Windows 7 is Gaslighting Me

[pgordon]

I upgraded to Windows 7 (64-bit). I have a Linksys RV042 VPN router. I can get internet access and printer access, but only intermittent visibility of other computers on the LAN and no VPN access from home. I'm guessing that the RV042 is not compatible with our new OS. Is there any VPN router compatible with Windows 7? Also, I've seen so many strange things in my effort to solve this problem, that I am wondering if I have a virus brilliantly gaslighting me. Is it possible?

Paul

 

[mgmcc]

Routers are "network devices" to which computers connect, regardless of Operating System (Windows, Mac, Linux etc.), using TCP/IP protocol, so upgrading to Windows 7 shouldn't in itself cause a compatibility issue with your router.

 

[Arran]

If you suspect a virus or any sort of malware run a few deep scans...

Malwarebytes.org - This is a good'n, run a full scan.. May take a couple of hours but its worth it...

Could also try...

Ad-Aware - Antivirus software with virus and spyware removal - Lavasoft

Both have free versions that work great...

 

[pgordon]

Thanks. How about the visibility issue? I have six computers on the LAN. Sometimes I can see up to three of them. Sometimes not. Would Windows 7 explain the inconsistency?

 

[patwhatsthat]

Thanks. How about the visibility issue? I have six computers on the LAN. Sometimes I can see up to three of them. Sometimes not. Would Windows 7 explain the inconsistency?

I don't believe that Windows 7, would be causing the issue, but perhaps some corruption in the local netbios cache on one or more of the other machines (by the way you didn't say what operating systems are on the other machines, this could be important and if they are all Win 7, it'll make what I'm saying irrelevant) but if they are a combination of say XP and Win2k, then perhaps you should take a look at the event viewer on those machines and see if you are seeing anything regarding browser elections, it could be that the "Master Browser" is changing as machine are brought up and or down on the network. First try going to all the machines and from a command prompt type nbtstat -RR this should purge and reload the local netbios cache on each machine. Let us know if this helps.

 

[pgordon]

All of the computers are using Windows 7 Professional. After posting some messages on a Linksys forum, I'm starting to think it's a problem with the router. I'm going to hold off the netbios purge for the moment. Thanks again for your help.