb adapter i just got, Try it, it may work Windows Vista has dissapointed me a lot, why did microsoft forget how to make a proper OS, whos with me on that point, reply back on Technet
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August 4th, 2009 11:08am

WIRED SOLUTION THAT WORKED FOR ME: I've had connection to this router from my laptop that runs Vista 64bit for about 8 months, then suddenly one day it stopped connecting with the message 'unidentified network: local access only'. I tried everything in this thread and many others but nothing worked! Even restoring my laptop to factory condition did not work! Then I found a solution to my problem! If you had access before to a router but all of a sudden one day it stops working, try this. Switch ports on the router! It worked instantly! How i figured it out was i switched computers with an older one(with XP) and found out the connect did not go through either. So i switch ports and PRESTO! it works! I'm currently using the old gen linksys BEFSR41 model. So if you have the same problem I did i suggest try switching ports! now if only i could return that new D-655 router i bought on ebay... </3
August 4th, 2009 7:52pm

I resolved this by removing the 'allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' tag on the power management tab on the NIC card in the device manager
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August 5th, 2009 2:58pm

Hey folks, I had been facing the same problem as you people and once thought to format my laptop and have XP instead of vista. But fortunately I discussed this problem with my friend Hardik (IT Admin, Indusa Infotech Pvt. Ltd.) and he told me to do few settings which led me to have successfully connection to internet with my wireless router. Here are those steps: 1. Connect your Laptop to the Modem / Router provided by ur ISP and connect to Internet. 2. If you are able to access Internet via LAN then this solution should work for you. 3. Go to command prompt and type ipconfig /all. You will see Windows IP Configuration details and note down values of following categories from Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection Section: IPv4 Address Subnet Mask Default Gateway DNS Server 4. Exit from the command prompt and go to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Manage Wireless Networks. 5. Click on Adapter Properties. 6. In Networking Tab, uncheck Internet Protocol Version 6(TCP/IPv6). 7. Select Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties. 8. Select Use of the following IP address option. 9. Configure values for IPv4 Address Subnet Mask Default Gateway which we have noted down in Step 3. Also select Use the following DNS server addresses option and fill up the preferred DNS server as the value of DNS Server which we have noted down in step 3. Press Ok every where nd come to the desktop. 10. Now restart the computer and check if you are able to access internet via the router. I wish these points be helpful to many of you. All the best. -- Tiks It works! I am just not sure whether some settings will have to be changed to connect to some other router elsewhere .... Thanks! Zkuna
August 7th, 2009 8:04am

For what it's worth, I had this described problem (Vista Home Premium), and only was able to get local access, which meant that I got an IP from the wlan router DHCP, but wasn't able to access the internet though. What worked for me was to change the WPA2-AES encryption to WPA2-TKIP. No problems whatsoever anymore. What I also noticed was that at least in my case it wasn't actually fault in Windows Vista. Even on my XP computer while the wireless connection got connected and actually worked (sluggishly) I had major packet loss while pinging something and the network would only work well sporadically. I guess Vista justismore pickywith its network wizards and assisted functions and thus couldn't get the connection up as well as XP did.I guess this could be described more properly as a problem with my wireless router (Buffalo Nfiniti WHR-G300N) and the way it handles WPA2-AES. I'm sure this won't work for everyone, but could work for people with a similar kind of WLAN router.
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August 10th, 2009 10:42pm

My dell inspiron notebook just recently started doing this in the last week. I've had it for a few months and just now it is randomly switching to local only. But then it will come back to local and internet randomly. My situation isn't quite as bad as some people on here but maybe someone knows a different solution for me?
August 16th, 2009 11:22pm

Same problem, different SOLUTION.Asus WL520g router, HP 6735s notebook with built in Wifi. Both declared to be capable of afterburner. OS: Vista business.Internet connection was possible if an older machine (XP) with wifi card without afterburner had already been connected through wireless. On the opposite, connecting the6735 first (with local only) prevented any communication between the old machine and the rooter.I disabled afteburn in the wireless adapter settings in the notebook. The internet connection has been without any problem since then. The only annoying thing, that I miss the high speed (125 Mb/s)I paid for.I don't kow ifit is a compatibility issue, or interference ofVistaon wifi protocol.
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August 20th, 2009 1:24pm

I have struggled with this for a while. Samsung Q45 and new Vigor router. Tried everything listed above, and nothing. Had a brilliant idea though - a brand new clean installation of Windows 7.... And... exactly the same. Local only. The solution? Wipe and install XP. Works perfectly.
August 20th, 2009 10:47pm

Dear all,please try cheking on your AV, try turning off the firewall of your Av, reset IE settings, turning off UAC, restart the computer and let me know
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August 27th, 2009 12:08am

Dear all, please try cheking on your AV, try turning off the firewall of your Av, reset IE settings, turning off UAC, restart the computer and let me know My problem happened on a clean installation of Vista (32) and Win7 (32) so no AV to turn off.
August 27th, 2009 7:55pm

I contacted my ISP and they reset my wireless router to a different wavelength. apparently, it was running at 5.4 GHz and was getting interference from other networks, telephones and other wireless devices.
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August 28th, 2009 3:45am

I had a customer bring in an Everex Laptop running Windows Vista Home Basic that had the dreaded "Local Only" problem. Initially I had thought the problem had something to do with the customer's router, and older Belkin consumer grade (Wal-mart) wireless router. However, after substituting a different router the problem would not go away, nor was it confined to the wireless connection. I searched for solutions on the net and found many suggestions, but none of the solutions (all mentioned in this thread) worked. I did find the solution, two things, actually. The solution I found might be very specific to this customer's laptop, but it might be worth checking for those of you who are still having the problem. Anyway, when I went into the properties of the network adapter, and along with the protocols and clients you would normally see (TCP/IPv6, TCP/IPv4, QoS Pack Scheduler, Link-Layer Topology ...etc) I saw an unfamiliar one, "Winpk Filter Driver". So I unchecked it from the list, rebooted and presto! Everything worked, no more "Local Only", "Unidentified Network", etc. I'm assuming this "Winpk Filter Driver" is this: http://www.ntkernel.com/w&p.php?id=7 How it got installed, I don't know. I assume it came along with some other program, perhaps a antivirus program that was removed (you know, the demos of McAfee and Norton AV that seem to come with every new computer). It seems to be a legit program. I have never seen it listed as a protocol/service in any other Vista systems I have worked on. The second thing that showed up occurred the next day, when I booted up the laptop. Out of the blue AVAST reported a Trojan called "netfilter.exe". This program had NOT show up during my prior scans of this machine (done with an AVAST boot disc, outside of Vista). I assume this trojan is this: https://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Threat/Encyclopedia/Entry.aspx?Name=Trojan%3aWin32%2fLiften.A&wa=wsignin1.0 While the machine DID have the netfilter.exe trojan, I do not believe it was responsible for the "local only" problem, because the problem went away BEFORE AVAST found the file and removed it. I believe the "Winpk Filter Driver" was causing the problem. In any case, the Laptop now works perfectly, my customer is happy and I am happy. Chuck
August 30th, 2009 9:50pm

In my case it was the Anti Virus - the machine running Vista had NOD32 installed and I replaced it with CA Security, but it continued with the same problem (Only local access to ANY wireless network). I then tried Microsoft OneCare AV and that solved the problem. Hasn't come back yet. Is Microsoft trying to get the monopoly of the AV market as well? Good try!
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September 21st, 2009 1:24am

I have just purchased another Hp notebook with vista home premiumand have been sitting at it for endless hours trying to work out what this "Local access" is, it's rarely "Local and internet". Both my kids have vista home basic on there less than 12 mths old Hp's and didn't have this problem but this new one of mine Grrrr, hence the name "CRAZYMUM", I'm not thatcomputer savy and am ready to throw it out the office window. I read the long list of Possible remedies and will try "csadoians" fix it, has anybody else had success with this possible fix? It did have the norton trial version which I uninstalled the moment I got it home (have had bad norton 360 experiences). Never had this problem with XP, but unfortunately vista seems to come with everything these days, I'm not that game to try multiple solutions, so which solution will actually work for my Hp Pavillion dv7-2109TX, vista Home premium (32-bit) McAfee security! This is costing me a fortune and I'm stuck on my ole faithfull 10 y/oxp desktop to post this on the net, going "stircrazymum". Thanks for any help!
September 28th, 2009 1:00pm

I may have saved my sanity, if only for a while, I turned off my McAfee firewall and presto straight up comes "Local and internet", I'll see how long things stay stable, fingers crossed! I have sat here for hours waiting for those magical words to appear.
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September 28th, 2009 3:36pm

I had exactly the same problem. Tried all the suggestions--no results. Then I uninstalled Norton 360 (the uninstaller leaves some components present and active, so I had uninstall the last ones via the Vista Start menu--I'm pretty sure that's essential). With Norton uninstalled, the Internet was back in fine shape!Note: On the victim computer, Norton 360 was provided via a "3-key" Norton subscription purchased from a different computer. The subscription was renewed on the latter computer, but Norton on the victim computer apparently did not get the renewal status. The blocked Internet access trouble evidently started on the day that Norton on the victim computer supposedly expired. Thus it was almost certainly Norton 360 that was blocking my Internet access. (And without Internet access, I could not use Internet-based Norton facilities to overcome the renewal issue.)Conclusion: Try uninstalling Norton if you have "Local access only," especially if you have an expiring Norton subscription.
October 3rd, 2009 1:32am

I've had this happen a few times over the last year or so. Each time the windows firewall had mysteriously turned itself back on, conflicting with comodo. Turning it off again stops most or all of the problem. (Sometimes my browsers still can't access but everything else can) If the browsers still can't access then going back to my most recent restore point has fixed the problem on those occasions. (I think it may be an IE8 setting that causes the problems in those circumstances, even with firefox. Haven't played with this though. Hope this helps.
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October 7th, 2009 5:17pm

I had this problem (local access only) tried everything. No sucess. Then read this forum and removed Norton..Problem solved...happy to be back on line again..
November 1st, 2009 8:59pm

My connection trouble was related to a Linksys WRT54G with Tomato installed. As soon as I turned off "Afterburner" on the router Vista had no more problems obtaining an IP address.
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November 18th, 2009 1:35am

Thanks so much for the suggestion. I have downloaded updates, changes settings and become very frustrated for the last three months. I followed your instructions and set the IP address, subnet and gateway manually and so far it is the ONLY solution that has WORKED ! Thanks again for the suggestion as I have read just about all information I could find on the net and none of it worked. This fix appears to be the real key.
November 26th, 2009 3:16am

Really glad you posted this! I too have an older laptop and just purchased a new wireless router. Seems the new router has much higher incription set as a default. With the information I got from the netsh command, I could back down the router so my laptop would connect. Too bad all these people curse M$ so much. In my opinion, this simple command should have been included in the setup instructions for the router for backward compatability.Thanks again,Glen
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December 4th, 2009 9:14am

POSSIBLE SOLUTION:Dear All, Spent hours ploughing my way through all the posts here. Wow. My problem started when my wife got a new Dell E6400 Latitude with Vista Business on it. A few days agao we installed a wireless printer from HP (5500). All went well, we run 3 laptops in the house, one Dell XP, one Dell E6400 Latitude Vista Business and one Acer Aspire 2920Z Vista Home Basic. After about a day of the printer being installed the Dell E6400 started suffering from your woes; namely jumping to LOCAL CONNECTION only and all webpages coming up as internet connection lost. The other 2 laptops were fine. I spent all last night methodically attempting each suggestion on this forum that showed reasonable and safe knowledge behind them. None worked. I also uninstalled and reinstalled our Netgear WGR614v6 router on WEP. No result, the E6400 still hopped off connection. I then re-read something that was mentioned in this forum; that someone had noticed that when sleep or power save state was engaged the problem of LOCAL CONNECTION occurred. I looked into the Power Settings (R Click the Battery icon on bottom bar) and decided to select NEVER to sleep on any power setting. This means the laptop will only sleep if we manually tell it to rather than after say 15 mins of inactivity and will therefore not have issues re-engaging with Network Adapters. The laptop has stayed online ever since and has worked perfectly. This is clearly NOT the foundation solution as VISTA still needs fixing but for me is fine to live with and does SOLVE the problem. I've run it solidly today and it's working fine with uninterupted downloads of movies and uploads to blogs etc. Hope this helps some people. ;-)
December 6th, 2009 4:39pm

