Windows Vista not connecting to internet anymore (via wireless)

[dt1986]

Hello,

My brother in law was having some problems with his Vista (32) Laptop in which it needed some routine maintenance which I had realised hadn't occured since he bought it (some 2 years ago). Vista was going slow (as usual) and he said it was becoming a pain and he was going to buy a new one.

Anyways cutting a long story short, I installed Ccleaner and cleaned up the computer, took away some programs which he didn't need (he kept having a norton 360 thing which had expired and some other things on there.) The computer now is alot more responsive and boots up in a respectable (for vista) time and so he is happy.

HOWEVER...

Before my cleanup he had no real issues connecting to the internet, just the usual ones with vista where you have to reset the router from time to time. Now I try to connect wirelessly to his network and it seems to connect, but only locally. No amount of resetting the router and rebooting the computer will solve this issue. It is strange because my XP laptop is connecting fine.

It must be a Vista problem that has caused the issue, I think I may have changed some settings with my initial tinkering.

Anyone have any Ideas?

Dave

 

[Tmagic650]

Maybe it is time to upgrade to Windows 7. You will be very surprised at how much faster it is than Vista...

 

[almcneil]

You need to run the Norton Removal Tool. The standard uninstall program doesn't always work and one common problem is it leaves the firewall installed and blocking. Just search using Google for the "Norton Removal Tool" and choose the one for Norton 360. Run it and report back with results.

-- Andy

 

[dt1986]

Hi,

I downloaded and Ran The removal tool. It seems to have worked! I have internet browsing up and running and all seems well.

With regards to Windows 7, personally I am a bit cautious over new windows operating systems. On my own Laptop I ended up downgrading from Vista to XP and it is so much faster than before. I have also dual booted it with Ubuntu to have a try out on that and I like that. When I do get a new computer I may just go with Apple because I have seen my housemate's 2 macs running (one is 8 years old and still is perfect).

Windows new Operating systems seem to be so rescource intensive taking up lots of RAM and needing a big processor and 20GB just to put it on your machine, whereas XP, Leopard and Linux need 2-4 GB to install and less than a GB RAM to run.

Thanks for your help guys,

Dave

 

[Tmagic650]

"With regards to Windows 7, personally I am a bit cautious over new windows operating systems"...

I understand your caution. Even when I first installed Windows 7 Beta, i knew Windows 7 would be better than any other version of Windows to date. With the release of Windows 7 retail, this is still true

 

[tipstir]

Windows 7 works better on laptops and networks for power management. Speed wise is just as fast as the old XP was. You don't need to much of powerful system to run Windows 7. I got it running on old DELL latitude which only has 850MHz and 512MB of RAM. HDD is only 40GB 7,200RPM. So if you have a fast HDD in your laptop then you can run Windows 7. SATA HDD yes your on point.

XP will still be around just way to much older hardware still be used around the world. User will not give up their XP not just yet!

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes tipstir,
I suspected that Windows 7 would run well on lesser computers. Windows 7 has better more universal hardware drivers too There are times that I have to convince customers to upgrade Win 98 to XP, only if I can boost the system memory to 256MB or even 512MB of memory

 

[tipstir]

Yes tipstir,
I suspected that Windows 7 would run well on lesser computers. Windows 7 has better more universal hardware drivers too There are times that I have to convince customers to upgrade Win 98 to XP, only if I can boost the system memory to 256MB or even 512MB of memory

I only got one PII running at 266MHz, 256MB and 512 L2 cache 7,200RPM 40GB HDD and wireless 802.11N 32-bit NIC adapter card. I can't see Windows 7 running on that one. I just got Windows XP Pro SP3. 11 years old toshiba tecra 8000 with some hardware modding she can still keep on going. I use that with Microsoft Anna for caller ID network management here.

PIII 850MHz
PIII 1GHz

I find these two can run Windows 7 without a hitch. But right now older hardware parts are not as available these days so. I can only keep what I have going until the parts run out.

 

[dt1986]

Well, If I get the chance to, I'll have a play about with 7 to see how it is. But for now XP/Linux is doing a great job with no fuss.

My GF's computer was messed up last week, it was a Vista machine, when I checked it out it only had 500MB RAM, which was never going to be enough! She said it's never really worked from day one. So I wiped that one and stuck XP on and it is so much better. Vista was just a very poor concept!

How come Microsoft can't get it right first time, and other smaller OS' can??

Anyways thank you guys again.

Dave

 

[tipstir]

Microsoft as I was told by one of their VP is that everyone who uses the OS are really beta testers for the company. This is how Microsoft can make their product better. Still if they keep on doing what they do everyone in IT can continue to work for the rest of their lives until they retired. Thanks Microsoft!