Windows 7, Dell laptop business computer. It connects at work to the wifi fine. It connects to a wired connection at home, fine. It refuses to connect to the Internet at home on the wifi connection. The home network has a Solaris DHCP and DNS (and DNS caching) server, a Solaris Samba domain controller, Netgear FVS318v3 router, Netgear WG302v1 Access Point. The access point is configured with two security profiles - one uses WPA2-PSK, the other is a more simple Shared-key WEP scheme. Wifi access is also secured via MAC address access list control. This one computer, a Dell E6410 model, refuses to connect to the Internet via the Wifi.. it says "unknown network", yet it configures itself with an IP address, default router, WINS server, DNS server configured. It is even pingable on the local network, It just refuses to allow the connection to be used. 3 other Windows 7 computers connect via the wifi, with identical settings, no problems. I tested it out on a neighbor's unsecured wifi, and it refuses to connect there also, though it also registers with the DHCP there and gets an IP address, gateway, dns, etc... Any solutions? before people offer the default idiot answers - the router has been rebooted, it has the latest firmware, (so does the access point), DHCP is configured per microsoft guidelines and has no additional parameters set (other than Time Server, nntp and some Unix specific settings that Windows clients ignore), It has the latest network card drivers, has had the tcp/ip stack reset (via another googled solution). What confuses me is that the 'network connection status' will display a configured IP address, default gateway, DNS server and all that stuff... the Access Point even acknowledges that it is a connected client, the DHCP server acknowledges that it has accepted and configured the machine as a registered client, and the DNS server acknowledges that it registered it's name with it and is a known client on the network. But the machine will not allow Internet access.. "unknown network, No Internet". What is this all about?

Did you ensure the passphrase and ssid is the same for all devices as in notebook, wireless adapter, router, access point? Note: SSID of any wireless access adapters must match the SSID you configure in the NETGEAR ProSafe 802.11g Wireless Access Point . If they do not match, you will not get a wireless connection to the WG302.

As was stated, the notebook connected fully to the local network, it was assigned an IP address, default gateway, DNS server, etc, by the DHCP server, which is a separate system on the network and lies downstream from the WiFi connection. If it hadn't connected to the access point, it would not have been able to communicate with the DHCP server to be assigned an IP address. I am fully certain that it connected to the Wireless Access Point. The machine was also ping-able on the network from another computer. Windows refuses allow the connection to be used, and I don't know why or can find any explanation on how to resolve this.

By any chance, have you recently seen an error message: "This copy of Windows is not genuine?"

Is this a serious question? With all due respect, 'duh',, no, haven't seen that. I would assume that we're beyond the beginner tier 1 and tier 2 type questions at this point. Additionally, a Dell E6400 model (which uses the exact same wifi chipset and drivers) did connect without any problems, and it was imaged from the same source, which leads me to think it is a registry glitch of some sort. Why would windows 7 not identify a network connection and tag it as 'unknown'? Since this was first posted, I have found additional info on Windows 7 and Vista and how they will flag a connection if the DNS server it is given from DHCP does not respond or if the network is identified as a domain controlled network when the machine isn't configured to connect to a domain controlled network... however, these issues are ruled out by the fact that a nearly idential other computer did connect and and didn't flag anything as incorrect on the network. What other undisclosed details could cause Windows 7 to not like a network it connects to? What else is it expecting to see that isn't specifically documented but assumed to be the standard situation? Microsoft is so bad about changing the standards without telling anyone that they did.

I have had similar problems with a couple of Dell laptops running Windows 7, and used different APs/Routers (parents house, and my own house). Both are newer APs/Routers, and use mode B, G, and/or N. I originally setup all APs to use WPA2-PSK using AES with Mixed Mode (B, G, and N; automatically). After having a home desktop connected to the internet, and then trying to connect the laptop, the internet would stop responding. Also, I was unable to connect to the router using the router IP address (i.e. 192.168.1.1) from the desktop. I eventually reset the router to factory settings (reset button on back), and was able to stay connected to the internet on the desktop and laptop, but as soon as I changed the settings to use WPA2, it immediately lost connection to the internet, and unable to connect back to the router. I had to reset the router again, and had both systems connect correctly with no security. Decided I would try another setting, and then programmed the router using WPA-PSK, or Personal, and TKIP (which I have always used in the past). I was able to connect for a bit, but still had problems. I then also changed the mode to B/G mixed mode only, and then had no other problems. I duplicated these problems with the second router at my parents home, and when I did away with B/G/N mixed mode, and left it as B/G mixed mode, the problems went away. I am still only using WPA-PSK, and B/G mixed mode. There has to be a problem with routers trying to automatically determine multiple modes between B/G and N. If it uses one or the other, then it may work, but all 3 will cause problems. I am sure Microsoft knows about the problem, but does not know how to fix the problem.

I have had similar problems with a couple of Dell laptops running Windows 7, and used different APs/Routers (parents house, and my own house). Both are newer APs/Routers, and use mode B, G, and/or N. I originally setup all APs to use WPA2-PSK using AES with Mixed Mode (B, G, and N; automatically). After having a home desktop connected to the internet, and then trying to connect the laptop, the internet would stop responding. Also, I was unable to connect to the router using the router IP address (i.e. 192.168.1.1) from the desktop. I eventually reset the router to factory settings (reset button on back), and was able to stay connected to the internet on the desktop and laptop, but as soon as I changed the settings to use WPA2, it immediately lost connection to the internet, and unable to connect back to the router. I had to reset the router again, and had both systems connect correctly with no security. Decided I would try another setting, and then programmed the router using WPA-PSK, or Personal, and TKIP (which I have always used in the past). I was able to connect for a bit, but still had problems. I then also changed the mode to B/G mixed mode only, and then had no other problems. I duplicated these problems with the second router at my parents home, and when I did away with B/G/N mixed mode, and left it as B/G mixed mode, the problems went away. I am still only using WPA-PSK, and B/G mixed mode. There has to be a problem with routers trying to automatically determine multiple modes between B/G and N. If it uses one or the other, then it may work, but all 3 will cause problems. There is the possibility it could be the WPA2-PSK with the mixed mode, but I am not changing everything again to find out, now that it is working.