Thinkpads Forum

I have the Intel3945 a/b/g wireless mini PCI (part of my 'education' laptop deal, the only part I couldn't get customized when I bought the laptop ... I wanted a atheros) in my laptop and I have been having trouble with it from week one. Every now and then, the wireless will "stop" working and will require a reboot (regrdless of whether I am plugged in or using the battery). I stay "stop" in quotes because the wireless meter will show 90% signal strength and yahoo messenger will still work, but I won't be able to open any wesbite on my browser (tried IE7, opera, firefox). While it works, wireless is great and flawless, but once I find that I cant open anything on the browser, only a reboot will set things right again. The worse part is sometimes the issue will happen within 10 mins of booting, sometimes after 5+ hours.

I have checked everything possible (windows firewall settings, Power saving feature in the Intel Pro control panel, access connection settings, renistall driver, install latest drivers and upgrades) and nothing seems to work. At this point I am completely fed up with this issue and am thinking of asking IBM for a different card (preferaly a IBM a/b/g), until someone here can point me a solution. I guess this issue is widespread (having seen atleast a couple of threads before), but my problem seems to be slightly different from the others (previous threads mentioned loss of wirless when switching between battery and ac).

Does anyone have the same problem? Will I be able to get a IBM a/b/g instead of the Intel3945 if I call Lenovo?

ps: the person(s) helping me sort this problem will get a hand drawn picture from me (I draw a bit) I am going crazy trying to see why this issue is so random.

Have you considered using WZC instead of AC for a few days?

I did use the windows wireless manager for a week - same results. I think the issue is with the Intel3945 card ...

update: I checked up my task manager when I can connect to internet and when I cannot and found out that the "Symantec Common Client HTTP Proxy" service is not running when I have trouble connecting.

Any one with same issue, please check and report here.

gator wrote:update: I checked up my task manager when I can connect to internet and when I cannot and found out that the "Symantec Common Client HTTP Proxy" service is not running when I have trouble connecting.

Any one with same issue, please check and report here.

There is not a product that Symantec makes that you need. Trust me on that one.

Go into control panel, add and delete programs, and delete every single program that has the words "symantec" or "norton" associated with it. Then run a registry cleaner like the freebie "ccleaner" (google for it) including the "issues" section. Run it at least twice and also use it to clean out all the garbage that Symantec will leave on your system.

Then install a good free antivirus program like AVGFREE ; you can google on that to find the download. Then use Windows firewall in lieu of the Symantec disaster you just uninstalled.

Problems solved.

I'll order my picture later after you confirm that this worked.

OK - before I go and take out symantec (I get corporate Mcafee free from school), can someone upload a copy of the ccProxy.exe file somewhere? I'll try replacing mine, and if it doesnt work, I am going to nuke symantec - I am fed up with this wireless issue.

I had the same problem after not using my t60 for 2 days.(was working good before this happened) so, when i turn it on i have an excellent connection but i couldn't browse the net then what i did is to refresh the network from my router which is set to dchp and after that it worked back normally. BTW. after 2+ weeks of use this is my first little? issue, ohhhh before i forget , i never did a reboot i fix it right away without reboot. I hope this helps . I don't think the antivirus has something to do with this and the wireless card either otherwise if the card is faulty you probably never get any % of connection or no connectivity.

other thing i did not upgrade the wireless card driver i still have the factory driver (out of the box one).

I cannot connect to the router when I have this issue. I am now very sure that the problem was with the ccproxy service.

gator wrote:I cannot connect to the router when I have this issue. I am now very sure that the problem was with the ccproxy service.

I have local acquaintences who have a 3 year old Dell desktop. Two weeks ago at 6:40pm on a Saturday night, during a cold wave, the male half of the couple called me in a panic asking if I'd come over immediately to their house as they were in a "world of hurt." I was on my treadmill and declined given the day, the timing, and the fact that it was about -5F outside and I wasn't going outside for anything.

The problem they were having was that they had continued to pay Symantec for antivirus and firewall products since they bought the system, but had forgotten to fork up the latest payment. Every single thing they tried to do with their system locked it up, with windows opening up all over the place threatening imminent destruction, a housefire, and death (and worse) if they didn't call some 800 number to renew their Symantec subscriptions THIS INSTANT. Their computer became completely unusable.