Okay, first of all, thanks to everyone who's contributed to this thread over the last few years. This has been a lifesaver for the last couple of days, even though it meant reading through a trillion posts. I have a WRT54GS linksys router running a wireless network from a virgin broadband connection in the UK, it's set to DHCP automatic and works pretty well most of the time with reasonably heavy use from 4 different laptops installed with XP, an Xbox (with a fixed IP), a Wii and an iphone(with a a fixed IP). I've had my Vista plagued Dell XPS 420 for about 8 months now, but a week ago I finally decided to get it onto the wireless network and internet. This is where the problems began. At first it was fine, but then in an attempt to solve an IP conflict I reflashed the firmware of the router with the latest version, and from that point I started experiencing the same well documented problems as everyone here. Since last night though - it seems that the problem may have been solved for me. Now I've tried a hundred different things from suggestions online...but the current settings I have that seem to work are as follows (and I'm not an expert at this, so I have no way of knowing if any or all of these are the reason I'm online as we speak) 1. I bridged the my local area connection with my wireless connection by doing the following: Right click on the two computer network symbol in your system tray at the bottom right of your desktop and select 'Network and Sharing Centre' then select the 'Manage Network Connections' option on the left. In the new window that opens, select 'Local Area Connection' icon and then holding down the CTRL key on your keyboard select the 'Wireless Network Connection' icon too then right click on the Wireless connection and Bridge connections. This will connect a new icon called 'Network Bridge'. You can then connect to the network by right clicking on the 'Wireless Network' icon. 2. I made sure that in my network was set to (Private) by doing the following... Right click on the two computer network symbol in your system tray at the bottom right of your desktop and select 'Network and Sharing Centre', just below the map of your network it should say the name of your Router and either (private network) or (public network. We want it to be a 'private network', so if it says 'public' click on the customize button accross from it on the right. Switch the bullet to private and then hit Next and then Close. At this point I was getting an internet connection, and Vista updates started to flood in as this was the first time the machine had been attached to the internet. Over the next few hours I installed update after update including service Pack 1. This called for restarting the PC on numerous occasions, and I found that when I restarted...my internet connection had again disappeared. The network had reverted to local only and private. The only way around this I found was to, in the Network Connections window, right click on the 'Wireless Network Connection' icon and remove bridge and then rebuild it again as before, then again set the network to (private). This allowed me to stay online again until the next windows update forced a reset, and then the problem would repeat. Finally, I recieved the update of service pack 2 and since that point I've been online even after restarts. I'm not sure whether it's the service pack that's fixed it or that in combination with the other settings, but I'm not going to play with the settings to find out unless it breaks again.I hope this helps someone.
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December 9th, 2009 2:05pm

Thanks ITProf, I concur the Local Only issue I had with Vista was down to me uninstalling a preloaded version of Norton. Once I ran the Norton full removal tool up popped the network connection and I was straight back connected to the internet. If you have the same symptons after uninstalling norton products I definitely recommend using the Norton Removal Tool. I have checked the system information log you sent us and found that you still have components of Norton on the computer. This could be the cause of the problem. Kindly run the Norton uninstall to remove the remaining components of it. For the instructions on how to download and run theNorton uninstaller, please click on this link: http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=EN-1034185&id=EN-1034185 Good luck. --Snads
December 16th, 2009 12:58am

POSSIBLE SOLUTION I changed the wireless channel from 11 (default was orignally 6 I think) to 13. This worked for me, and I tried alot of solutions. I think it is due to wireless interference as I noticed that there were a few extra wireless networks which werent there a few days ago when my wireless internet was working. I run a Sony Vaio on Vista. Before, wireless did not work but wired interent did on the same router.PS. You change this via router page. Which is http://192.168.1.1/ Good luck and keep i there, I hope it works for you.If this works for you please post abck and validate this solution for others. If not then try the many other proven solutions. Or call tech support and let them deal with the hassle!
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December 18th, 2009 7:04pm

Hi all After days of messing around with "Local Access only" I have found out that my licence has expired on Norton 360 On reading one of the earlier posts saying this might be the problem I uninstalled Norton and the error has gone I now have local and internet access. I hope this helps
December 28th, 2009 6:54pm

I'VE SPENT AT LEAST 30+ HOURS TRYING TO FIX THIS PROBLEM (this time) I have a D-Link DIR-615 router connected to my PC by ethernet. When I first tried to connect a (Vista) laptop through wifi, it took me about 6 hours to get it working. It seems as though this problem has a million different causes, and probably a million different solutions. This time, it took me about 8 hours the other night, and about 12 hours today. I don't want bore anyone with the details....... so after reading countless threads in tons of forums, troubleshooting pages, re-installing the router, etc, etc. I think it's safe to say that ANYBODY WHO HAS THE ISSUE OF "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY" WHEN TRYING TO CONNECT THROUGH WIFI AND ALREADY HAS A WORKING WIRED CONNECTION NEEDS TO INVEST SOME TIME IN TRYING EVERY AVAILABLE SOLUTION OFFERED WHEN YOU GOOGLE "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY". You will find various solutions such as: making sure your wired connection is set to a "private" network. Updating drivers for wireless cards. Updating firmware for routers. In the properties of your wifi (network) card: Disabling "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) ". Making sure the properties of "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) " are set to "Obtain an IP address " and "DNS server address automatically "; if this fails, then, Trying to assign a "static IP address " to your wifi card and entering the correct values for "subnet mask ", "default gateway " and "DNS server ". Uninstalling and then reinstalling your wifi (network) card. Disabling any firewalls you know of - vista/windows, norton, etc.....don't forget about the firewall in your router. Unplugging the router, connect back to the internet straight from your modem. Reset the router to factory settings (there's usually a small button that needs to be pushed using a paperclip or pen somewhere on the router). Reinstall the router from scratch and create a new network. Reset your computer's "internet protocol " (TCP/IP stack). Release/renew the IP address. Making sure your router has "DHCP " enabled. Double checking to make sure your router has "wireless " enabled. Checking the compatibility of everything you are using - does your router work with Vista? XP? does your wifi (network) card work with 802.11b or 802.11g or 802.11n ? When making the (wifi) connection, do you have the correct security/encryption mode selected (WEP, WPA, etc.) Removing norton (properly) or any other anti-virus software you have, making your connection and then reinstalling your software Editing your registry (DANGEROUS if you don't know what you're doing - you might end up with a very expensive paper weight) My only piece of advice, lol, since I know next to nothing about networks and things like "IP address"........DON'T GIVE UP and BE PATIENT . Try everything you can, without screwing up your computer. There are tons of forums around where people are willing to walk you through the diagnostic process of figuring out what's wrong, so they can tell you how to fix it. Be patient and answer their questions clearly. Remember, they're trying to help you because they're nice. MY SOLUTION??? well, all I had to do was disable one feature on my router, called "Auto Channel Scan ". When I did that, the default channel (6, I think, for me) came into play, and my laptop immediately went from "Local Access Only (Public network) " to "zaksrouter (Private network) ". I checked my phone - connected and working. This is just a feature that is supposed to relieve "congestion" on certain frequencies, as it will automatically choose one to work with (at least, I think). That somehow didn't sit right with my wifi devices. lol, only took me 12 hours to figure it out though...... One symptom that I was having that led me to believe it was some configuration with the router that was messed up was that 2 different wifi devices would "half-connect" to my network. The phone would have a checkmark beside "zaksrouter", indicating that I was connected.....but the wifi "symbol" was not present, and the "3G" was still showing. When I used my browser, it would tell me that my WEP (security) key was incorrect (it wasn't). At the same time, I had a Vista laptop that had connected and stayed like that for a couple of weeks, was now giving me troubles. So it wasn't vista, my network card, the phone, etc. It was something in the router configuration. Funny thing is that originally, my laptop worked with the "Auto Channel Scan " before. Will it stay good?? Am I gonna be back here begging for someone to help??? I don't know. All I know, is that I tried everything and anything I read about (except messing with the registry and uninstalling norton - I didn't try those).....and eventually I found the answer. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE......
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January 2nd, 2010 9:37pm

Excellent, the best solution presented others please learn from this.....
January 11th, 2010 8:31pm

Uninstall Norton 360 works for me -- Vista with Norton 360, Access Local only with both wired cable and wireless network. Thanks everyone share solutions. It saves me a lot of time. I bought my laptop with Vista in Oct, 2008, then I bought a wireless router and set up my router with the new laptop. The router is shared by my desktop and laptop. It had no problem in first half year. After about 10 months I have not touched my laptop, today I just want to surf online on my warmed bed. I encountered access local only problem. I have to get off bed to check my desktop (XP) network, reset the router, connect cable to laptop ... Searching "vista access local only" from my desktop, luckily I find here. Since my laptop network worked before I think the only possible change was Norton 360 expired. So uninstall it from control panel, restart the laptop. Everything work now. Someone seems have told me do not use Norton 360 when I just bought my laptop. Tonight I have no time to surf online but I do not need think solution in my dream:-) Good Luck!
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January 17th, 2010 10:03am

Hi! Only after new BIOS and new Wi-FI-card driver were published and installed the problem was solved. It seems someone has (finally) recognized the problem and worked on ...
January 17th, 2010 2:08pm

I had this same problem,when i used a usb wireless adapter i was able to get local and internet,seems to be a problem with the wireless card in the laptop.
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January 17th, 2010 6:40pm

I did tried not everything but the thing that worked for me:I run Ashampoo WinOptimizer 6 (Modules, Optimize performance, Internet tuner, Adjust automatically)and it works with no issues for over a week.
January 19th, 2010 8:02am

SileC,As with everyone here. I was faced with a wireless interface that was working then dropped into Local Access only. At times it would drop the wireless connection altogether. I removed my system and lugged it to the office so that I could make a wired connection. The wire connection lasted about 30 seconds before it too dropped into Loca Access only. At that point I started removing applications. My latest install was the Trend Micro Internet Security suite. This had been installed for about 5 days prior. However, it was in protection mode only. Once I ran a full system scan, the problems with the wireless router started. In the NIC properties, I had removed the Trend Micro NIDS option over and over with no results.However, all problems were solved when I completely removed TREND MICRO INTERNET SECURITY from my system. I will go back to Symantec. After all, I had slowly disabled all the Trend features one by one, with no result. There must be something in the NIC NIDS driver that is not configurable from the control pannel. What ____, I better get my money back!!
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January 20th, 2010 11:57pm

This worked for me. Thanks VERY much. I have Vista home premium 32bit. The PC is 2 years old and everything was fine until this last week. No new software was installed and no changes had been made that I could think of. Internet just stopped working and instead Windows told me I was connected to an Unidentified Network and Local Access only. I tried many things without success. But this workaround works for me. Right now I don't care that it is a workaround I'm just glad it works.
January 27th, 2010 5:54am

I had a similar problem last year, and talked to a computer engineer friend who checked my machine, and discovered that it had malware on it. Something called "vista". He told there was a free fix, called "linux" or I could buy something called "Mac". He assured me that either solution would work. I gave him my computer for a couple hours, and he installed the "linux" thing and the problem went away. Last month, I purchased a "Mac", and it never had this problem either. As a bouns, I found that both solutions resulted in a much faster computer. Hope this helps.
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February 2nd, 2010 3:11am

