Thinkpads Forum

I just recently got a thinkpad T60 earlier this month, and I have a question that has been bothering me.

The Access Connections (AC) wireless connection program that comes with the Thinkpad no longer works for me. It used to connect fine. But then, when I was connected, I clicked on the AC icon and went to disconnect. Now, whenever I try to reconnect it stays stuck on "acquiring network address" (I think that is it, it is acquiring .. something). Well, the windows wireless icon says that, AC just says that the connection failed. I have tried changing all the encryption options and nothing works (I know I have everything setup correctly). I know the network is up because my dad is on it sitting right next to me.

I know this has to do with pressing the Disconnect, because this has happened to me several times and I've had to do a system restore inorder to get it working again. But I have no idea how to fix this. I've tried rebooting several times, turning off the wireless adapter and turning it back on again, etc.

If I disable AC and just use windows to configure the wireless, it connects right away. Therefore, it isn't the wireless card. The wireless card is the Thinkpad A/B/G/N wireless. So, I guess I can use window, but I like the features of AC. Has anyone seen this before?

Also, if I have to use windows to configure the wireless, how do I make it so AC doesn't take back control after every reboot?

Hopefully someone can help.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

mtomd wrote:I just recently got a thinkpad T60 earlier this month, and I have a question that has been bothering me.

The Access Connections (AC) wireless connection program that comes with the Thinkpad no longer works for me. It used to connect fine. But then, when I was connected, I clicked on the AC icon and went to disconnect. Now, whenever I try to reconnect it stays stuck on "acquiring network address" (I think that is it, it is acquiring .. something). Well, the windows wireless icon says that, AC just says that the connection failed. I have tried changing all the encryption options and nothing works (I know I have everything setup correctly). I know the network is up because my dad is on it sitting right next to me.

I know this has to do with pressing the Disconnect, because this has happened to me several times and I've had to do a system restore inorder to get it working again. But I have no idea how to fix this. I've tried rebooting several times, turning off the wireless adapter and turning it back on again, etc.

If I disable AC and just use windows to configure the wireless, it connects right away. Therefore, it isn't the wireless card. The wireless card is the Thinkpad A/B/G/N wireless. So, I guess I can use window, but I like the features of AC. Has anyone seen this before?

Also, if I have to use windows to configure the wireless, how do I make it so AC doesn't take back control after every reboot?

Hopefully someone can help.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

Unless you need all those profiles, do yourself a favor and uninstall AC. I used it for quite a while but the latest upgrade caused my T42 to go into endless processor loops and made the system unstable. After uninstalling it I found that I did not need it, and in fact I prefer the native Windows wireless application.

AC is serious bloatware best avoided unless you really need it for some reason.

Ken Fox wrote:AC is serious bloatware best avoided unless you really need it for some reason.

Hmm, good to know. Naw, I don't really need it for any reason.

I had a problem where the wireless utility wasn't working, but downloading the latest update seemed to fix it.

Access Connection is useful only if you chage frequently location and would like to automate several settings.

Before IBM created AC, I was used to use a program called Netswitcher to do this actions easily.

I use AC 'cause I often switch from wired to wi-fi at the office, I use a wi-fi home network, I go to customer premises, etc..

If you don't need to change your (network) settings so often, you can save memory and time at the startup.

BTW, the AC program changed a lot since version 4, so pay attention at what wi-fi card you have, as in v4 there aren't the wifi drivers, and you need to add-it by yourself
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... JB#require

Thanks for all of your comments. I uninstalled AC and everything seems to be working fine now.

mtomd wrote:Thanks for all of your comments. I uninstalled AC and everything seems to be working fine now.

What wireless router are you using? I just got Belkin N1 (actually had to get a second one, after the first one turned out to be defective). Both Belkin N1 and my T60 wireless card use Atheros chipset, but I'm have a hell of a time with internet wireless connection Called Lenovo, they told me new "n" will not be supported at N rate with new drivers until Vista is released in a month or so. So, just curious how is your wireless connection and internet browsing speed, since you seems to be using "n" card as well?

twister wrote:What wireless router are you using? I just got Belkin N1 (actually had to get a second one, after the first one turned out to be defective). Both Belkin N1 and my T60 wireless card use Atheros chipset, but I'm have a hell of a time with internet wireless connection Called Lenovo, they told me new "n" will not be supported at N rate with new drivers until Vista is released in a month or so. So, just curious how is your wireless connection and internet browsing speed, since you seems to be using "n" card as well?

I'm not using an N router, I just got the card because I'll eventually get an N router so I just wanted the card for it when this eventually happens. (Using a linksys WRT54G currently.)

Also, as an update to the original problem, uninstalling AC let me connect, but then I kept on getting disconnect about once a minute, and it was really really annoying. Reading another thread, I saw that it is recommended to uninstall AC and then reinstall AC when you update the wireless card driver. When I first got the laptop, the Thinkvantage Updater installed new drivers for the wireless card. After reading the thread, I reinstalled AC and it seems to be able to connect now. Also, using AC instead of the Windows tool makes the wireless connection much, much more stable, and I don't get disconnected as often now. Any reason for this?

How is your connection with WRT54G, is internet browsing fast enough? I had a 2 year old WRT65G which had a limited range and lots of problem (I think transmitter was dying). I'm not too happy with Belkin N1. Now, trying to figure out what should I replace it with? Current slow internet connection is killing me...

mtomd wrote:Thanks for all of your comments. I uninstalled AC and everything seems to be working fine now.

I am kind of surprised that everything is normal after you've uninstalled AC. I understand you also have N card.

When I uninstalled AC, my computer crashed with the blue memory dumping screen. I reinstalled it by Thinvantage Update.

twister wrote:How is your connection with WRT54G, is internet browsing fast enough? I had a 2 year old WRT65G which had a limited range and lots of problem (I think transmitter was dying). I'm not too happy with Belkin N1. Now, trying to figure out what should I replace it with? Current slow internet connection is killing me...

Well, now that I'm using AC to connect to it again, it works alright. One thing I noticed is I sometimes get a "low" signal when I'm only about 5 feet from the router, that puzzles me a bit. The connection isn't slow though - I can probably get around 20mbps (~2mBps).

I'm not sure why it was disconnecting me always with just windows. When I uninstalled AC I didn't get any crashes, I just ran into the disconnect issue I mentioned.