Windows 7 Pro connection problems

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Two weeks ago I installed Windows 7 Professional for a friends daughter on her laptop . The purchase was from Microsoft’s deal for students. The previous version was Vista, I did not do an upgrade, did full install. All went well, I installed the security programs, connected using the wireless connection, did all the updates. Everything worked great! She picked up her laptop and went to her mom’s and I got a call saying she could not connect. I tried every suggestion possible and it would not connect! Her mom is on UVerse same as me, same gateway, same settings. She took it home to her apartment by her school and it did the same thing, she can only connect to unsecured connections, but not her own. I had her bring the laptop back to her mom’s where I tried everything again, no good. I reloaded the computer at her mom’s and she could finally connect to her mom’s using the wireless connection, but still cannot connect at her apartment. Oh, and also now it will not connect at my house! Windows gives a message that it is unable to connect and you do not even have a chance to put the network key in. Also after clean install, to connect at Home using wireless was selected. If anybody has any suggestions, I welcome any advice.

Below is what I have already done:

[1]The wireless device does have the latest driver
[2]Removed the connection from my gateway
[3]The laptop wireless device does support IPv6
[4]changed Network ID to Home computer instead of Domain
[5]Made sure that Network Discovery was turned ON
[6]Disabled the DHCP Broadcast Flag (recommendation from Microsoft) (this was actually my last resort!)
[7]Ran the Wizard to set up a new connection or network
[8]Also made sure the following was set to Automatic and Started in Services:

* DNS Client
* Function Discovery Provider Host
* Function Discovery Resource Publication
* Peer Networking Grouping
* HomeGroup Provider
* HomeGroup Listener
* SSDP Discovery
* UPnP Device Host

Also, the Troubleshooter in Network and Sharing Center does NOT find a problem.

Could this be a problem with the Windows 7 Professional version? I am at a loss here.

Thank you!

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can you test the laptop with a wired connection in each location? does it connect if you us a cable from the laptop to the router in each place?

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Yes, it will connect with an ethernet connection

But, she has a short cable and wants to use the wireless connection.

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right,

We are testing at this point to try and eliminate some things to determine what is wrong.

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I understand and appreciate that

Also, I forgot to mention I disabled the windows firewall, rebooted and tried to connect thinking it could be a firewall problem, but nope – still would not connect

Router is not an old one and does has the latest firmware

I have never had this problem with Windows 7 Home Premium, or Ultimate. I have another student wanting me to install the Windows 7 Professional for them sometime this week and I am hoping I don’t have the same problem again!

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There should be no difference in the basic connections between home prem, business and ultimate (accept the domain stuff) Are you actually able to connect to the wireless access point and then do not get on the network? what does the wireless network applet (signal strength bar icon down by the clock) show?

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When you go to Network and sharing center and click on Manage wireless networks in the upper part of the left hand menu, what do you show for saved networks?

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The signal shows strong on the connection she wants to use, but no it does not ever let her connect, in fact it will not even let her put the key in in order to connect

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Only the unsecured network turns up under manage connections, removed it, still cannot get on to her secured network

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It sounds odd. I presume you do not have the SSID of the network hidden and that you see the sunburst on the network connection applet down by the clock. You then click on the network in that location, say connect and then do not get the dialog asking for the network key.

It would almost sound like your network card was not detected correctly and the driver is not correct….

What happens if you go into “manage wireless networks” and add the network manually giving it the correct SSID, selecting the correct encryption type and supplying the correct key?

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The only time I have seen this exact problem is when the wireless network was saved as an unecrypted network. We then changed it to a WPA protected network and Win7 never prompted for the new credentials. We then had to delete the saved network out of “manage wireless networks” and it created the connection fine. It almost sounds like your machine will not connect to “any” encrypted network…..?

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yes, we have the sunburst on the network in the task bar and no it does not allow you to put in the key – Windows 7 detected the Broadcom wireless device and gave it a driver, then it had an update for the driver which I did.

your suggestion is worth a try, my only problem is the owner of the laptop is about 100 miles away from me now – when I can get her to call me back we will walk through everything again.

The steps I have already taken were by me, not her, when she came into town this past weekend. I hate working long distance on this stuff, but she is frustrated and so am I at this point. I really appreciate the help on this forum and always find the advice trustworthy. I have also asked her to call Charter (they keep putting her on hold). I have also had her reboot the modem/router, although the problem existed even when she was here.

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Correct, it will not connect to an encrypted network at this time. Initially it did connect to WPA PSK TKIP, but on another network with WPA PSK TKIP it would not connect, or any secured networks after that. And yes, the previous connection was removed. I am wondering if Windows 7 Professional by default wants to connect to a Domain? That is why I found out how to change that, which we did, but it still will not go on a secure location.

