Windows 7 Router Compatibility
I would be defined as a road warrior and run Windows 7 Professional on my Dell laptop. Recently I've been having problems connecting to different public LAN and WI-FI access points in airports and hotels. Originally I put it down to ISP issues I've seen before. However, I started to pay attention and noticed on a LAN connection at a Marriott hotel, I would get connected, see 'Identifying' then disconnected. This was repeated and logged in the Event Viewer. I then started digging and found others had similar problems with Vista and Windows 7. I've seen the articles at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us andhttp://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Why-can-t-I-connect-to-a-network. I haven't had a chance to try the registry change but it seems to have mixed results. So, for the hit and miss of the connectivity, I think I'm hitting older network gear not compatible with W7. This is upsetting because it means I can't get network access at times. Also aggravating is: The "Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool" appears to require you to be connected to the Internet to run. This seems like an oxymoron since if I don't have network connectivity how can I use the network to test the router? There does not appear to be a way to defeat the identification logic so that I can connect with other public ISP's that I need to use. Calling the public ISP can complaining their router is not Windows 7 compatible is not an issue. Looking to see if anyone has a work around to get Windows 7 to work on any network regardless of compatibility that Microsoft, and not other OS vendor, requires.
July 4th, 2010 5:55pm

We use netbooks running win 7 pro 32 bit, I disabled IP6 on the NIC and we can connect to over 90 % of all hotspots / routers (the most to fail are WEP connections, but that is to be execpted). With one of the guys who who has an HP laptop 64 bit win 7 home prem, he had to buy a USB dongle as his laptop would fail to connect more than not.
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July 5th, 2010 12:29am

@Bubbacpcguy - Thanks, disabling extra features like IP6 was one of the things I tried first. No joy. How did the dongle help? At the moment, this appears to be a problem with the way W7 wants to hand-shake with the router.
July 5th, 2010 2:23pm

Hi, I don’t think the third party software and hardware compatibility issues can be fixed by Microsoft only. Third party manufacturers are responsible for the compatibility of their products. Microsoft is trying to release some compatibility updates to improve some compatibility issue. But it is impossible to fix all the compatibility issue by Microsoft. It is necessary for the third party manufacturer to develop and release the software and firmware update to improve the software and hardware compatibility issues. In think the old routers will be replaced with the Windows 7 compatibility ones in the near feature. Based on the current situation, the network adapter driver and the router firmware need to be up to date to improve the compatibility. In addition, you may consider to install Windows XP Mode as a workaround. Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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July 6th, 2010 5:40am

@ Arthur_Li: Thanks. What I'm looking for is for someway to defeat the new hand-shaking that was done between Vista and Windows 7 that is causing the problem. I'm sure there was good reason to add these but I don't think it's reasonable to expect network vendors to work to requirements solely for Windows 7 when they are not required by other hardware and software vendors. I would also not expect ISP's to replace working network components just to be Windows 7 compliant. I have to disagree. From what I can see, this is a problem Microsoft has created by changes from XP. The fact you suggest XP Mode seems to support this.
July 6th, 2010 5:32pm

DS256, everything changes, way of life, and Microsoft builds the OS but they do not force anyone to to use it (If Bill Gates has a gun to your head blink twice we will send in S.W.A.T) In most cases the change is for the better, as for folks replacing networking components and so on, yes it happens all the time cable companies are now replacing DOCSIS 2 with DOCSIS 3 modems, DSL companies dumped the old dsl modem for new ones which allos for more sped. As a hosting provider I spent over 20,000.00 upgrading switches to be compatible with the upstream routers. The world of computers is an endless expenditure of funds. out of 100's of routers and nic we have had to dump less than five, those are good odds. Have you set static IP's on the boxes???, that helps some with older gear.
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July 6th, 2010 9:31pm

@Bubbapcguy - Unfortunalte, this is a corporate laptop. I'm part of the Windows 7 BETA program for rolling out to the rest of the company. We are a mixed OS shop so there are other choices in laptop OS which some make take. Setting a static IP on a public ISP I don't believe is an option. I have not had this problem on our corporate or my home networks, only public ones in hotels and airports. @Arthur_Li - I was at the Philidelphia airport yesterday and experience the problem. I was not able to connet to ATTWIFI from Windows 7 but was able to get on using Windows XP mode as you recommended. Unfortunately, Outlook is on the Windows 7. I had excellent signal strength. Here is IP info from the successfull XP Mode connection. Windows IP Configuration Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : phillyiap.philapa.wayport.net IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.254.4.179 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.254.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.254.4.1 C:\Documents and Settings\XPMUser>ping 10.254.4.1 Pinging 10.254.4.1 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 10.254.4.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64 Reply from 10.254.4.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64 Reply from 10.254.4.1: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=64 Reply from 10.254.4.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64 Ping statistics for 10.254.4.1: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 9ms, Average = 3ms
July 8th, 2010 5:02pm

DS you need to stop looking at how win 7 handles the handshake as that is not the issue. I connect to ATTWIFI at McDonalds twice a week, I run Hotspots / hotzones and the issue you are seeing is not a widespread issue, you need to look at the wifi card you are using. Pickup a known to work with win 7 USB wifi dongle and try. You do not have you DNS hardcoded do you??? Captive portals need to push the DNS to you.
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July 8th, 2010 7:54pm

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