Windows 7 locks up router

[WTurgeon]

I have been having a problem with my wireless router crashing when using Windows 7. Whenever I tried to access shared folders or computers on my home network, Windows 7 would show "limited connectivity" and I would lose my internet connection. At the same time, any of my Windows XP machines would lose connectivity. Nothing would get them to reconnect until I reset the router. Then the machines would connect automatically as usual.

I turned off network discovery in my network control panel in Windows 7, and the problem has stopped. But now I still can't access shared computers, folders, or printers.

The Windows XP machines can "see" the Windows 7 machine but of course, with network discovery turned off, the Windows 7 machine cannot find any of the local resources.

The home network is a simple workgroup and the wireless router is a Dynex DX-WEGRTR v.1000 with the latest firmware (US Ver. 1.01.08).

I called the Dynex help line and they were singularly UNhelpful! They said my network setup was at fault...completely ignoring the fact that the XP resources all work properly, including network printing and file sharing.

I have NOT set up a HomeGroup as XP machines cannot use a HomeGroup. I have also tried turning off IPv6 in the Windows 7 system registry as defined by Microsoft in a TechNet article with no discernable difference (the network runs on IPv4 of course).

Does anyone have any idea how to solve this problem?

 

[CarlTR6]

Welcome to the forum. Networking experts will be along to help you. But I will ask if you are using a third party firewall and/or antivirus?

 

[WTurgeon]

Hi Carl,

No, because I work primarily with Microsoft product and this machine is my "test bed" for Windows 7, I am using the built-in firewall and Microsoft Security Essentials as my antivirus solution. The SE is up to date and I ran a scan to verify that there are no infections.
I have very little on this machine yet and I have completely wiped the drive with a mil-spec drive wipe and then loaded the machine from scratch using my TechNet media. There was no difference in this problem after reloading.
Of course, there were minor differences in system setup as the machine initially came with Win7 Home and I reloaded with Win7 Ultimate, but nothing that affected this problem.
In fact, this is the third load on this machine as I recently set it up as a dual-boot with Win7 Ultimate as the default OS and a second partition with Microsoft Server 2008 R2 on it.

I am fairly certain the problem is in the firmware on the Dynex router, but they say this unit is discontinued and they will not be bringing out any firmware upgrades for it (I only bought it in December). I was hoping that someone just might have come up against this problem and knew something that I did not know about Win7 network setup that might impact this problem.

I'm good at what I do, but no-one knows everything in IT and with Win7 being so new, I am still learning about it's in's and out's. I am certainly not above asking for help!!

Regards,
BillT

 

[chev65]

I have been having a problem with my wireless router crashing when using Windows 7. Whenever I tried to access shared folders or computers on my home network, Windows 7 would show "limited connectivity" and I would lose my internet connection. At the same time, any of my Windows XP machines would lose connectivity. Nothing would get them to reconnect until I reset the router. Then the machines would connect automatically as usual.

I turned off network discovery in my network control panel in Windows 7, and the problem has stopped. But now I still can't access shared computers, folders, or printers.

The Windows XP machines can "see" the Windows 7 machine but of course, with network discovery turned off, the Windows 7 machine cannot find any of the local resources.

The home network is a simple workgroup and the wireless router is a Dynex DX-WEGRTR v.1000 with the latest firmware (US Ver. 1.01.08).

I called the Dynex help line and they were singularly UNhelpful! They said my network setup was at fault...completely ignoring the fact that the XP resources all work properly, including network printing and file sharing.

I have NOT set up a HomeGroup as XP machines cannot use a HomeGroup. I have also tried turning off IPv6 in the Windows 7 system registry as defined by Microsoft in a TechNet article with no discernable difference (the network runs on IPv4 of course).

Does anyone have any idea how to solve this problem?

There are other similar complaints about this router on the internet. It seems that the firmware has not been updated by Belkin specifically for Windows 7 which is probably causing this problem to occur. There have been considerable changes to the network stack with Windows 7 so firmware updates are required for many routers to function properly with Windows 7.

Others with nearly the same router have exactly the same complaints as you.
Dynex router stops responding... - PC Pitstop Forums

So until Belkin decides to make new firmware for this router you may keep having this problem unfortunately.