In the end they paid some bozo who calls himself the "computer doctor" $150 to come over to their house the next day to fix it (don't know how that turned out). Given the age and original quality of their system, I suggested they buy a new $400 Dell and dump the old one in the dumpster but they were attached to it so they declined.

I know there are people in this forum who swear by certain Symantec/Norton offerings. If it works for them, I say, more power to ya. But, most people will do just fine with a free antivirus program such as avgfree and the basic built in windows firewall. Just use a little bit of common sense, don't open emails from people you don't know and don't go to websites you have never heard of before. It isn't that difficult and with these suggestions the odds are very much in your favor.

For what it's worth:

I stick to only using the ThinkVantage Access Connections tool to config my wireless access. It overrides the various Windows tools anyway.

I had trouble with the Norton client that came with the thinkpad. It started playing up for no reason one day and was not establishing connections with the mail server (although internet browsing was fine). I have since dumped Norton and switched to McAfee. Everything's fine now. McAfee seems faster too. I will slowly migrate away from Norton on the other machines as their subscriptions expire.

I've started having the same problem in only the last 3 days with no software/hardware changes whatsoever. I'm running the Intel WiFi card not the IBM (Atheros) version.

On my machine it happens whenever the machine suspends when on a wireless network and requires a reboot to reconnect regardless of the fact that the card is showing a full signal and connection to the WiFi network at that location.

It happens regardless of firewall on/off and I removed and cleaned all Symantec software on receipt of the machine many months ago.

Has anyone else noted that it only occurs on a resume from standby?

Is it possible that it's a stack corruption of some sort?

I have had my T60p (8744C9u) for just over 1 week, and I've had this problem since I've opened the box. It seems that it happens after a hibernate/standby and/or if I'm on a wireless network then turn off the computer. If I turn it back on, the wireless just doesn't work unless I reboot the system. I've become accustomed to just boot my system twice (one cold, one warm) everything I start it up; it's very aggravating.

I've tried everything I can think of: uninstall NAV, try Access Connections, uninstall Access Connections, use "repair" utility under windows, the varioius wireless on/off switches, etc. Maybe I should look into the Wireless driver power settings...

My fiancee has a similar issue with her two year old HP laptop (which uses the Intel dubbed "Centrino" component group), however she can usually get around her issue by using the windows "repair" option. It sure seems to me that this is a flakey driver or OS interface (I wonder if Vista users have the same problem), because once the system is working, it works great and is rock-solid.

It's come on very suddenly on my machine (T60p) which has been working flawlessly with the Intel card under AccConn for the past few months.

Not that I'm pointing fingers, but has anyone installed any Windows Updates lately? I think I just found a couple that snuck through. I might just uninstall them to see if the situation improves, but I won't be back on my wireless network to test it for a few days.

@Ad Hoc,

I do not have the above mentioned problems stated by you. You can try to download the latest drivers from the lenovo website for your thinkpad.

I am running vista on my T60. And i have used my lecturers' thinkpads T60p vista & so far, their wireless utility is working great.

Welcome to thinkpads.com.

@Ad Hoc,

When running AccConn you are disabling the Wireless Zero Configuration service right? I know that until this was done and some PM settings changed I had very unreliable wireless as well.

Just a thought.

@NS

Some of us are prohibited from installing Vista by corporate IT rules and will be for some time to come. We also run several enterprise applications that currently do not support Vista.

So although I'm sure that wireless under Vista approaches Nirvana we are not yet able to go there.

Scratch wrote:@Ad Hoc,

When running AccConn you are disabling the Wireless Zero Configuration service right? I know that until this was done and some PM settings changed I had very unreliable wireless as well.

Just a thought.

...

Hi Scratch,

Yes, I was sure to verify what app was "in control" of the wireless settings... If I used AccCon, the Microsoft WZC would say that it was unable to work because of another application was in control. Before I uninstalled AccCon, I tried to see what would happen if I gave control back to WZC, but that didn't help much. Then I thought I could try uninstalling AccCon, but that didn't help much either...