TOO GOOD !! GREAT !! WORKS 100% NOW. THANKS A LOT.
February 5th, 2010 8:19pm

Hey everyone.I too have been having a great deal of trouble trying to connect to my wireless internet. There is always a local connection but it doesn't allow me to surf the web. However, I managed to finally gain access to the wireless internet just before by doing the below steps:For vista:Go to StartControl Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> on the left side of screen click 'Manage network connections'Right click the 'wireless network connection' icon -> PropertiesLook down the list and click 'Internet Protocol Version 6 TCPIPv6' then click 'Properties'Make sure that "obtain an IPv6 address automatically' and 'Obtain DNS server address automatically' is tickedDo the same for 'Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP IPv4) ' Hopefully it should work now!
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February 9th, 2010 11:09pm

Anniespanny14: I did what you said and when I click properties on Internet Protocol Version 6 it says to install a network adapter. Where would I find this??
February 10th, 2010 7:04pm

As I wrote in here long ago, I had the same trouble and tried EVERYTHING possible to fix it, including "vista anti-lag", dhcp on, dhcp off with self-assigned ip addresses, uninstalling/reinstalling the driver (sometimes worked). My problem started with sometimes not connecting and got to the point that it would never connect to any router (I tried many, as I travel alot and sometimes need to connect to work routers, hotel routers, etc...) It got to the point that I went out and bought a usb wifi card, and that seemed to fix my problems for a while, until even that started giving me problems, so I exchanged it for a new one (same model) and it worked again for a while. I figured I am wearing out the usb connectors from heavy use and abuse. In the interim, I had also upgraded to windows 7 and hoped that would fix things with the internal card, but it made no difference at all. Finally I bought a new internal wifi card (my computer came with an intel 4965agn, I decided to upgrade to a 5300) and installed it. For about a month now I have had NOT ONE PROBLEM!!! IT CONNECTS EVERY TIME, GETS AN IP ADDRESS EVERY TIME, GETS INTERNET EVERY TIME, PERFECT!!!! I dont know if theres a bad batch of wifi cards out there, but I had a feeling for a while that it was my card and I am now happy to say my laptop is now really portable again!!!
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February 11th, 2010 8:09am

This "Local only" problem happened to me a couple days ago when i tried to connect my DSI to my WRT54G by changing my WPA setting to WEP. Immediately after my connection was dropped, so i changed my settings back to WPA but after that my connection hasn't been the same. About an hour ago i lost my connection and it went into Local only. What i did was I merged my LAN(I believe this is when the ethernet cable is in? My internet only worked when the cord was in.) and WLAN(I was still on my WLAN connection but it was on "local only" setting) connections and my wireless started working again. I don't know if this will help anyone but it worked for me, for now anways...
February 12th, 2010 10:08pm

I found remnants of Norton 360 were causing the local access problem. Once I downloaded Norton Removal Tool and ran it it wasn't even done when I had internet access again.
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March 4th, 2010 6:09am

I had the same problem with a new notebook installed with win vista home prem. I pretty much tried disabling IPv6 and deleting network connections but still no go. Finally i resolved it using a work around. I opened the network connections and right click on the wireless connection and click properties. In the Wireless connection properties I highlighted ipv4 and clicked properties. Under the general tab, I left it to default settings which is 'Obtain IP address automatically" I clicked on the Alternate Configuration tab and set it to user configured. i set the IP address, subnet, and default gateway manually. I also added Preffered DNS server to the router address and left the rest blank. I clicked on OK and close all the windows and rebooted the computer. After reboot I opened network and sharing center. Access was 'local' for a while then the diagram changed and the red x was removed. Unidentified network was changed to my network name. Then I tested my connection and browsed to a couple of sites and now I can access the internet. Rebooted a couple of times and it still worked. Please try this and see if it resolves the issue. It's just a workaround so it might not work for everyone. Happy hunting! Ok, I HAD THIS PROBLEM AND THIS KIND OF FIXED IT - READ ok, it turns out one of my family members got IP banned off a game, so they followed a youtube tutorial consisting of changijng your IP by changing things in IPV4, so as i was following this very kind persons fix I noticed this and was able to just click AUTO DETECT SETTINGS and then, i rebooted and boooooooosh, it asked me if i wasnted home or public connection, i clicked home and im on the net hope this fixes someones stuffs :D
April 2nd, 2010 8:38pm

I had to read this far down the thread (on an NDS!) to get the answer, but this is the one. Save yourself the bother of mucking about with installing/uninstalling/changing various settings. Just try this registry edit first, it worked a treat for me! In regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\(your wireless network adapter) Set DWORD DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag to 0 Thanks Ratos, genius!!
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April 4th, 2010 3:03am

This does not always work "In regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\(your wireless network adapter)" I found that running the norton - aka - symantec clean wipe tool does the trick in 99% of the systems that I work on (well over 5 a week) - these systems are pre-loaded with Norton offers and have the software ready to load as a trial in most cases.
April 22nd, 2010 4:08am

My experience is essentially the same, newinen. In my residential service business, about half of the instances where software, not hardware, is the issue, an expired Norton 360 is the culprit. A complete uninstall remedies the issue. The other half? Trojans.
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April 22nd, 2010 5:56pm

This worked for me! I have setup dozens of wireless networks using Windows XP and Vista and never had any problems until I purchased a latest generation Netgear wireless router to use with a cable modem. Previously I used Linksys routers. I had the same issue with 'local' only others reported and I tried a lot of what was suggested without success. PROBLEMS OBSERVED: Wireless without security works. Wireless with WPA security doesn't work. You get 'local only' connections when you try using security, right? I asked myself, why is it that no security works but with security does? I think the security stuff is broken when Vista tries to use it with the router. My theory is it has to do with Vista having a different concep t of the 'time of day' than the router and it screws up some timing thing BUT that's just a guess. Of course if the security isn't working your router can't send DHCP info since that's sent encrypted. Don't ask me why Vista can't recognize that the security link is broken. Maybe there are multiple steps involved in the connection process and it only checks the 1st step. Anyhow... EASY SOLUTION: Use WEP security, 128 bit and make sure that your Ethernet cable is not plugged in from router to your computer when you're ready to try the wireless. Leaving the cable plugged in will result in you getting 'local only' also.
May 11th, 2010 10:49pm

I live in a basement apartment and have the password, etc for the landlords' wireless connection. It was always sketchy at best in terms of sometimes working, or sometimes getting the Access: Local Only status, but now in the last week it has remained like that and hasn't come back at all. I haven't adjusted any settings or installed any new programs, and quite frankly don't really know where to begin. I have Norton 360 installed on my computer, but I don't understand everyone talking about the removal tool? I don't want to remove my antivirus software? I don't know what to do and am very frustrated. The computer works fine in Hot Spots, etc.
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May 13th, 2010 11:06pm

If it were me I'd replace Norton with something else - either Microsoft Security Essentials or maybe Trend. But that said...can you ask the landlord to reboot his router? How strong is the signal to your landlord's wireless? 1 bar? 3 bars? 5?-B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook
May 13th, 2010 11:19pm

I get an "excellent" signal from the router. I don't know if this is worth noting, since my internet connection has always been sporadic in my apartment, but they used to have an unsecure network (they must have had rocks in their heads because every Tom, Dick and Harry in my Toronto neighborhood was probably using the connection) but recently came to their senses and password protected it. However, since they did that, it hasn't worked since.
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May 13th, 2010 11:33pm

For some reason, this worked for me: I turned of "DNS relay" on my router. The router is a D-Link DI-624. My symptoms: laptop could read SSID since it detected the network name ("you are connected to foo"). It must have recognized the encryption type (WPA2) since it asked me for a passkey. => router wireless signal must be fine & laptop wireless card must be fine. It would connect, and then red X, connect, red X. Sometimes not connect at all. Sometimes say "connected but with limited activity", sometimes "connected local only". Since I turned off "DNS relay" and had my connection working, I've rebooted the laptop and it connected again automatically without a problem. Lesson: play around with your router settings. Google and wiki are your friends.
May 18th, 2010 5:44am

I was having the "local only" issue after doing a factory reset on my Dir-615 D-Link Router (to fix intermittent connectivity issues). I tried almost everything on this page over several days and nothing helped. Even with a wired connection I would only get local only. My solution: Go to Windows Firewall -> Allow a program through Windows Firewall (takes you to Windows Firewall Settings) -> Advanced Network Connection Settings: Uncheck Wireless Network Connection (and Local Area Connection if you have the same problem with hardwired connections) That was the only thing that worked for me and I have been dealing with this issue on and off for a long time. Good Luck. PS: Still having issues with the router dropping the wireless intermittently, sometimes every few minutes
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May 21st, 2010 5:47pm

Hi I have a small network at home, 2 by XP and 2 by Vista machines. Every time my wireless access point reissues leases neither of the vista machines will get a wireless lease. I.E. local access only and wrong IP address. Eventually with a lot of stuffing around they seem to work again. A while ago I found out some information on the Windows site about fragmenting address packets when issuing IP addresses (leases). Windows says that XP does not have the issue but vista does and Windows 7 the problem has been address. Well to cut a long story short I did the reg hacks and is still stuffed. I have 2 kids upset and screaming at me because they can not get online. Guess what I have plugged them in with cable and when I have the money I will buy 2 more XP licences and throw the vista licences in the bin.
May 23rd, 2010 7:27am

Here's a workaround that I've found for my desktop running Vista: Simply connect an external wireless receiver via USB (along with loading the driver) and disable the internal wireless network card (Manage Network Connections/right click on internal wireless connection/disable). I never lose the connection on the USB wireless device. Raises a couple of questions in regard to tracing the root problem: 1) Is this loss of internet connectivity only an issue for internal wireless devices? 2) How is the USB wireless handled differently by Vista that allows it to work, where the internal card does not?
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May 24th, 2010 8:35pm

Hi I just wanted to add to my previous post, that I was very early into the vista software era. So the Vista based desk top is 2 1/2 to 3 yrs old, and the Vista base laptop is out of warranty so over 12 months old. This issue has been occurring since new, some 3 yrs. The desk top has a wireless card and the lap top I never bothered to look. Probably some 6 moths ago I realised the problem was lease based with the Vista machines showing local access randomly for several days at a time over the 3 odd years. I came to realise that I could plug the cable in for a few days whilst no wireless was available and wait for vista to sort it self out. And then vola without trying any repair they just start working again. I would yell out to my daughter hey the lap top is ok and she would try her desk top and say yep its ok again. Good on the fixing pixies but it takes them a few days to get to my place to fix the Vista machines.
May 27th, 2010 6:35am

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us
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May 27th, 2010 6:52am

This is all to do with the wonderful "Network Connectivity Status Indicator" (NCSI), Not sure why M$ thinks we need this cr@p. Here is the link to the fix. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766017(WS.10).aspx#BKMK_Procedures Go to the section that says: "Controlling Communication Between NCSI and a Site on the Internet" Below for lazy folks: ontrolling Communication Between NCSI and a Site on the Internet You can prevent NCSI from connecting to http://www.msftncsi.com by setting a registry key. The following subsections provide more information. How Preventing NCSI from Communicating Across the Internet Can Affect Users and Applications If you set a registry key to prevent NCSI from connecting to http://www.msftncsi.com, applications that perform checks for the existence of Internet connectivity might work more slowly. Also, if a computer running Windows Vista is brought into a hot spot that requires sign-in, the computer might not detect the hot spot. Procedures for Controlling Communication Between NCSI and a Site on the Internet The following procedure describes how to change a registry setting that prevents NCSI from communicating across the Internet. To Prevent NCSI from Communicating Across the Internet by Changing a Registry Setting For best results, close all programs on the computer on which you are changing the registry setting. To open a command prompt as an administrator, click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue. Type: regedit Caution Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer. You can also use the Last Known Good Configuration startup option if you encounter problems after manual changes have been applied. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters\Internet Under the Internet key, double-click EnableActiveProbing, and then in Value data, type: 0 The default for this value is 1. Setting the value to 0 prevents NCSI from connecting to a site on the Internet during checks for connectivity. Click OK. Restart the computer.
May 31st, 2010 10:56am

