Access Connections Location Switching

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JonP · #1 Post by **JonP** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:25 am

Just bought an X60; had a 4-year old T40 previously. Used earlier version of Access Connections (3.xx??) successfully. Now have AC 4.23 and latest versions of 802.11 a/b/g driver, Intel PRO1000PL driver, Intel ProSET driver, HotKey, Power Manager, Power Management Driver.

Access Connections does not automatically switch locations for wired Ethernet connections. It will prompt once following a clean install of AC to save an Ethernet port associated with a profile. That MAC address will appear in the saved Ethernet ports list until the X60 is relocated to a different profile with a different Ethernet connection. Access connections will connect to the previous profile and I will have to switch profiles manually. There will be no prompt to save the new wired location, yet the new location's MAC address will appear in the saved ports list and the original presumably saved port will be gone. Automatic Location switching seems to work OK for wireless connections, possibly because each profile has its unique security settings.

Have tried all combinations of check boxes in the Location Switching options. Have uninstalled and re-installed AC, drivers, etc. all to no avail. All profiles set up with "use best connection" of wired and wireless adapters.

IBM support suggests a work-around of doubling up on profiles and specifying only one adapter (wired OR wireless) per profile. Still won't switch wired locations automatically.

Any suggestions?

Thanks. This is driving me crazy. Earlier versions of AC on my T40 did not have this problem.

walfred · #2 Post by **walfred** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:11 pm

I have a similar problem on my sparkling new x60 tablet.
Somehow saved ethernet ports have disappeared so automatic location switching no longer works (except for the wireless locations).
Like the original post, I have AC 4.23 and all drivers updated.
Seems crazy that Access connections allows for a saved port to be deleted but no provision for adding a new or previous saved port to a location.

JonP · #3 Post by **JonP** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:23 pm

I have come to the conclusion that AC 4.23 just does not work as it is supposed to. I have gotten AC to work by uninstalling 4.23 and installing AC 3.82 and bundled wireless card drivers. Having done that, AC works as billed.

Download AC 3.82 and drivers from www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4ZLNJB
See message thread at thinkpads.com Support Community Forum Index -> Windows OS -> Access Connections Still Not Working?
The download will extract the files to C:\drivers\W2K\ACCONWLD

Uninstall wireless drivers and AC including all profiles (a radio button selection in the uninstall program).

Install the new (old - 3.82) wireless driver first. I have an IBM 802.11 a/b/g card made by Atheros and that driver is in the
C:\drivers\W2K\ACCONWLD\WLLANATH subdirectory. Use the device manager and specify the location of the driver for the install. Don't re-start. Then install AC 3.82 using the setup.exe in the ACCONWLD subdirectory. Make sure you un-check the checkbox in the Windows Wireless Connection properties box for the appropriate wireless adapter that specifies that you do not want Windows to configure your wireless network settings.

Re-boot. That should do it. I kept all the other drivers the same (most current - my X60 is about 4 weeks old) and don't have a problem. You need Power Manager and Hotkey drivers to make the Fn+F5 control of the wireless radios work and to allow AC to switch the radio on and off.

The AC 3.82 Ethernet Location Switching now shows the appropriate number of saved ports, but the dialog box that lists the ports and MAC addresses contains only one listing even though I have three saved ports. However, AC now identifies the correct location, switches automatically, and configures each profile correctly.

Clearly, whoever updated AC to the current version either had a fair amount of contempt for the user community or simply didn't care if the program worked correctly.

Good luck.

Wojtek · #4 Post by **Wojtek** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:34 pm

I have asked many times about it (why AC 4.2x cannot remember more than two ports). Your post completely resolved my problem! I have switched back to AC 3.82 today and now ewerything works fine!

I use Ethernet connections only, and using AC 4.2x was a joke. I had to manually switch profiles.

akhavan · #5 Post by **akhavan** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:57 pm

Thanks I just went down from Access Connection 4.23 to 3.82. Everything runs better and my bootup is much faster. There is no longer that annoying delay at Window bootup.

Sepehr

thibouille27 · #6 Post by **thibouille27** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 5:07 am

No problem here running 4.23 (for now?)

house kitten · #7 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:00 am

I am having serious boot problems with 4.23 and was wondering about using the privous version however I have the Atheros N card which I believe requires the 4.23 version of AC.

Does anybody have any experience using 3.82 with the "n" card?

SteveS · #8 Post by **SteveS** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:29 pm

The problem with dissapearing "saved ports" is still not fixed with version 4.42. I will try downgrading to v3.82 tonight.

Does anyone know a way to report bugs with ThinkPad utilities to Lenovo? It is a shame they write these powerful utilities that have some issues that don't get fixed for ages, probably because they are unaware of the bugs.