computer won't authenticate to wireless network using computer account
Most of the computers in our active directory domain, from XP to 7, connect to our WPA enterprise network fine, they authenticate to the wireless network with the computer account when booted, then reauthenticate with the user's credentials when someone logs in. But on a handful of Vista and Windows 7 machines, never XP machines, they stop even trying to authenticate with the computer account credentials. If someone tries to use the machine who doesn't have a cached password on the machine, either because a policy says not to cache passwords on the machine, or because the user hasn't used the machine before, they;ll get a message saying a domain controller can't be contacted to authenticate the login. On 7, where you can go into advanced settings and select whether you want user, computer, or both types of authentication, if you choose computer authentication only, you're toast, it'll never work. The error message just says "windows was unable to connect to XXXX", where XXXX is the SSID. If you click troubleshoot problems, you get "troubleshooting couldn't identify the problem". I've tried looking in the IAS server's log to see why it's rejecting the request through RADIUS, and there's nothing there, it doesn't look like the RADIUS server ever received any requests. The workstation isn't even trying. The only way I've managed to fix this so far is to blow away everything and reinstall Windows from scratch, which seems like driving a nail with a sledgehammer, and is time consuming to boot. Anyone know a quick way of fixing this?
September 1st, 2011 9:30pm

To fix this, try deleting the particular network connection from the Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings and reconnecting to the network. I've seen this work for many users, so I suggest you give it a try. There may be some saved setting that may be causing this. Please revert back here if this does not resolve your issue. Hope it helps!Kunal D Mehta - a Windows Server Enthusiast | My first TechNet Wiki Article
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September 3rd, 2011 10:05pm

These computers may have incompatible wireless drivers so the network connections do not establish at startup before user logs on. I suggest you upgrade the network adapter drivers and see the result. The firewalls on these computers can also be the cause of the issue. IEEE 802.1X Authentication for Wireless Connections http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb878016.aspxPlease 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.
September 5th, 2011 9:50am

This reply makes no sense. As far as I can tell there is no way to DELETE an adapter from this location. If I speculate, I believe that you intended to suggest that we look at the "Network and Sharing Center" and select "Manage wireless networks" on the left where we will see all of our saved WiFi networks listed and then remove the network that is in question. This has resolved the problems for me in a few instances but I am currently dealing with an issue where this has no effect. I just wanted to update this because it was not making sennse when I read it.
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May 25th, 2012 4:53pm

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