If you are working as a IT support or a network engineer in your company, I am pretty sure that you will have faced a lot of problems with Vista systems using your wireless network. A lot of my friends have problems with their wireless network at home. I have been to countless homes and have tried a lot of different methods to solve these problems, most of them are related to Windows Vista systems. It seems to me that Vista is really ill-prepared for the public and thus we get some much problems. However, not all the problems are due to Microsoft, some of which are caused by the manufacturers who can’t get their system Vista ready fast enough, yet they released “Vista Capable” systems to the public.

Problems include unable to connect to the wireless access point (router) with your Vista system but using a WinXP or other Operating system, they work perfectly. Or you can connect to your access point but you are unable to retrieve an IP address from the DHCP server. Or you get intermittent disconnections from your access point. How about very slow speeds when you connect through wireless but faster speeds with you connect wired? Or sometimes you can connect to the access point, sometimes you cannot?

Thus if you are facing problems with your wireless settings, I have compiled a list of solutions for you. Hope that this will help you troubleshoot and solve your wireless problems.

1. Drivers. Update your wireless adaptor’s drivers.  A lot of the time, it is due to old drivers which are not updated by your manufacturer. Goto the manufacturer’s website and download the latest drivers. Don’t expend on the CD that comes with your hardware. It could be months or even years old. Some features are not supported by older drivers or they have bugs and getting the latest driver will help solve these problems. This is especially true if you can connect to your wireless access point without any security settings like WEP or WAP but you can’t when you enable the wireless security protocols. I have found that this is the biggest known culprit - old drivers. A lot of hardware manufacturers are not ready for Vista and the drivers they provided are sub-par at best.

2. Firmware. Update your wireless router or access point’s firmware. Again, the firmware in your access point or router could be very old and may cause problems when connected to a Vista machine. Beware, sometimes updating your access point’s firmware will set your access point to the default settings. Always update your firmware using a wired connection and make sure you get the correct firmware. Get someone with some experience with networking to help you.

3.  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233 This can really help. If you have trouble leasing an IP address from your DHCP through the wireless network, then you should try this fix by Microsoft. You can also solve this problem by updating your access point/router’s firmware, that is if your router is acting as the DHCP server. If not, then try Microsoft’s fix. It requires you to enter to the Windows registry and do some changes, so be very very careful.

4. Disable the IP v6 protocol. Don’t know why this will affect the wireless network but it seems to work for a number of people. Give it a try. Since there isn’t really anyone out there using the IP v6 protocol. This got to do with users unable to connect to the Internet, but can connect to the wireless access point successfully.

5. Update Windows Vista. There could be a fix for your wireless problem already. Update your Vista using Windows Update to get the latest patches for your Operating System and install them. Hopefully it doesn’t cause more problems for you.

6. If you are using an USB wireless adaptor, the problem could be the driver for your USB controller. If you face problem with your wireless disconnecting frequently, update that.

I am pretty sure the majority of problems are caused both old drivers and old firmware. Usually, they can be solved by updating both the wireless adaptor’s driver and updating the access point/router’s firmware. I have faced problems with notebooks by Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo and many others, all with their drivers outdated and giving a lot of wireless headaches for their users. Updating to the latest drivers solved most if not all of the problems.