Success!!!! Using the Norton uninstaller got my network connection to "Local and Internet". Thanks ITProf for that post. Even though I had supposedly uninstalled Norton, the Icon was still there and obviously still messing with my internet access. The Norton uninstaller did the trick!
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June 1st, 2010 1:32am

Tried the NCSI fix noted above and absolutely did not work for me on my 64 bit Vista desktop. In fact, it also disabled the connectivity I had achieved via USB adapter. Fortunately was able to undo (reset Value data to "1") with no problem. And yes, I am using Norton 360, but have not yet tried abandoning it. If that is the source of the problem, has it not yet been addressed (or at least acknowledged) by Norton?!?!
June 2nd, 2010 6:21am

I experienced the same problem for 3 months... I have a desktop (Windows 7) and 3 laptops (XP, Vista Home and VIsta Business) at home. All my devices are able to connect to my router and access the internet except the Dell laptop (Vista Business) - BUT the same laptop can connect to my neighbors router and access the internet, it can also connect to any public wifi (airport, starbucks, hotels, etc), everything except my home router! Been living with it for three months now, tried EVERYTHING short of formatting. Read this entire thread and tried everything on it, the only solution that worked for me was to assign a static IP and DNS and not obtain automatically, that enabled it to connect to my home router and see the internet. When I'm outside the house, I'll just set it to obtain automatically, and when I return home, set it back to manual, it's a slight inconvenience, but hey, it finally works! Hope this helps!
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June 2nd, 2010 8:25pm

I've been running static IP for some time now to keep my various devices from stumbling over each other with IP conflicts on the home wireless network, so that doesn't seem to be the fix for my situation either. I can only guess that there can be a variety of root causes for this issue, resulting in a variety of solutions, some of which work for some users/circumastances, but not others. Still curious though as to why the issue exists for onboard wireless NICs, but not USB wireless adapters on the same machine.
June 3rd, 2010 9:51pm

Success!!!! Using the Norton uninstaller got my network connection to "Local and Internet". Thanks ITProf for that post. Even though I had supposedly uninstalled Norton, the Icon was still there and obviously still messing with my internet access. The Norton uninstaller did the trick! Yup! This option worked! My friend's laptop - which runs on Vista had the same prob yesterday. She first detected this problem when the Norton anti virus scanned her laptop. During this scan session, the internet was completely inaccessible. At the beginning, we tried everything including change the IP address manually and other troubleshoots which are available on 'help' section for network connection but none solves the prob. Although we have removed Norton using the 'Program Features' on Control Panel, she still get the 'local access' on her laptop. That status went on until we install Norton Removal Tool and run it. And, it worked, though I am not sure how exactly Norton has anything to do with this.. Oh well, as long as it works, that's fine by me. Btw, I hope this solves your probs too! Good luck and cheers!
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June 5th, 2010 5:08pm

New development (and theory) for me today while changing out routers. My on-board NIC, which previously suffered from the "Local Only" symptom, now connects to both Local and Internet. I don't think it was the new router that made the difference, because even during the change, there were times I had "Local Only" even when hardwired to the router. The common denominator seemed to be that I had Local Only access when the network I was connected to was identified by Vista as either: a) "Unidentified Network" or b) "Public Network". Only when the network connection (again whether wired, on-board NIC, or USB adapter) show the connected network as "Home" with the associated icon, did I have both local and internet connectivity. Still not sure how to designated a connected network as "Home" if it doesn't default to that when connected, or ask you the type the first time you connect. If you hover over the network connection in the tray, the Home icon (tan and brown house) will appear to the left of the SSID. Get that designation and resulting icon for your connected network, and you should have internet connectivity. And I have, and still am running Norton 360. (Note that the "Home" network designation in Vista should not be confused with "Public" or "Private" network type, which can be managed through network connections.)
June 6th, 2010 7:40am

I find this a very interesting post. There are some standard fixes in here and some very far left field repairs. J. The interesting thing is it is Vista with this issue, and nothing on the page has worked for me, other than after the new lease time has started is to leave both the Vista machines on and turn off my wireless access point and DSL modem and restart them. I like to pose a question you guys with small network at home and with your Vista machine says local access only. a. Try to access you other network machines.
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June 10th, 2010 9:44am

This worked for me: 1) Leave your router connected to the PC's NIC by ethernet cable 2) Remove router's power from AC source 3) Power down the PC 4) Press the reset button on modem (often a pinhole in rear of box) 5) After a minute or two Reconnect router to AC power 6) After a minute or two power up the PC 7) Give the PC a few minutes to discover new IP -success (for me)- Good luck!
June 29th, 2010 1:58am

Hello, I've been having similar problems, and this worked for this configuration: * Windows Vista 64 * Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter on an HP Pavilion dv5z 1000us laptop * Netgear WGR614v10 router I could connect with WEP encryption, but as soon as I would turn on any version of WPA, the laptop would get a new IP with DHCP, but the connection would be marked as "local only". I solved my case by updating the laptop's wireless card's driver from HP's website. Even though Vista was telling me that the driver was up-to-date and even though I couldn't find any new driver on Atheros' website, I went ahead anyway and used the driver provided by HP. Hope it helps, Tony Bruguier
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July 3rd, 2010 4:56pm

this may sound like a stupid question but how do i get the norton uninstaller when my internet connection is local only??
July 8th, 2010 10:52pm

I encountered this problem b/c my sister-and-law could not connect to unsecured network at a vacation house. I connect fine with XP, she is running Vista. I spent some time on this page (skimming over many of the posts--there are a lot of them, no clear solution, so I thought) and used some ideas and eventually looked at manually configuring IPv4 settings of wireless connection. I mirrored the values in my ipconfig (except the ip address, of course) on her machine and voila! Vista appeared to be defaulting to IPV6 on the wireless interface. I also disabled (unchecked) the IPv6 protocol in the connection settings. After fixing it, I reviewed this page again and found this post. Tiks is spot-on! For me, THIS IS THE SOLUTION to this problem. Thanks!
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July 11th, 2010 5:30am

please use winsock software to reset and repair local area network
July 14th, 2010 4:13pm

I had the very same problem with Vista home. The problem for whatever reason was the originally installed Norton 360 which had been expired for quite some time. I have been running Webroot for over a year. Anyways once Norton was completely removed the it was no longer in "Local Access Only" i was able to access the internet. Try removing old Norton or Mcafee and see if that gets you up and running.
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July 18th, 2010 8:51am

Clearly these symptoms have many different possible causes. I have tried EVERYTHING in the above list and more besides. Now fixed however by getting a new wireless network card (in fact I disabled and uninstalled the one in the laptop and plugged in a USB BELKIN G that is clearly designed to work with the BELKIN G wireless router). The old Atheron wireless card must have some incompatiblity with the new Belkin wireless router since it worked with our previous router. Note you have to redefine your network so it works with the new device rather than the old one - but if you have spent about 7 days trying to fix this problem like I have you will know how to do this! Wireshark showed the wireless card (adapter) continuously asking the wireless router for the routers MAC address but never getting an answer. Probably the defining symptom of this particular cause.
July 23rd, 2010 10:16pm

SOLVED! This is CLEARY a Vista issue. Ive read this thread and tried many a fix and none worked. I was trying to connect the vista wi-fi to a shared connection from an Apple laptop. My set up is: DSL Modem --> Router -->Macbook (hardwired using Ethernet) --> 2nd macbook over wi-fi + Vista over wi-fi. No matter how I changed the settings, the 2nd macbook would connect, but the vista would not. Yes, I could have connected the vista hard wired through one of the router ports, but I wanted it wireless and my wireless router broke. I figured it was the settings on the mac too, changed all of those. After trying for hours, it finally dawned on me that I can also share the connection over Bluetooth, which my vista machine also has. Worked on the 1st try. So there is something in the wireless adapter settings that's causing this problem. This is why I switched to apple. I'll check back to see if this is solved. Very annoying. Edit: Whew, So I was still trying. Maybe something in the BT connection triggered the settings to work for wi-fi. I tried the winsock again (you should do this by right-clicking on the command prompt icon, then run as admin). After that's completed, restart. I cleared all manually configured settings, and turned ipv6 back on. There are no WEP settings. I'm a bit afraid to turn it on. Its working for now, both on Wi-fi and BT. Hope this helps someone.
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July 27th, 2010 11:17pm

While working on a frinds machine with same symptoms (local only on both wireless and wired) which I knew to have been infected previously, I discovered that proxy server was checked in internet options. Unchecked this and problem was cleared. Not sure how it got checked, suspect virus.
August 6th, 2010 1:20am

hello, had a similar thing happen on a laptop running Vista, owner had purchased what he thought was an anti virus programme but was a scam which took over his machine, it came up with false alerts in order to get more money out of him but the programme did not work anyway as an anti virus, i managed to get rid of the programme but was unable to get onto the internet but found the same thing with the proxy server thing, unchecked and all back to normal.As far as "local only" is concerned just had the same thing come up , i run Vista on an HP Pavilion, other pcs in the house could get full connection, i too could ,provided i used a cable , so i suspected the wireless device. I did two things , not sure which cured the fault though. 1/ reset router then 2/ i right clicked on wireless connection control on task bar,clicked on "connect to a network", right click on network you want to connect to ,then click on properties, i then clicked on connection and checked "connect automatically when in range" and clicked on "enable Atheros connection settings " any other choices i left unchecked, then exited, wow, next thing i knew i was back online, might just have been a coincidence but worth a try if anyone gets stuck and i would not have a clue to go into registries and all that , so for us novices try this one maybe, the beauty of it is that it literally takes a couple of minutes, i think could it possbly be that Atheros, or whatever you are using is then in complete control of itself so avoids Vista trying to make the connection with all the issues this system seems to have. Sometimes the simple things seem to work and don't task the brain, this is not directed at anyone by the way, i was once told as a driving instructor , remember , KISS "keep it simple stupid" on this one he was right.
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August 8th, 2010 9:06pm

Thank you for your reading and possible answer(s), UNABLE TO GET "LOCAL AND INTERNET ACCESS" UNDER VISTA, WHILE IT WAS POSSIBLE UNDER XP I used to get connected "home-like" with XP to a "secondary wireless router" (SSID: Wlancomtrend - no authentication needed, no work group, signal strength: Excellent), which gets the internet signal from a "main wireless router", plugged to the DSL line (SSID: Wireless - no authenticatin needed, no work group, signal strength: Good / Low). I am not the administrator of these routers. I used to get DNS automatically under TCPIP properties. VISTA DOESN'T LET ME ACCESS THE INTERNET, THOUGH I MANAGE TO CONNECT TO THE SAME ROUTER It says: "Access: local only"; and under Network and sharing center it says "unidentified network". I gess I'm a bit unfamiliar with this OS and do not master all its settings. I also marked off security essentials like Firewall under Windows security center, to prevent any possible internet access blocking. My laptop power plan is also set to "High performance". - I suspect my ID network is not well configured. Under System properties (right click on the "My computer icon") > Computer name > network ID > Join a Domain or Workgroup: I'm trying to keep the "This is a home computer" setting, but it goes back to "This computer is part of a business network" all the time, even after reboot. How to fix this, by the way? - Under Network and Sharing center > Customize the current connection > location type > i set it to "public". Other factors maybe irrelevant: / Sharing discovery > Network discovery: "On" / > file sharing: "On". I get DNS automatically under TCPIP properties (as with XP). A couple of days ago, VISTA managed to get internet with the "main wireless router" (SSID: Wireless - no authentication needed, signal strength: Good / Low). I just tried to set ID network to "This is a home computer" and rebooted. Under the network window, I also tried to tick a network location or workgroup. This may not be important, though. I STILL JUST GET LOCAL ACCESS ONLY WITH MY WIRELESS CONNECTION UNDER VISTA Any help? Molta merc / Many thanks Also tried: - Automatically Detect Settings checked in internet options - Obtain an IP address automatically under TCPIP properties - Enable DHCP - Disable User Account Control in Security Center - Disable most of the Vista security stuff - Remove and set up all connections - IPv6 off - etc. Google Occitan www.google.com/intl/oc/ | http://www.eurominority.org/documents/cartes/occitania.gif RIGHT LISSEN UP ALL IF YOU GOT THIS PROBLEM THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO AFTER 7 OR MORE HOURS WORKING ON IT TRYING TO SOLOVE IT THIS IS WHAT YOU DO.... 1. DELETE YOUR NETWORK DRIVERS 2. TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER 3. TURN OFF YOUR ROUTER 4. WAIT 5MIN 5. TURN ON YOUR ROUTER 6. TURN ON YOUR COMPUTER 7. THIS MAY TAKE A FEW MIN AS YOUR NETWORK DRIVER WILL BE RENENSTALLING 8. WELL DONE.... AS YOU WILL KNOW BY NOW YOUR NET WILLL BE WORKING 9. RUN MSN OR INTERNET SEE IF IT WORKS 10. BRAG TO YOUR MATES YOUR A COMPUTER WIZZ right now if you have a problem doing this email me :) il will try to help you more oh and if you using modem and router just turn your modem off before the router and on before the router.
August 17th, 2010 10:05pm