She uses Charter, I asked her to call them to see if they can figure it out. My guess is they will not be any help. Previously, her laptop had Vista and always connected with no problems, sorry now I recommended she install Windows 7 even though I love it. Her laptop was badly infected and running terribly slow when I first got it. She never made back-up disks and when I tried to make them, they failed, so I tried to restore from the partition, half way through the whole thing got an error message and the whole thing failed again leaving her with no operating system. I told her about the student deal with Microsoft and she was eager to do it. Everything else works great, just no secure wireless connection.

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I know the frustration of long distance. Don’t know if you are familiar with logmein or not. She would have to plug the machine into the wired connection, setup an account, download and install and then give you her account user and pass but you could then work on the machine like you were sitting in front of it.

logmein

It doesn’t sound like the problem is based on the individual router as it shows the same symptoms in multiple locations. It has to be hardware or driver. The fact that it survived a reload of the OS would point toward a hardware issue.

Do you have the specs on the machine? You mention a broadcom card. Is this 64bit or 32bit win7 ?

(Sorry, at this point all questions yet and no answers……)

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I am wondering if Windows 7 Professional by default wants to connect to a Domain?

I think you can rule that out. I have a bunch of them running in home environments and never had to do anything with this. Your failure is happening before this sequence could even begin as the wireless connection has to be made before the domain could authenticate……

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It is 32 bit and yes I am familiar with Log Me In

also I have used CrossLoop before – anything is better than telling her over the phone what to do, I always like seeing it for myself

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I am beginning to wonder if her wireless device is going bad? But if so, why does it connect to unsecured networks?

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some of the older devices did not support WPA but you had it working once…….

Very odd problem. (Might be something terribly simple but I kind of doubt it)

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Sorry, the laptop is a Compaq Presario C500, Intel Pentium processor (2.4), 1,024 Ram (I advised her to add more ram), the wireless is a Broadcom Wireless LAN and the driver supports 802.11i/WPA2. The laptop runs much faster with Windows 7 than it did with Vista, and Compaq lends no support for installing Windows 7.

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Hi Bonnie and mercyh,

I have just been following things here, and Bonnie, in post 12 you mentioned that Windows 7 supplied a driver for the Broadcom wifi card, and then it also supplied an update to the card. Would you consider removing those drivers and applying the most recent Win7 Broadcom driver available from Broadcom or from the laptop manufacturer, rather than from Windows itself? It might make a difference. Just a thought.

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although there is no 7 driver for that card listed with the C500 laptop’s drivers on HP’s website. The following EliteBook 2730 notebook lists the exact same network card and has win 7 drivers listed for it.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=uk&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3784558&swItem=ob-78054-1&prodNameId=3784561&swEnvOID=4053&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=2

You might try installing the above driver to see if it will solve your problem.

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Hi Gerald,

Glad to have your eyes on this one…..

Hoping you can see the problem we seem to be missing..

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Thanks for that thought! I had previously uninstalled the driver, on reboot windows loaded the same driver back

I just read that some people have had a problem with the driver and had better luck using the Vista driver!

I am going to try that as soon as she calls me back (may not be until later tonight)

We both use skype and I can send the driver through skype and walk her through installing it.

Thank you, that could very well be the problem! I will post back if it works.

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and thanks for the link – I downloaded the driver from hp and will give that a try

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This is an interesting thread. Can’t wait to see the solution.

As an alternative to LogMeIn, CrossLoop, etc., you could try to connect to her with Team Viewer. It is free for non-commercial use.
Why TeamViewer

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Thanks for the link to TeamViewer –

She called late last night, I checked the driver for the Broadcom device and it is the latest from hp. We uninstalled it and reloaded it with the driver from hp, but she still cannot get online.

I had her re-run the troubleshooter, when we ran it before it did not find any problems. Now the troubleshooter comes back saying it could be a router or access point problem.

The computer would not communicate with the router. She is calling Charter today.

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PROBLEM SOLVED! For some reason a call to Charter fixed the connection problem, all I know is that they gave the network a new name and a new key, not sure if Charter did anything else at their end, but the laptop is online with a secure connection finally. The only thing I don’t know yet is if it will connect when she changes locations, the problem was not just at her apartment, it was also a problem at her mom’s house.

Thanks to all of you who posted back and helped!

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The solution that worked for me for connecting to a secured wireless connection using Windows 7 Pro:

Go to the Network and Sharing Center in Control Panel; then click on “Set up a new connection or network”; then “Manually connect to a wireless network”; and enter the credentials for the wireless router manually. I am then able to access the internet and network without any problem.

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Yes! That is exactly what she did, she had to manually set it up. We had tried the manual method before and it did not work, she later tried it after Charter changed the SSID and Key and then it worked. I am still puzzled as to why it did not work the first time, and also why should you have to set it up manually? I thought Windows 7 made it easier for people to connect wireless, you should be able to pick your connection and enter the key. Why did renaming the SSID and and a new key and setting up manual make a difference? And will it work again if she changes locations?

Thanks for the post, I really appreciate all the help on this forum. I am happy to hear from someone who had problems connecting with Windows 7, but found a solution.

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