Having a wireless networking issue. Any suggestions greatly appreciated! Previous to this week, I connected to our Actiontec router MI424WR wirelessly with no problem at all. Suddenly, the connection won't work, and when I disconnect and try to connect again, I get a message that I have "limited access". Windows network diagnostics says "the diagnostics policy service is not running". Obviously, I changed something to cause this, but I have no clue what that might be. I ran "ipconfig /all" and the output is below. My system is an Eee PC with Windows 7. Thanks for any advice. I'm stumped. Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600] Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\Users\Karen>ipconfig /all Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Karen-PC Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : home Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR8132 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Contro ller (NDIS 6.20) Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : E0-CB-4E-25-7A-5E DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::ad40:1a15:7386:6311%12(Preferred) Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.99.17(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1 fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1 fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-25-D3-E6-D3-34 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::40d4:b84a:3d46:d184%11(Preferred) Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.209.132(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 71.252.0.12 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Tunnel adapter isatap.{ECD611DB-BC86-4658-801E-7FF1D55319D8}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter Reusable ISATAP Interface {FCB7EBB5-C791-4612-B581-DFAC3B716D12}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

How does it work if you directly connect to Internet with wired connection without the router? I just suspect that the router is damaged. Limited connection appears if the router cannot connect to Internet. From the IP configuration I can see that you cannot connect to the Default Gateway, and the computer does not obtain a valid IP address. You may temporary disable the antivirus and firewall. If it does not work, temporary bypass the router and check the result. You can also replace the router if it is possible to see if the issue is caused by the problematic router.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.

Thanks for the guidance. I connected to the router with an ethernet cable and still cannot browse to any www sites. Also of interest, we have a desktop system connected to the same router with ethernet cable and that machine is working fine (I'm posting this message from there.) I don't know a whole lot about networking so perhaps I'm missing something obvious. Does that additional information change your view? Many thanks

I have same problem. My config looks similar with the Atheros Wireless adapter as well. Router is working fine for the PS3 (wireless) and I can surf the net if I use an ethernet cable into the router. The laptop (Windows 7) was working fine until recently. It now will only say "Limited Access" when on wireless and the troubleshooter keeps saying the IP address is not valid. HELP!! Thanks! Shane

Hi, I am enduring the same limited access connectivity. I do have Internet access with 3 other computers so I know it is with the one specific computer. Please help! Thanks, Donna

Going by the IP config results what I would try if you havnt already is to remove the dns suffix and the DNS Servers if they were set manually. Then try /ipconfig release followed by /ipconfig renew (if you didnt already know these commands). Hopefully you should be able to get a network address after this. Also do try again with the ethernet cable with the wireless disabled, then you know for sure it is the settings for the wireless card. By any chance if you were configuring your router when your laptop was working, you didnt disable DHCP on the router? This could also be causing it once the lease time on your IP address ran out. If all that fails you could compare the IP address that the working machine has and set a static address on the faulty one with the same settings but with a different IP address ie. 192.168.1.20

We are also having the same issue with 3 of our Windows 7 laptops, our XP laptops doesn't have any issues. Wireless device is a Belkin-N model. Users are all in DHCP mode, they get their IP address and DNS settings, but they cannot access any websites. There is a cross in the network map to Internet, the truobleshooter cannot find any problems, We haven't seen any workable solution anywhere , our work around method is we manually set one dns ip and then we get connected, next restart/time/day we reverse the operation and we again get connected!!! We don't suspect the wireless device, because windows XP users doesn't have any issues!! All Win7 systems are updated with the latest updates. We were using Google 8.8.8.8 as our primary DNS server, so switched to 4.2.2.2 & 4.2.2.6 but all the same..... Have seen a lot of people having the same issues, but no real update or solution from MS as yet, bugs us!!!

That all sound so good; however, I have no idea what to do. My wireless connections shows a blue graph that says connected when I click on the white bar graph with the little yellow triangle that has an explanition point that says limited access. When I click on the Internet Explorer icon it does not connect to the Internet. My three other laptops all connect properly to the Internet. 2 are Windows 7 and this one that I'm using is Windows XP. The laptop I'm trying to get the Internet working on is Windows 7 and an Acer Aspire 3 months old. I've already taken back 1 other Acer because of this same problem. I've already installed all my Office stuff and I can't afford another license for them. PLEASE help!