I ____ hate this. Access local what is this bs? My wireless used to work just fine and now I get this message from ____. Look how hard it is to solve this for the average computer user? I've looked all over the net and theres like 50 different steps that could solve it. what a joke Microsoft. next time i'm buying a mac.
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August 23rd, 2010 4:43pm

have a look at what i wrote on the last but one posting
August 23rd, 2010 7:32pm

Like many of you above I just spend the last 5 hours reading the above posts and trying all the proposed solutions with No Joy! Until I just tried the suggestion of uninstalling the drivers for the wireless adapter and then rebooting. Amazingly it worked and I'm back in business. Hopefully this easy fix will help someone else. Thank you to all above for your suggestions.
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August 25th, 2010 9:17am

My "local access only" is now fixed. Thanks nyoms and others before on this forum that I should have listened to. After spending countless hours on this problem I finally deleted my drivers, shut down my computer and hooked up an ethernet connection to my router. After I rebooted my computer the drivers reinstalled over the internet. I rebooted and instantly I had access wirelessly to the internet. Less than 10 minutes. It was that simple. I wish I had tried that several months ago but I was convinced my drivers were up to date. Bad and stupid assumption. I previously did downloads from MS, Atheros and Dell and they didn't work. My wireless connection has now been up fpr a week with no problems. Some thoughts about this issue "Local Access Only". It is quite obvious from this forum there are several conditions that can cause this problem. So before you try anything you should read this looooong forum carefully before making changes to your computer. Try to figure out which posting matches your situation. In my case my Dell Vostro A869 Laptop with Vista SP2 and Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter with NO Norton software was working fine wirelesly with a Belkin router and WPA-TKIP encryption. Then my Belkin router died. So I bought a new Netgear router. That is when my problems began. All the other parts of my wireless worked with WPA-TKIP and the new Netgear router but not my Dell Vista laptop. After hours and hours with various help desks I was told I would have to use WEP encryption instead which I was not about to accept. My computer would connect wirelessly with WEP or no encryption but not WPA-TKIP or WPA-AES. I did not want to accept a lower level secuirty level. I tried WPA-AES which got me into at least the "Local Access" mode and this forum. I tried just about eveything on this forum except deleting my driver software. Based on this forum's comments I am pretty sure this solution will only solve some situations. But it is an easy place to start if you think this is could be the cause for your "Local Access Only".. To delete your driver software> go into the control panel > click on Device Manager > under Network adapters click on your wirless adapter > click on Uninstall > check the "Delete the driver software for this device"> click OK. Reboot your computer and connect your computer through an ethernet connection to your router and your drivers will automatically update over the internet. Reboot your computer and hopefully your problem is fixed. Thanks to everyone on this forum. Without your help I would still have no internet access.
September 11th, 2010 7:37am

Solved!!!! Really frustrated with Vista but I did get a hint from the diagnosis tool that suggested that although Windows Firewall was not blocking the TCP/IP connection (such as DHCP) it could be another firewall. My laptop did have Norton Internet Security installed and this had expired. I had not managed to fully uninstall it so above in this thread there was a reference to a Norton clean up tool (Norton_removal_tool.exe). On my XP machine I downloaded from Symantec's web site and copied onto a memory stick and it ran on the Vista machine no problem - it cleaned out all the old Norton stuff and on re-starting my local access problem went away and I can connect again. It seems that the partial removal of Norton had left behind some form of firewall blocking that stopped DHCP or DNS or both working with my router
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September 19th, 2010 9:55pm

I fixed mine! Same problem- Local Accsess Only! You wont like this answer if you are paranoid about router security, but here is what worked for me. Delete all you saved wireless connections. Re-set your router security to 64bit WEP and try logining in! Works like a charm! (At least for me!) I installed a Belkin share router with one desk computer and three wi-fied laptops. Everything was perfect with WPA-2 except one lap top had "local acsess only". I tried everything I could think of! I had, HAD IT! I went to 64 bit WEP and the VISTA machine connected to the network and the internet. Now a real "guru" could crack WEP, but your neighbor or the average wardriver, just to steal internet, I doubt it. Especailly if there are open networks around. VISTA could not read the WPA-2 so I compromised a little security for connectivity. Hope this helps somebody! Good Luck! What a PITA! Local acsess only is!
September 21st, 2010 7:58pm

I just wanted to say thanks! I too had the "local only" problem with my partner's Vista laptop. I'd tried fixes from MS, hand-editing the Registry and no end of other shenaningans... But deleting the drivers and allowing auto-update, and... instant success! Fabulous! Result: happy partner (lots of brownie points!) and a happy laptop! Thanks again...!
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September 22nd, 2010 12:05am

Hi there.. Can someone please help me!! I have been experiencing the 'Local only' problem on my Vista laptop - but only when at home. Whn at university, or at my friends house my wireless works perfectly and connects to 'Local and Internet' every time. But when I am at home i simply get 'Local only' access..!!! It's driving me crazy - my flatmates who have Vista on one Laptop and XP on the other BOTH WORK FINE!! Very very rarely my laptop somehow connects and gets 'Local and internet' at home, but this is like 1 in every 50 tries... Can someone please please help me before I throw my laptop out the window!!! (im a bit of a computer Rookie so any help at all would be appreciated). Thank you in advance!
October 4th, 2010 1:05am

NORTON REMOVAL TOOL - RUN IT AND PROBLEM FIXED
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October 6th, 2010 8:23pm

Well, I have been thoroughly frustrated by this networking problem in Vista. What is so INSIDIOUS about it, is that it can happen spontaneously/periodically. When it first started happening, I could go for hours with no problems. And then all of the sudden, it's "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY." I'd even lose my Internet connection completely, but then it would come back momentarily. Lately though, the problem got worse. It would happen every 5-10 minutes. What really drove me nuts originally is that I had set up a new wireless router: a TP-Link TL-WR941N. Very nice and powerful. It can reach up 3 stories in a multi-story home. I have my computer up on the 3rd floor. My Internet connection was no problem... for MONTHS. And then, all of the sudden, this "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY" problem started cropping up. My network connection would change to this, then after a few moments, go back to "LOCAL AND INTERNET". I figured it was some kind of "momentary atmospheric problem". But no. It continued on, for days and days after it had started. Why? Why would this start happening when nothing else had changed? Ah, but that's where I was amiss. You see, Vista gets updated frequently by the powers that be at Microsoft. And who knows what things they really do? You don't get a full report. You just keep getting "important security updates". Well, I suspect that at some point, they introduced some changes which affect the networking capability of Vista. And so, since that point, you'll have periodic problems as I have. Microsoft is so focused on Windows-7, that they really can't be bothered with Vista. AND... I really wonder if they leave defects like this around to give incentive for people to upgrade to Windows-7. I wouldn't put it past them. Well, the main thing is that each person's situation is different. Some people have 3rd party software that is tripping it up (like Norton or McAfee). I think a lot of the problem depends upon the type of wireless router you're connected with and the type of network (e.g. G vs. N). So that's why some fixes proposed solve the problem while others do nothing. If you try any settings changes, I strongly recommend that you do them one at a time. Also, keep note of what you've applied. It is important to be able to roll back those changes if need be. So, this was the first friendly user tip that helped me: Over the course of several days, I made only one change at a time, then waited to see if the failure occurred again. I'm an IT networking professional so I based my decisions on my familiarity with network protocols, impact, risk, ease of implementation and fallback positions. These are the steps I took: 1. Installed Teracopy, which takes over the file copying function of Windows. http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php 2. Disabled IPv6 (Control Panel -> Network Connections -> <your connection> -> Properties) 3. Disabled Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper and Responder (Control Panel -> Network Connections -> <your connection> -> Properties) 4. Set Power settings to high performance (Control Panel -> Power Options) and disabled the screensaver (Control Panel -> Personalization -> Screen Saver) 5. Reduced my Linksys router's MTU to 1480 (although I doubt this was part of the solution) 6. Enabled ECN with the following command "netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled" from command line (Start -> cmd) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726965.aspx Possibly step 6 is all you really need to do. Please post if this works for you. Well, I figured I'd give step #6 a shot. Why not? There are a few other command line settings recommended, but I decided to try it alone first: netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled At first, this seemed to be the only thing I needed to do. My "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY" problem seemed to stop happening, observed over a 20 minute period. It happened again for a moment, but then Internet Access returned right away. I thought the problem was solved... But then "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY" came back and stayed. I had to run these commands as well: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled This WORKED! I seem to sustain my Internet connection for much longer periods. LOCAL ACCESS ONLY does pop up sometimes, but it is very brief. I think it's something to do with my router going into "sleep mode" on the connection. If I try to make a connection to a website, it comes back to life and I have Internet Access again. LASTLY... There is one other thing I want to mention, in case someone else reading this has the same problem. One day after a severe storm that caused a power outage, I started getting "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY." The wireless router was there and I'd connect to it, but no Internet. I connected directly to it, hardwired, and STILL had the same problem. I rebooted the router, the cable modem, you name it. Same problem. Being directly connected to the cable modem was fine. Did my router get fried from a power surge during the storm? It seemed perfectly fine in all other respects. I eventually contacted the TP-LINK customer support. I learned something new... the problem was with the IP ADDRESS of the router conflicting with the cable modem. By default, your wireless router will take IP address 192.168.1.1. In some cases, this will be a problem if the cable modem is taking the same IP address and is finicky about the address of the wireless router. It was fine for almost 6 months... why did it become a problem all of the sudden? Bizarre. Suspicion was that the ISP changed some things (they remotely reprogram the modems from time to time, you know). The solution? Give the wireless router a different address (e.g. 192.168.2.1). It worked! I was able to get Internet access after that. Worked fine for several months, too... until I started getting that periodic "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY" again. But the solution above seems to have addressed it. Good luck to those having problems. I sure wish Microsoft would be more dedicated to its customer base. But thankfully we've got forums like this which bring people together to help solve each others problems. :-)
October 18th, 2010 12:22am

Although running those netsh commands seemed to work, it wasn't "complete". The "LOCAL ACCESS ONLY" kept coming back, just a little less frequent. Overall, I found that I had to do ALL of the following: 1. In the Properties of your Network Connection, disable (uncheck): Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder 2. Run CMD shell as "Administrator" and run the following commands: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled 3. Run "services.msc" or bring up the Services management console: Disable "IP Helper" ----- UPDATE: Note that the Link-Layer Topology Discovery settings disabled may slow down your connection. In my case, I enabled them again and the normal speed was restored. This has not caused any lost connections... so far. ----- Others have mentioned disabling the DHCP Broadcast Flag (DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag key in registry), but I did not do this. If your router supports it, you should leave it enabled. I disabled it at first, but when I re-enabled it I found the "handshaking" during the initial connection was a little faster. Perform it ONLY if you are blocked from connecting. It means your wireless router is unable to support it. Others have also mentioned hard-coding the IP addresses for DNS and Gateway. If you do not travel anywhere, by all means do it. That IP address is the local one for your wireless router, and it won't change. However, if you travel and use other wireless networks, you may run into a problem. Granted, many have the super common 192.168.1.1 address, but some do not. You'll have to remove it if you want to establish a connection to those wireless routers having a different IP address (like mine, which is 192.168.2.1, because of the IP address conflict I had with the cable modem).
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October 18th, 2010 8:59pm

