Network status stuck on "Identifying..."

[Nils]

I'm trying to connect my machine to a network over (wired) LAN. The connection (including internet) works fine in general, but when I open the "Network and Sharing Center", under "View your active networks" it only says "Identifying..." and the network name never appears. I think it has something to do with the (Cisco) routers not supporting the "Broadcast" flag, but disabling it in the registry didn't help either.

I need to set my network type to home, but in order to do that Windows needs to recognize it first...

 

[brady]

I would try resetting the modem and router (while your pc is off)... Then powering on the modem first, waiting for connectivity light... once modem is ready, plug in router... wait till it's active then start your computer.

 

[Nils]

I'm trying to connect to my university's network, so there is no router I can reset.

 

[brady]

Ahh gotcha. ok so your internet and file sharing works... but under Center is says identifying?

from the sound of it you did this:
Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers

is that correct?

 

[Nils]

Yes, exactly. But actually I just saw now that there is a message on that site that reads "Note: This issue does not occur in Windows 7. The registry key DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle is set to 1 by default."

So I guess that would explain why it didn't help me at all.

 

[brady]

So i'm confused a bit now. DHCP broadcast flag is now off but toggle is still on, is that correct?

 

[Nils]

DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle is set to 1, as is (from how I understood that) the default in Windows 7 anyway. This should fix the problem according to MS, but it didn't.

But my problem is also slightly different since I can still obtain an IP address, Windows just can't "identify" the network.

 

[brady]

That's weird stuff... Let me look into it a bit. i'll get back to you.

 

[raf051888]

Have you tried disabling and re-enabling the NIC?

 

[Nils]

Yeah, I even tried uninstalling the device completely and reinstalling it. No dice.

 

[aem]

under "View your active networks" it only says "Identifying..." and the network name never appears.

You mean "See Full Map". Can you screenshot what you mean?

 

[Nils]

Sure:

 

[brady]

This was copied from another post: Just remove "vista" and insert "7"

I used to work at a tech desk at a university library, and we had students with similar problems. Are you running Vista? It turns out that Vista requires you to modify your connection settings manually if you want to connect to a network that isn't broadcasting properly, a problem that affected all of our wireless systems.

Try this:

Open your 'network and sharing center', click on 'manage wireless networks', right click on your network and then select 'connect even if the network isn't broadcasting.'

That usually worked, but sometimes we had to delete the existing connection and create it manually (again, selecting 'connect even if the network isn't broadcasting).

There seem to be many situations where the 'identifying' problem occurs, so this might not be the right solution. Hope it helps!

Edit: You could also just be getting assigned bad IP addresses, seeing as this problem happens intermittantly. Have you tried releasing and renewing your IP address?

 

[Nils]

Thanks, but it looks like that only concerns WLAN connections. I'm on a normal, wired network.

 

[brady]

so when you right click it doesn't give the same option there?

 

[Nils]

There isn't even a "manage wireless networks" link unless I enable my wireless adapter. And even then, what would the settings for a wireless connection have to do with my LAN connection?

 

[brady]

sorry, what I meant was. Can you right click on your relevant link to see if that setting is there? I would assume it would be Manage Local Area Networks or something close to that?

 

[aem]

Are you connecting directly to the router? you are using LAN right?

 

[Nils]

sorry, what I meant was. Can you right click on your relevant link to see if that setting is there? I would assume it would be Manage Local Area Networks or something close to that?

I don't think I have anything like that, sorry. Does it exist on your system?

Are you connecting directly to the router? you are using LAN right?

To be honest, I don't really know what happens beyond my LAN plug. It's a university-wide LAN with hundreds of users. I just know that it is Cisco-based.

 

[aem]

Well it looks like W7 isn't reading your uni LAN network, but weird that you can still connect to the internet. It could be a proxy server providing the access. Is another else have this issue?