Vista machine loses IP connectivity with XP home network.
I have recently bought an HP Slimline3020N with Windows Vista basic preinstalled - Media edition. I use it as a media centre on my LCD TV. I connected it via a Netgear WGR614 wireless router wirelessly (it has an inbuilt wireless card), along with an HP Pavillion d8000t Laptop running XP Home Media, which also connects wirelessly, and an HP 350n Pavilion desktop running Windows XP Home Edition - connected by cable. All in a home network situation established via the respectibve network wizards. TheNetgear acts as the gateway to the internet for all machines. In practise, after much painful discovery, I eventually got the Vista machine to access the files of the others and the XP machines seeing the Public folders of the Vista machine (even got the laptop printer to install as a network printa on the Vista machine - but not for the a350 printer!); namely downloading LLTD and setting password on the machine which seemed to make this more reliable (and all the basic permissions for a private network). All machines use Norton 360 as a firewall and the XP machines interact without issue; print sharing and all. Basically it works; except!!!!... The Vista machine regularly loses IP connectivity yet by using Explorer on either of the XP machines, it is still part of the network work group. And using Vista expanded network map, it sees the other XP machines as well. I went to all the network adaptors and set the various TCP/IP protocols as advised in another forum (v4 and v6). Then I thought I found my problem when I downloaded from Microsoft, a hotfix whereby it overcomes the IP address apaparently being lost when the machine sleeps. But that does not solve the problem as often the Vista machine loses the XP machines even if it has not gone to sleep. I run Mobiliti Network Unplugged and during modest length synchronisation (run from the a350 desktop - to synchronise music and photos between all three machines), I get a message saying the network path (to the Vista machine) is not available. Sure enough, I try confirming with Explorer and the Vista machine has gone AWOL when trying to access the folders, even though the Network group still sees it, as does the Vista Network Map see the XP machines. The only way to recover the connection is to reboot the Vista machine and surprise, surprise, it works again - until the next random disappearance. It clearly seems to be an IP problem whereby the Vista machine forgets particular IP addresses - or layers? - for it to communicate properly. When I go into the Netgear setup and list attached devices, the Vista machine is still there after "refresh" (IP and MAC visible). So where is it losing it's way? One thing I did notice is that once I set the network icon in the Systray for the a350 desktop,I noted thatoccasionally I get a lost connection balloon and then after a few seconds it returns. I can't figure out if it's just the NIC in the desktop or the wireless router dropping out (wireless routers seem to have a whole world of their own to fathom out). If so, does this scramble the Vista machines IP brain (the XP laptop rumbles on regardless). If so, how can I protect this information loss (and sort the wireless issue separately). Can anyone shed some light on where I should look next? I'm rapidly looking at going to XP media edition and dropping Vista altogether. All XP seems a more robust solution.
September 17th, 2007 7:53pm

Ahhhhhah , The plot thickens .... like a politicianswallet ( LOL). Iv'e gone bald pulling my hair out as I have an HP Presario preloaded with Vista home premium platform and I cannot get the windows mail to work either despite having British Telecom's expert broadband help deskon the phone for an hour or more( from INDIA ) running through all the settings needed to set up the windows mail and finding everything in order but no connectivity. Now I have managed ( 5 hours of playing ) to locate you guys and actually have my passwords honoured more than once ( most sites stopped access because my passwords were not being recognised ) and I thought it was senility catching me up . Not being computer programme literate I can only hope some one else peek into this thread and has the knowledger and remedy to hand for the rest of the world of unfortunates having the Vista Platform programme ( or should it be MISSEDA PLATFORM PROGRAMME?????? ) Regards Missing electron (The unhappy bunny)
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September 18th, 2007 4:16pm

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