Ad-hoc wireless network SUDDENLY STOPPED WORKING!!!

[ChrisBlizzard]

I linked my laptop (Win 7 RC) with my girlfriends (Vista Home Basic) via Ad-hoc wireless networking, and it ran like a dream for a week. We took it in turns being the one plugged in at the ethernet, and the one with their feet up on the bed enjoying the comforts of wireless technology.

Then one day the ad-hoc networks were showing up as local-only.

Regardless of what I do in the settings, turning ICS on/off, disabling/reenabling adaptors, drivers, tweaking this and that, I can't get the ad-hoc network to share the internet, even though the ICS is shown as on

I've searched google quite thoroughly and found lots of cases of people suffering from this problem, but not a single solution. I suspect its a Vista bug they never ironed out.

I am now going around the forums posting this in the hope that someone knows what is going on and can help me. I really want us both to be able to have net access.

Please, please, please help. Very grateful if you can.

P.S> I am an IT professional, just so we can avoid the obvious questions. I just don't like to have to reinstall every 5 minutes, and am really hoping that Win 7 is the OS to break the Microsoft mould of making those reinstallations so frequent.

 

[zigzag3143]

I linked my laptop (Win 7 RC) with my girlfriends (Vista Home Basic) via Ad-hoc wireless networking, and it ran like a dream for a week. We took it in turns being the one plugged in at the ethernet, and the one with their feet up on the bed enjoying the comforts of wireless technology.

Then one day the ad-hoc networks were showing up as local-only.

Regardless of what I do in the settings, turning ICS on/off, disabling/reenabling adaptors, drivers, tweaking this and that, I can't get the ad-hoc network to share the internet, even though the ICS is shown as on

I've searched google quite thoroughly and found lots of cases of people suffering from this problem, but not a single solution. I suspect its a Vista bug they never ironed out.

I am now going around the forums posting this in the hope that someone knows what is going on and can help me. I really want us both to be able to have net access.

Please, please, please help. Very grateful if you can.

P.S> I am an IT professional, just so we can avoid the obvious questions. I just don't like to have to reinstall every 5 minutes, and am really hoping that Win 7 is the OS to break the Microsoft mould of making those reinstallations so frequent.

Well win 7 is but i dont suspect it is an OS problem. where does you ISP come from? IE ISP>???????>>>>pc. modem, router, school, etc?

Kenn J+

 

[ChrisBlizzard]

ISP is university accommodation network

Imporant thing though is it worked for a week before stopping, and 100s of other people online had the same problem, and they had different ISPs.

When something works for a while, on two different OSs, then stops, and one of those OS's is Vista, chances are the problem is Vista.

This is just a frustration to me that I'm having pro-Linux pangs again

 

[patwhatsthat]

Chris, I agree with Ken, I wouldn't suspect that it would be an OS issue, especially since you said it had been working perfectly for a week without issues. I would be looking more closely at what may have been installed on either machine during the course of that intervening week. We have seen various issues arise impacting network connectivity which result from the installation of third party applications, such as Antivirus / Internet protection suites, third party firewalls as well as applications that install third party services and run them at startup most notably the Bonjour Service which comes with ITunes as well as a bunch of other applications. Take a look and let us know. Hope your going to hang around even after your issue gets resolved, we could probably benfit from your experience in IT

 

[smilodon]

ISP is university accommodation network

Imporant thing though is it worked for a week before stopping, and 100s of other people online had the same problem, and they had different ISPs.

When something works for a while, on two different OSs, then stops, and one of those OS's is Vista, chances are the problem is Vista.

This is just a frustration to me that I'm having pro-Linux pangs again

Chris
Did you mean hundreds of people in you university had problems or hundreds had the same problem somewhere else?

L

 

[zigzag3143]

Chris

We can get this ficed. Smilodon does have a point. did something happen at the university?

Kenn J++

 

[ChrisBlizzard]

There were no changes made to either laptop in that week. There was no problem with the university system either.

Reasons that make me think it IS the OS:-

1. The 100s of other people were Vista or 7 users online - if you google "ad-hoc network problem internet connection sharing", you will find a great many cases where the same thing happened - set it up - worked like a dream - one week later...stopped

2. I had an ad-hoc network up between two machines using Win 7 Beta earlier this year and the network lasted indefinitely, not disappearing after a week.

But most telling

3. For the first few days, when we set up the network (taking it in turns to be the host), there was a box marked "Sharing this connection". Then it disappeared but carried on working. Then the networks stopped working all together.

 

[ChrisBlizzard]

Hope your going to hang around even after your issue gets resolved, we could probably benfit from your experience in IT

Sure, I will pop in from time to time. I appreciate the help guys.

 

[hob hayward]

From the windows help page:


"If you share your Internet connection, Internet connection sharing (ICS) will be disabled if you disconnect from the ad hoc network, you create a new ad hoc network without disconnecting from the old ad hoc network for which you enabled ICS, or you log off and then log back on (without disconnecting from the ad hoc network)."

Don't have a clue why they do this, but I found if I manually disable connection sharing of my ethernet connection (sharing tab in the properties window of the ethernet card), and then enable it with the button ad-hoc network creator dealio it works.

Also, I am aware this thread is ancient, but its a widespread problem and I couldn't find a single thread with a decent explanation anywhere.. and this is a top hit on google.