I'm having the exact same problem and have spent hours of angst over it. Up until about 3 months ago, I was running an older 80211g belkin router, and am now running an 80211n WNR2000 Netgear router. My desktop is a new i5 build running Windows 7 64 bit. My laptop is running 32 bit Vista. My netbook is running Windows 7 Starter. And my old desktop is running XP Home in the back room through a Zonet wireless G USB adapter through Ralink software. The new 64 bit Windows 7 desktop is the only one that is hard wired. The Windows 7 Starter netbook is the only one having this problem. Everybody else connects, plays nicely together, and holds the connection. The netbook has an Atheros AR5B95 wireless adapter and the drivers are up to date. It connects to my network, but always eventually loses the connection and jumps from a Home network to an Unidentified Public network showing full bars of connectivity, but no Internet connection - in other words, limited connectivity. When it's connected as a Home network, IPCONFIG shows lease dates, a Default Gateway address, a DHCP Server address, and a full Subnet Mask address of 255.255.255.0. When it blips out and reverts to an Unidentified Public Network, IPCONFIG shows no lease dates, no Default Gateway address, no DHCP Server address, and a Subnet Mask address of 255.255.0.0. There are more than twice as many addresses available from the router as I'm using. If I hard wire the netbook to the router it gets a connection with no problem. I don't have iTunes and don't have the Bonjour service installed. All other wireless devices are getting an address with no drops while the netbook is experiencing this problem. What is causing this? Is this a Windows 7 issue?

Just had to say, I had the same problem read through all the answers and tried everything to no avail! Then I found this answer and tried the second part, command: netsh int... It WORKED! I am now connecting correctly again! Thank you so much Chris! PS it worked quickly...maybe 10 seconds and tells you to restart computer to finish this! Thanks! Barb

Donna I had same issue! All others were working fine. See the answer Chris Cupler gave to Shane above! It worked Great! My internet is back and it only took a few seconds! I did not have Bonjour so I went directly to the second part! Just follow the directions above its really easy! Good Luck! Barb

Donna I had same issue! All others were working fine. See the answer Chris Cupler gave to Shane above! It worked Great! My internet is back and it only took a few seconds! I did not have Bonjour so I went directly to the second part! Just follow the directions above its really easy! Good Luck! Barb same thing with mine for 3 months now i have geting limited internet acess on my computer .every where i go for help they cant help me.

Hi Chris, I have the same problem as the people above and did both of these steps (Bonjour and resetlog.txt), restarted and still I cannot connect to the internet with problem "The Diagnostic Policy Service is not running". Any ideas? Kirsten

Hi Chris, I have the same problem as the people above and did both of these steps (Bonjour and resetlog.txt), restarted and still I cannot connect to the internet with problem "The Diagnostic Policy Service is not running". Any ideas? Kirsten To all and Kristen, I am very happy that The limited accsess of my wireless was fixed successfully. I follwed what Chris advice but its same issue. But while reading some of the comments here about the removing antivirus or uninstalling it. the limited access dissapeared. after I uninstalled my MCAFEE!!!!!! : ) : )

Did the probem reoccur after reinstalling McAfee?

I've been having the same problems as mentioned above wiht my Actiontec MI424WR router. It just happened after my computer went into hibernation and then turned itself off. Now I can't access Wi-Fi, receiving a "Limited Access" message after attempts to reconnect. I've followed all the advise Microsoft offers on my computer, deleting and readding the Wi-Fi device to not avail. I also tried disabling the bonjour service as described above and run the command line script. All to no avail. Along with doing the above I've also stopped the firewall of my McAfee software and tried all the above again. Then I uninstall McAfee and tried the same again --- all to no avail. I keep getting the dreaded "Limited Access" response from my router. I can see other Wi-Fi devices and can connecct to them to point that they ask for an access code. Connecting to my device does not ever do that! Any suggestions would be greatly apprecciated. As it is now I can only work via wired internet service to the same router. :-(((

chris, i have tried so many things to resolve my limited access problem with no luck. i tried your suggestion and hey presto, it now works fine. Thanks for the detailed post as i wouldnt have been able to do this without your instructions. Ur a star. cheers pal

Hi, Shane. Two things I'd like you to try: - the Bonjour service (installed with Apple apps (such as iTunes), as well as many Adobe apps) has a nasty habit of borking the network stack on a Windows box (blame Apple!) Open services.msc (just type that at the Start menu), find the Bonjour service (if it's there.) Double-click the entry. In the box that opens, hit the Stop button, and then change the startup type to 'disabled.' Click OK. If network connectivity is restored, great. If not, re-run Network Diagnostics, and let it try to fix things again. - Still broken, or no Bonjour service listed? Reset the network stack (this is a little more thorough than what Network Diagnostics does.) To do this: open an Elevated command prompt (Start > type command prompt > right-click > Run as Administrator; OK the UAC prompt.) Run the following command: netsh int ip reset C:\resetlog.txt Once it's done processing (I can't recall if it actually gives any feedback - just give it about 5 minutes; if no feedback, close the window), reboot. Work now yes/no? HTH, Chris MS-MVP (Media Center) [If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.] I have tried to reset the network stack and the issue still occurs. (Problem with wireless adapter or access point & Wireless network connection 4 doesnt have an ip configuration) I have experienced this issue many times, and it's such a very strange issue, because it suddenly happen and sometimes suddenly the issue gone by itself. Please help! Thanks