Suggested solution from fwznssr on Thursday, November 15, 2007 4:20 AM I got the wireless connection (local only) problem after installing the latest VISTA updates and Microsoft Essentials. The problem on local only access was resolved by following your suggested solution. The prompt to choose the type of network (Home, Public or Private) prompted after re-starting the computer and has been fine after that. Thank for you posting this solution. This solution has worked perfectly well.
October 18th, 2010 10:31pm

I got the wireless connection (local only) problem after installing the latest VISTA updates and Microsoft Essentials. The problem on local only access was resolved by following your suggested solution. The prompt to choose the type of network (Home, Public or Private) prompted after re-starting the computer and has been fine after that. Thank for you posting this solution. This solution has worked perfectly well. Thanks. Good to hear it helped you. Please click the vote button, if you don't mind. :-) I do have an update, though. If you're connected to a strong high speed wireless router connection, you might not notice any degradation. However, if your signal is only moderately strong, you could notice that page loading across the Internet is slower. I started finding images taking 30-50% longer to load. I went back into the Network properties and enabled the two Link-Layer topologies and that helped. I'm still leaving IPv6 off.
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October 19th, 2010 5:18am

The KB articles are all peices of service packs. Meaning that a service pack is a collection of KB. Hope that helps
October 22nd, 2010 4:04pm

Well... I have different problems now that I've made these changes. Although I don't get caught in a "Local Access Only" loop, I'm experiencing connectivity gaps and slow Internet performance. First, the Network Connectivity icon will show a valid connection, but browser usage is periodically stalled especially when watching videos. I can't get through a YouTube video for more than a few minutes without it stalling, then needing to be cajoled into finishing the stream. Second, I'll all of the sudden lose my wireless connection for no apparent reason. It'll re-establish in short order, but it creates frustration. I ran Microsoft's connectivity testing tool (from their website, using IE) and my wireless router supports most Vista functionality. So, this shouldn't be contributing to the problem. What really gets me is that Vista was working fine for MANY MONTHS... and now I've got this sub-par Internet connectivity. I'm really wondering if this is a byproduct of periodic patches. Wouldn't it be funny if that turned out to be the case... perhaps an insidious way for Microsoft to try pushing people over to Windows 7? ;-) Anyway, I re-enabled IPv6. I also removed specified IP addresses from IPv4. I'd also noted that my wireless router had only 120 minutes on IP address lease. I raised that to 1080 minutes. I rebooted it, rebooted my PC and tried web surfing after that. Things seem fine now and the lag is gone. But... it didn't last. The LOCAL ACCESS ONLY problem reared its ugly head again. It does seem related to IPv6. But, I get better performance with IPv6 enabled. I'm really getting sick of this... I'm very tempted to just bite the bullet and upgrade to Windows 7. One other thing to try is delete the wireless network entry, and then recreate it again. Notice that once you make a connection, you get a chance to merge/delete other wireless networks on the computer. It brings up a list of ALL the wireless networks you've connected with before, even duplicates of other connections you've made to the same wireless router, with DIFFERENT parameters. It's VERY CONFUSING, because this list doesn't appear anywhere else. I went in and cleaned it up, deleting quite a few duplicates. I've got a suspicion that Vista may make some mistakes switching between profiles it has stored, possibly causing connection problems. Btw, I strongly recommend that anytime you try to troubleshoot a problem, open up a notepad and jot down everything you do. This will make it far easier to rollback changes. Because you may very well need to do that. I did... WINDOWS VISTA networking reminds me of IBM's OS2. It has a lot of settings to control the function of networking, but it requires significant knowledge to use it properly. For the home user, it's nearly impossible to do right. You can try searching around the Internet picking up all kinds of tips and tricks, but they're likely specific to certain networking situations. You've no idea of it'll be useful. The danger is changing a setting and not seeing any difference right away. You leave it in place and continue on with your troubleshooting. But you may not realize that this compounds your problem. I suggest trying out changes individually or in small groups. Reboot and then use your computer for a while to see if the changes helped. If not, roll them back and try the next thing. After exhausting those possibilities, then try multiple changes simultaneously. Again, keep track of what you change, so you can put your computer back to the way it was when you first started. One last thing--consider updating the driver for your wireless network card. It's very possible that a Vista update may have compromised the older network driver.
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October 27th, 2010 6:01pm

I have been struggling with the same issue on my Dell inspiron 1526 running vista. I seem to have fixed the problem. Here's how I did it. First I disabled McAfee firewall and windows firewall. Als in McAfee under my home network I selected "trust network." Next I went into the network and sharing center > manage network connections. There I can see my LAN and my Wireless network connection. I selected both of them and right clicked, and BRIDGED the two connections. It worked. I can now use my laptop WIRELESSLY. I can hardly frickin believe it worked. I am not a computer person, I really have no clue why this worked or why I even tried this. It just seemed like a logical thing to do. I have not enabled any firewalls yet, I use a motorola surfboard SB 901 which I believe has a firewall, so I am probably NOT going to enable McAfee's firewall again for fear it kicks me offline. But for today, at least, I can actually use my wireless network on my laptop. Whoo hooo! Hopefully this will help someone else struggling with this local only issue. :)
October 31st, 2010 10:17pm

Follow-up: I think I've finally licked the problem... as I've gone a full day without any LAO (local access only) problems, or dropped connections. This is what I had to do: Delete your wireless network connection from "Manage my wireless connections". Go through the steps for creating a new network connection, but stop when you see "Merge/Delete other networks"... select that option and then delete ALL references to your wireless network. You can also do this via the registry, by searching on the name of your wireless network. Reboot your computer. Go through the steps to create a new network connection. When you enter all of your information, including security and pass phrase, make sure that you select "Work" as the network type (instead of "Home" or "Public") in the final steps. Before, I'd had "Home" selected. With "Work" selected, I'm not having any issues. It may be a coincidence, but it can't hurt to try it. Go to the control panel of your wireless router (e.g. visit 192.168.1.1) and find a section that lets you reserve an address for a PC. Find your current IP address by running "ipconfig /all" from a command line window. Also, find out the MAC address for your PC--you can do this through your router, which has this information from your connection, or you can look it up in System Info. Register a reservation for your PC (using the MAC address) and supply the IP address your PC is currently using. This will ensure your router will keep you connected with this IP address and not change it on you at any point. Once I did this, I find I'm no longer having any issues with LAO. I didn't disable IPv6 or anything else. The connection is running reasonably fast and is reliable, for now. I've recorded these instructions and stored them on my computer in case this happens again... Hopefully it will last until I have Windows 7 installed. Good luck!
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November 8th, 2010 11:30pm

This might work for everyone but especially for multiple computers on one router. Yo check this out. Same problem as everyone else right? I had a friend over and his laptop wouldn't connect. Nor would mine as i found out, but my regular computer has been hooked up for a while. so i went onto the wireless router control panel (eg 192.168.1.1) and change the amount of computers allowed to use DHCP from the regular setting to 10(it doesn't really matter as long as it's higher than the total computers) two minutes later both laptops get a pop up. we hit work computer and immediatly connected. (special note) if your connected locally but not to the internet, run command prompt and type ipconfig/all. i noticed that my laptop said that the DHCP was disabled, but enables as soon as you fix the router.
November 14th, 2010 2:18am

After three days of surfing and trying every possible solution, the BRIDGING worked. I now have internet! Now updating and reinstalling firewalls. I'll be back if this doesn't fix the problem. If I am truely fixed- you won't hear from me again. Thank you, everyone, for your time and help with this issue!
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November 14th, 2010 10:44pm

EASY SOLUTION: Use WEP security, 128 bit and make sure that your Ethernet cable is not plugged in from router to your computer when you're ready to try the wireless. Leaving the cable plugged in will result in you getting 'local only' also. This did the trick for me. Apparently Vista has serious communication problems when it comes to security. I first tried no security on the router and it immediately worked. Then as HMcDaniel stated, I did the 128 bit wep.....it worked awesomely......problem solved and I still have a level of security.
November 29th, 2010 4:01am

Did you ever solve this? Mine does the same. I have windows vista, which works fine, but in the past month, it only sporadically connects. I will disconnect from the internet correctly, but if I try to go online later, it will not let me. I have tried just about anything, but so far, the only way I can seem to get online after this, is to restart my computer, and only sometimes this works. It is really tedious, especially if I was in the middle of something important.
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December 3rd, 2010 4:30am

EASY SOLUTION: Use WEP security, 128 bit and make sure that your Ethernet cable is not plugged in from router to your computer when you're ready to try the wireless. Leaving the cable plugged in will result in you getting 'local only' also. This did the trick for me. Apparently Vista has serious communication problems when it comes to security. I first tried no security on the router and it immediately worked. Then as HMcDaniel stated, I did the 128 bit wep.....it worked awesomely......problem solved and I still have a level of security. Lets get this 100% clear people ... using WEP for wireless **IS NOT SECURE** While it does encrypt the connection from you to your wireless, the code behind key creation for THIS version of wireless security is BROKEN. This means using WEP security ANYWHERE could easily lead to your information stolen! DONT USE WEP! REGARDLESS OF IT "solving" THIS PROBLEM FOR YOU!
December 12th, 2010 8:14pm

A Dell XPS/Studio laptop running Vista 64 Home Premium almost 2 years old - Local Only problem. Setting up a static IP usually worked, sometimes had to close/open cover or reboot. Strangely, I would often have Local Only, though the Internet was working. 1) Downloaded the latest driver for my 5100 wireless card from Dell and expanded it into a subdirectory using a Ethernet cable. 2) I changed my security to WPA2 on my router (FIOS Actiontel). 3) Uninstalled/deleted the driver for the wireless card and shutdown, and removed the cable. 4) Turned on and the computer tried to load the driver, it couldn't find it and finally time-out. I selected the choice where you tell it where to look. Took a minute to load and Finish. 5) Choose my SSID and put in the Passphrase. 6) The Internet was working, but showed Local Only. 7) Rebooted. Same thing. 8) I then downloaded the Norton Uninstall Tool. I'm not certain the computer had Norton when it was new, but I know it had something and I'm guessing Norton. 9) Ran the Tool. The instant it was Done, the wireless connection showed Local and Internet. 10) I rebooted. The wireless connection initially showed Local only and the Internet was working. Within about 30 seconds, it showed Local and Internet and has been fine since. (Always takes 5 to 30 seconds to go from Local Only to Local and Internet.) I now use MS Security Essentials.
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December 24th, 2010 7:39pm

I would just like to say to Microsoft Inc. that you are by far way too big for your pants. 2 years of YOUR customers complaining and having issues with your Vista product connecting to wireless routers and you care so much that you still do not have an answer. I have tried every single suggestion on this page. I would like to THANK Microsoft for making it so that I have wasted 6 hours of my birthday trying to fix my little sister's computer, while all this time YOU (MICROSOFT) know your product is a Piece Of ____...
December 31st, 2010 4:35am

I can't believe I actually signed up on this forum just to post my frustration with this. I'm fixing a friends HP G50 Notebook with the Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g adapter, running Vista w/SP2. I've tried nearly every fix on this page also and could not get past the "Local only" access using the built in adapter. However, when I plug in my Linksys USB wifi stick I can get local AND internet access on this laptop no problem. This leads me to one of several conclusions: - This particular adapter is not compatible with my brand new Linksys E2000 Wireless N router - My router is not accepting connections from older wireless b/g adapters (don't know enough about it to elaborate) - This adapter is a piece of @#^&... though I doubt it the owner says it was working fine with her router at home My desktop PC and my own laptop are connected wirelessly to my router, no problems there, and my router is set to accept connections from up to 50 users. Also the "Network mode" is set to "mixed" to accept wireless b, g and n. I don't want to start adjusting my router settings to accommodate this laptop and to be honest I don't think any of the solutions that suggest doing so are correct anyways. You shouldn't have to adjust router settings depending on the age/brand of wifi adapter. I'm giving up on using the internal wifi and will just suggest they use a USB stick if they have a problem in the future because clearly this is an issue that cannot (after 3 years) be resolved. Good luck to you all, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! ***UPDATE An hour after I left the above comment I returned the laptop to the owner. We entered the security key and connected to her network, and voila, full Local and Internet access. So I'm thinking this may be a compatibility issue between older wireless G and newer wireless N adapters/routers. Again I would just suggest you go and spend $30 on a wireless USB stick to avoid the headache and countless hours of frustration trying to deal with this issue.
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December 31st, 2010 6:48pm

Hello, I am working on a HPG60 Windows Vista 32bit - SP2. Exhbited all of the issues above after a virus removal. I don't know if the issue was an issue before, however, at my shop I tried hooking it up to the wireless and couldn't get anywhere!! The fix to this issue was simply to install the updated version of Atheros Adapter DRIVER FROM HP. Immediately fixed the issue. I hope most of you guys got this issue resolved. I didn't realize this issue was so big and ridiculous! Good Luck Viva Windows 7!!!!
January 2nd, 2011 5:48am

This is the only answer. Thank you very much. I've trying to solve this problem for 6 hours, trying everything I found on this forum and your post was the only one that really helped. I have one correction - it's not HP Pavilion dv5z 1000us but HP Pavilion dv5z 1000 CTO. MUST TRY THIS
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January 6th, 2011 1:04am

I forgot to mention I have a Compaq Presario F676NR.
January 6th, 2011 1:06am

Thanks to all the wonderful people who suggest fix on this local access problem that Vista is having. I followed the suggestion of localdog (since it was very similar to my case) and bought a USB stick. For some reason, the Atheron adapter doesn't work with the new router that was replaced by the internet provider. I tried uninstalling the driver and installing the one I downloaded from HP, but, it still won't work. So I used a Netgear USB stick and it just asked for the network password, and voila! Everything's up and running and I get Local and Internet access now! Note that it's a bit slower than what I'm used to, but I thought it's waay better than seeing the dreaded local access on my laptop. Thank you!
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January 18th, 2011 5:32am

Laptop Specs: HP, Vista, Comodo Internet Security (Firewall, Antivirus & Defense all-in-one) Local Only wireless network problem fixed. (for me at least) Problem Fixed (How I did It): In Windows Vista, right-click "Comodo Internet Security icon" (on the taskbar in the lower right side of the screen beside the time clock). Then left-click "Configuration". (I noticed there was a check box selected beside COMODO - Firewall Security.) Left-click "COMODO - Internet Security" (there should now be a check box selected beside COMODO - Internet Security and NO check box selected beside COMODO - Firewall Security). Disconnect from wireless network (if needed). Now reconnect to the wireless network. Now local and Internet access works! This worked for me and it took about 30 seconds. Comodo Internet Security Premium (Firewall, Antivirus & Defense all-in-one) seemed to be the problem like so many other firewall/antivirus programs. If you are having Local Only problems try to play around with your settings with the third party firewall you are using (Norton, AVG, ZoneAlarm...) but remember your settings so you can change them back if this fix doesn't work for you. HINT: The Firewall settings seemed to be blocking the wireless internet connection (but I don't know much about firewalls.) GOOD LUCK!
January 27th, 2011 4:10am

Totally worked for me. Thanks!!!!
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January 27th, 2011 7:04am

Nope. Nada.
January 28th, 2011 2:14am

Same, joined because I am FRUSTRATED beyond all repair! Even tried the Netgear USB Wireless adapter -aNADA! AARGH! Local Access only. What the deuce?
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January 28th, 2011 2:19am

Ran Norton uninstall. Rebooted. No luck. I'm trying to connect an HP Pavilliion running Win Vista HP to my wireless running on an Acer Aspire with NetGear N150 Wireless. All I get is Local Access Only. Doing my head in. I've updated all drivers know to man in Device Manager no conflicts. Tried the Netgear USB wireless adapter stick - NADA. Pulling my hair out. What the hell is wrong with MS? Seriously. Going on Four years now with this BSf.
January 28th, 2011 2:26am

I have a laptop in my house running Vista Home premium and I am now having this problem since chaning my router from a Belkin N1 Vision to a Netgear DGND3300 and now I have this connected Local only issue. I have tried all the above and like many of you have already said there seems to be no resolution to the problem.
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February 7th, 2011 2:41pm

Ran Norton uninstall. Rebooted. No luck. I'm trying to connect an HP Pavilliion running Win Vista HP to my wireless running on an Acer Aspire with NetGear N150 Wireless. All I get is Local Access Only. Doing my head in. I've updated all drivers know to man in Device Manager no conflicts. Tried the Netgear USB wireless adapter stick - NADA. Pulling my hair out. What the hell is wrong with MS? Seriously. Going on Four years now with this BSf. I downloaded the Norton removal tool on another computer ...transfered to the laptop... ran the programe and that sorted the the problem. Have now downloaded the free edition of AVG and all is well. I think when the Norton 360 was removed previously that it had left some files on the hard drive which only allowed me Local access only
February 8th, 2011 3:52am

Hi, Here's a goofy thing to check. If the windows firewall service is not running, you cannot connect to a wireless network. You can shut off the Windows firewall, but the service must be running.
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February 13th, 2011 9:23pm

I do setup of laptops to routers and vista is a nightmare. Best I can tell the issue is a failure of vista to properly assign the DNS servers IP address. I noted on one system it dropped a digit. 192.168.20.1 became 192.168.2.1. Microsoft fixit worked, manually assigning the DNS address has worked, and another patch I found online DHCP broadcast fix tool worked as well. good luck
February 16th, 2011 7:58am

I was trying to diagnose this same problem on my sister-in-law's computer. The only thing that would work was to drop the security completely or to use WEP, neither of which was acceptable to me. I looked at her Atheros (AR5007) driver for the wireless card and noticed the version was 7.x while the newest version was 9.x. Downloaded the new driver to a flash drive and installed it on her's. I then installed it. As part of the install process for the driver, it reset the wireless card. When it turned the wireless back on she had instant "Local and Internet" on her laptop and it has worked since.
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February 17th, 2011 2:21am

There are many causes. The symptom I experienced was the internet was switching between local and internet. The prob actually seemed to be with where my modem and router were set up. I don't know if there was a interference loop or if the splitter in that location was causing problems. I disconnected modem and router and moved it downstairs to the primary access pt for the cable and everything now works fine.
February 20th, 2011 8:06am

Let me tell you my experiences with this issue. My wife's friend asked me to look at her laptop (since I'm the computer guy in the family). The laptop is a few years old, purchased from Best Buy, and has Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit). It's a Compaq Presario F700. She had uninstalled Webroot Spysweeper and installed Trend Micro Titanium. At that point she couldn't get on the internet. It was the typical Local Only/Unidentified Network issue. Also what had shown up at the same time is an error saying that the version of Windows was not genuine and that we had to Activate it. No idea why that would start happening as Vista came pre-installed on the laptop when purchased (brand new) from Best Buy. But my first priority was to get the laptop back on the internet, and I figured I'd deal with the activation issues later. My wife brought the laptop home for me to work on. First thing I did was try to use a wired connection. It actually got the proper DNS server and Default Gateway.and the IP address was properly given out by my router. I could even ping the router and see the other computers on my LAN. Which helped a lot because I was able to download stuff on my PC, copy it to my NAS, and from there, copy it to the bad laptop. Yet, for some reason, I still had Local Only access...couldn't get out on the Internet. And if I tried a wireless connection, I couldn't even get at the LAN. Which was odd because I was still getting a proper IP configuration. I tried EVERY possible solution I could find online. I mean, I worked on it for like 12 hours. We're talking... 1. All of the registry hacks (for broadcast DHCP, turning off IPv6, etc) 2. Resetting the tcp and winsock stacks with netsh. 3. Removing the network devices in Device Manager and letting them be re-installed on reboot. 4. Downloading the cleaner tools for both Trend Micro and Webroot. 5. Even though she says she didn't ever have Norton Internet Security 2007, I downloaded Norton's cleaner and ran that too...just in case. 6. Turning off the firewall. 7. Manually setting IP configuration for my network (even though I was getting that info from my router automatically via DHCP) 8. Downloading/installing all of the laptop's updates from HP's web site. 9. Downloading/installing Vista SP 2. 10. And probably countless other things I tried involving netsh on various sites. After none of that helped, I was thinking about wiping the laptop and starting fresh. I happened to be looking at an ipconfig when I noticed the MAC address of the LAN adapter (NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller) was showing 00-00-00-00-00-00. I thought that was odd, but I didn't think it would be the problem as my router does not have MAC address filtering turned on. But, I went into the device's configuration page anyway and specified a MAC address that was one character different from the built in wireless adapter. And bingo, the wired LAN connection connected to the internet. But, I was still baffled why the wireless connection couldn't see the internet or my LAN. It had a good MAC address. And I even had the updated drivers from HP's site. At that point, I decided to go beyond HP's site and look for a newer driver elsewhere on the web. The wireless adapter is an Atheros AR5007 802.11 b/g WiFi Adapter. I found fairly new drivers on the atheros.cz web site. I'm always leery of downloading software from foreign sites, but I was on my last straw, so I went for it. Once I downloaded/installed those updated drivers, wireless started working again. After 14 hours of tinkering, searching the web, and using a bit of profanity, I had the laptop back on the internet...both wired and wireless. So, in short, first start by making sure your MAC address isn't 00-00-00-00-00-00. If it is, manually change it to something valid. Next, try to download the newest drivers...even if they aren't from your PC manufacturer's web site or from Microsoft. Now, let's see if I can get Windows to think it is valid again... Hope that helps someone save a little time, DF
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February 27th, 2011 6:10pm

Good day, Have a laptop in the shop........ Had the same problem.......... Download and run the Norton Removal Tool http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&docurl=20080710133834EN It worked for me........ Thanks, Joseph F. Valenti Valenti's Barber Shop & Computer Repair 4515 North Branch Street P.O. Box 101 Wabeno, Wisconsin 54566 715.473.4247 715.889.172 www.valentis.net
March 5th, 2011 2:17am

I have been having the same problem - no Internet access since some MS updates took place on my HP G50 laptop awhile back. Looking at your post, I am thinking that the WiFi adapter on that machien needs to be updated. My question is, were you able to get that Atheros AR5007 802.11 b/g WiFi Adapter update for free? I have tried the atheros.cz site several times, but they always make you get the update through some driver mgt software, which of course yuo have to pay for and they want to update 35+ other drivers as well. Is there any way to get the update for free? Thanks for your help.
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March 10th, 2011 12:42am

I went to this link and clicked the blue check under the system that I had and downloaded it. It did not charge me anything.
March 10th, 2011 10:25am

Thanks Dr. I had tried to get that driver but it kept wanting to download that driverguide crap. So I gave up. Your link worked just fine. I downloaded the new driver and -- WOW - IT WORKED. Thank you again for finding the better way into the site. This has been a nightmare.
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March 13th, 2011 7:37am

FIX: worked for me in control panel->device manager->network adapers->wireless->properties->advanced . Changed "Wireless Mode" from "802.11b/802.11g" to "802.11b". this was 100% trial and error after 8 hrs following advice on his thread to no avail. HATE microsoft! Vista was working for months and this just starts happening for no reason! ADVICE: fiddle with wireless network adapter settings in device manager in case theres a simple fix for you too.
March 16th, 2011 12:55am

I installed vista SP2, updated my Atheros driver and uninstalled AVG. rebooted. Removed the wireless network connection (from "Manage Network Connections" and then rebooted the laptop and the modem and ....phew ! it worked.MCP, Australia
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March 24th, 2011 5:24pm

Hi, I am working as a system admin and also I was facing the same problem since 2 days with my client laptop, I have windows Vista Business Edition SP2 , its like we are not looking for windows updates, check for windows updates definitely you will receive the drivers for your new network connection setup, it will help you a lot to resolve your problem, just installed the updates or drivers from microsoft website and reboot your laptop it will start automatically wireless connection
March 29th, 2011 11:32am

Just stumbled into this problem. I was using a Verizon WESTEL 7500 combined modem/router with my Vista based HP 9700 and the wireless connection worked fine. However the Verizon junk constantly lost connectivity and had to be restarted, sometimes several times per day. I replaced it with a Verizon WESTEL 6100 modem and purchased my own Linksys E1000 router. Now I have the same "Local Only" problem as everyone else here for the last 3 years! No problem with my hardwired connection to the router ... that connects and stays connected. Linksys says it is the Atheros 5700 adapter, and that updating the drivers solves the problem. HP says that my current driver is the correct one, however. I guess I'll spend the next few days reading back three years and sitting on the phone with Linksys. This HP has probably connected to at least 15 different wireless networks over the years and has never had a problem. Sounds like more of a Linksys issue than Vista??
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March 30th, 2011 10:23pm

Fixed it! The Linksys tech was correct. The driver that HP claims is the latest version for the Atheros AT5007 is not! If you go to Driver Max (http://drivermax.com/ ) and register with the site, they found a driver which is 3 years newer. It is a free download. It worked the first time. I connected without making any changes to any setting, and it found my network and printed to the printer connected to my desktop first try.
March 31st, 2011 1:17am

Hey i figured it out. Go into your network and sharing center. Click view status then click wireless properties. Click on the security tab. If it says WPA-2 personal, change it to WPA personal. You will then have to re enter your password. Fixed. It worked for me anyway and ive been looking for a fix for 6 months. I was playing with it the other night and by dumb luck fixed it
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April 14th, 2011 7:48pm

After having this problem for a year, I tried your advice and used drivermax.com to update my atheros AR5007 driver. Worked beautifully. Cant believe it could be so simple yet so frustratingly deceiving. Microsoft drive update will not find the latest drivers for the network adapter. You must use a third party software like drivermax to find and install the latest driver. Thanks a million!
April 25th, 2011 7:39am

I can't believe these problems are still going on, but having just had a customer's laptop in with the same problem I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Seems to be many variations of similar issues all affecting the network stack. This one today - not been updated for some time so did the usual Microsoft updates fine but the network dropped off to local only after SP1. Usual checks showed router fine - 1 Vista PC, 3 Linux and an XP box all connecting but this Vista Basic laptop a big no. Went for usual suspect, Norton, uninstalled first with built in uninstaller then Norton uninstaller program. Still not good. Next, uninstall network drivers, then reboot, reinstall them and all now good! My suspicions are on Norton, the network drivers and Vista's peculiar setup not playing well together. Based on my experiences with Vista since it came out this has been a common problem and not just the networking but drivers in general. Other similar issues have occured with IE8, fixing by rolling back to IE7 seems to have done the trick. Hope this helps at least a little. Happy Hunting!
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May 3rd, 2011 1:28pm

I THINK I MAY HAVE THE ANSWER!!!!!!!!!! Or a few at least....So check this out... I had the same problem of only getting a local connection through my network. I did this on all of the desktops and laptops that had the same problem. This worked on XP, Vista and 7. This is all that has to be done. You need to start by running command prompt in Administration mode. "Start" then "Accessories" right click "Command Prompt" and click "Run as Administrator" Now that you have the command prompt open as the administrator. The next step is to type the bold letters verbatim to the following. type: netsh int ip reset reset.log press enter type: netsh winsock reset catalog press enter "Shut down completely" then "Reboot" Be sure you only type the bold letter from what I typed above. Press enter after each line. After reboot, you should be back on and relieved. I am not a genius with this computer stuff. All I know is that I tried this from a paper that Staples gave me to keep my internet running. I took it there after several failed attempts at getting the internet. All I had for days was "LOCAL ONLY" I was pulling my hair out trying many things including most of the methods on this forum. THIS ACTUALLY WORKS> You may have to do this anytime you physically unplug your computer from the wall, but to me its worth it. It only takes a few seconds before you are back on the internet. Let me know if it works for you.
May 30th, 2011 9:55pm

Had a Vista problem with this exact problem... I tried some of the sujestions... i.e disabling firewall, and virus software. Setting a static IP... but in the end I found a KB article 928233, which fixed the problem for me! Hope this helps someone else!
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June 3rd, 2011 2:54am

I imagine what you all have not figured out yet is that you all have the Atheros AR5007EG or similar Artheros radio in your laptops. What you need is the new driver which only shows for some people on the HP site, never the Compaq, and not with your machines actual system. I'm providing a link ehre to the HP/Compaq version for the AR5007EG everyone else should go to Atheros directly or otherwise find their newest driver. http://www.mediafire.com/?7d71x72u8m5imwb
June 17th, 2011 6:57pm

I went to this link and clicked the blue check under the system that I had and downloaded it. It did not charge me anything. This worked for me. I had an Atheros chipset, and the driver was from 2005. This website is a bit confusing however. You DON'T have to download any program... just find your chipset/OS on the grid and click on it. Then it will bring you to a detailed description of the driver. Below the description (you may have to scroll down a bit) is a SMALL button labled "Download" Click on the button and ***WAIT*** (this is the part the confused me).... after about 15 seconds, the download will start. The download is a .zip file (of about 8 megs for me) which you will have to unzip. It has an .inf file and some other files that you will need to use the device manager in windows to install. Problem solved.
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July 29th, 2011 9:32pm

I went to this link and clicked the blue check under the system that I had and downloaded it. It did not charge me anything. This worked for me. I had an Atheros chipset, and the driver was from 2005. This website is a bit confusing however. You DON'T have to download any program... just find your chipset/OS on the grid and click on it. Then it will bring you to a detailed description of the driver. Below the description (you may have to scroll down a bit) is a SMALL button labled "Download" Click on the button and ***WAIT*** (this is the part the confused me).... after about 15 seconds, the download will start. The download is a .zip file (of about 8 megs for me) which you will have to unzip. It has an .inf file and some other files that you will need to use the device manager in windows to install. Problem solved.
July 30th, 2011 4:32am

I'm pulling my hair out on this one. I tried Microsofts fix #5#### I found on another page to no help. Does anyone know if upgrading to Windows 7 solves the problem? Any other advise? In my sitution my old Netgear router continues to work properly. But my new Linksys E1550 does not allow me to see the internet. This laptop had the same problem when visiting my mom who has AT&T Univision wireless modem/router. This laptop has Vista (sp2) supposedly and should meet the specs of the linksys. Thanks
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July 30th, 2011 6:27am

Update the driver of your laptop wireless network adapter this is what I did and it solved the problem connect thru lan cable first then open device manager and go to network adapters then right click on the wireless adapter then click on update driver software let it search online. wait till it find and install the driver. Thanks,
August 2nd, 2011 2:23pm

Installed a new Linksys Router and got this "Local Only" error condition. Searched high and low, and finally found this thread, with info about Atheros AR5007 driver update. Downloaded/updated and voila! Problem solved. Thanks to all of you for posting, solving, etc., etc. PaulJayD
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August 21st, 2011 10:16pm

Installed a new Linksys Router and got this "Local Only" error condition. Searched high and low, and finally found this thread, with info about Atheros AR5007 driver update. Downloaded/updated and voila! Problem solved. Thanks to all of you for posting, solving, etc., etc. PaulJayD I also solved the 'local only' problem on my laptop by downloading the atheros driver update from this website... http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-drivers.php (The driver update downloads as a .zip file and it does take about 15 seconds before it starts to download incase you are stuck) Once you get the update, put it on a memory stick or something and jack it in to faulty 'local only' device/machine. Then on the faulty machine (mine was a laptop with Vista) extract the .zip file to somewhere then select... Start > Control Panel > Network & Internet > Network & sharing center > Manage network connections (on left hand side) Right click on 'Wireless network connection' and select 'properties'. (Click 'continue') Then make sure the networking tab is selected and press 'configure'. Select the 'driver' tab then click Update driver. Then select 'Browse my computer...' option and locate the folder you unzipped earlier. Allow it to finish, restart your faulty machine and you should be fixed! Worked for me :) Many thanks to the folks in the thread for all their hard work! 26/8/11
August 26th, 2011 2:15am

I had the same problem with a new notebook installed with win vista home prem. I pretty much tried disabling IPv6 and deleting network connections but still no go. Finally i resolved it using a work around. I opened the network connections and right click on the wireless connection and click properties. In the Wireless connection properties I highlighted ipv4 and clicked properties. Under the general tab, I left it to default settings which is 'Obtain IP address automatically" I clicked on the Alternate Configuration tab and set it to user configured. i set the IP address, subnet, and default gateway manually. I also added Preffered DNS server to the router address and left the rest blank. I clicked on OK and close all the windows and rebooted the computer. After reboot I opened network and sharing center. Access was 'local' for a while then the diagram changed and the red x was removed. Unidentified network was changed to my network name. Then I tested my connection and browsed to a couple of sites and now I can access the internet. Rebooted a couple of times and it still worked. Please try this and see if it resolves the issue. It's just a workaround so it might not work for everyone. Happy hunting! This method actually worked for me. Except instead of using the alternate IP congifuration i've used the manual ip input. To figure out which ip to use, I used a different laptop where the connection worked fine. I clicked on 'details' on 'view status' of you connection and you should find the ip, subnetmask etc... Remember to assign a different ip e.g if the working one is 192.168.0.101 , use 192.168.0.102 (which worked for me)
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September 4th, 2011 12:13pm

Hi, do you still have this problem? I think you were almost right, it's from the id network Please rely
September 16th, 2011 12:46am

Hi, I still have the same problem, haven't tried the manual reset of IP address etc. yet because I am not sure how? Despite downloading update I am still limited to local access.
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October 5th, 2011 1:22pm

My connectivity issue was exactly similar to MohawkRiver's situation above from sep 11 2010(changed router from linksys (Belkin in his case !) to netgear n150). I followed his advice .. reinstalled the wireless network driver.... I am online .... Thanks Mohawk
October 30th, 2011 2:10am

Resolved. I gave up and installed Ubuntu Linux. It "just worked".
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December 30th, 2011 12:57pm

Start>Run> cmd Enter ipconfig /renew worked for me. Randall <><
January 13th, 2012 3:10pm

This problem plagued with every Vista installation. With Windows 7, it was much easier and straight forward to redeclare the connection to allow Internet access. To this day, I still believe MS should have given a free upgrade to Windows 7 for anyone with Vista.- Michael Faklis
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January 29th, 2012 11:47am

Alright, I've been reading this thread and trying MOST of what is here but nothing worked! I finally decided to pull the wireless card in the laptop I'm using and put in a different one.....and WALAA! Bam, got internet with no local only BS. I'd almost be willing to bet by just pulling it, rebooting without, shutdown, put original back in and reboot might also work.....I had to plug in to internet to download drivers also. Good luck to all, especially those of us who are still unfortunate to be running Vista!
March 5th, 2012 10:43pm

Loading the latest driver also worked for me. I found my driver from this link that was posted previously. http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-drivers.php Without this thread I would be still banging my head against the wall. Thanks.
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June 11th, 2012 11:01am

Loading the latest driver also worked for me. I found my driver from this link that was posted previously. http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-drivers.php Without this thread I would be still banging my head against the wall. Thanks.
June 11th, 2012 11:01am

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