The issue is that I use this computer both at home and in the office. A common scenario is I'm happily connected to my wireless network @ work. I shut down the system for the day (from running on AC), and take it with me back home. If I decide I would like to boot the system up again at home (running on battery) and connect to my wireless router, the system typically (I don't have a ratio -- haven't counted successes versus failures) boots up with the wireless "enabled" however it is unable to detect ANY wireless network. After toggling switches, using the "repair" process, etc, it still doesn't work. If I reboot the system, then the wirelss will detect all of the many networks around my neighborhood...

I have yet to test the power saving featuers of the wireless drivers themselves. Maybe that has something to do wiht it.

Ad Hoc wrote:
The issue is that I use this computer both at home and in the office. A common scenario is I'm happily connected to my wireless network @ work. I shut down the system for the day (from running on AC), and take it with me back home. If I decide I would like to boot the system up again at home (running on battery) and connect to my wireless router, the system typically (I don't have a ratio -- haven't counted successes versus failures) boots up with the wireless "enabled" however it is unable to detect ANY wireless network. After toggling switches, using the "repair" process, etc, it still doesn't work. If I reboot the system, then the wirelss will detect all of the many networks around my neighborhood...
.

Same with me. I'll be working upstairs happily on wireless, and I'll unplug and come downstairs - sometimes the wireless won't "work". No pages will open, but messenger will work. Reboot it once, it'll be rock-solid stable. It doesn't even happen between different access points!

What is frustating is that this doesn't happen all the time. Did any of you guys check whether the symantec proxy service is running when you have trouble connecting? Please do report back here ...

I actually had a similar problem as well and what we narrowed it down to was the sonic wall wireless routers that we were using. After changing o Cisco Wireless routers we havent had a problem since. Not sure if this is your case or not but was ours.

Thanks!!

Curtis

The majority of this type of problem, in my experience, is caused by an incompatibility with the wireless access point. Checking for updated firmware for the access point is generally helpful.

One particular incompatibility is when the access point doesn't properly queue up broadcast packets for the benefit of clients who are using power-saving mode. In particular this causes DHCP messages not to get through, and has the effect that the client sees a good wireless connection but because they have no assigned IP address they can't use IP. This doesn't seem to be true in the situation described by gator but may well explain the issues that other people in this thread are reporting. The best solution is to find an updated firmware for the access point, the second best would be to purchase a higher quality access point. Third best would be to disable power-saving for the wireless card in the laptop (though this will impact battery life and temperature of the laptop). A final potential solution (untested by me) might be to disable DHCP for the network in question, and just use static IP addresses. This problem is described by intel here

Now, the above doesn't seem to be gator's problem, however. Gator, apart from trying to remove all the symantec junk, which I agree is a good idea and might well solve your issue, here are some things to consider:

Have you checked whether this issue occurs with different brands of access points in different locations? It could be a faulty access point, an incompatible access point firmware, radiofrequency interference at a particular location, etc. If this problem manifests with several access points in different venues, then that would strongly rule out those factors.

In the location(s) where you have observed the problem, what is the network setup? Ie you are connecting from your laptop via 802.11g or 802.11b or what? you are using WEP or WPA or WPA2 or what? the access point is which model made by who? the access point connects to a cable modem or to DSL or to an ethernet router (10Mbit, 100Mbit?) or something else?

Another thing to check is, when this problem occurs, is there anything suspicious in the system events log (run "eventvwr.msc")?

Since you suspect symantec, is there anything in the symantec event log (look under "histories").

Exactly what is the failure you observe in the browser? Eg, does it say that it can't find the network address? It just sits there trying to connect for ever? or something else?

When the failure is happening, please post (copy and paste) the output of opening a dos box (run "cmd") and typing
ping www.google.com
and
ping 209.85.165.104
and
ipconfig /all

Hopefully something in all of this will give a clue as to your problem.

Also, it wouldn't do any harm for you to run a full set of PC doctor diagnostics on your system. (Should be pre-installed, but may be worth downloading the latest version from lenovo support website).

Another piece of information which might be interesting would be, if you have access to a second wireless-enabled laptop, when the problem occurs are other users of the wireless connection able to work ok, or are they also affected?

Lev

I nuked Symantec and all my problems have vanished. Thanks to everyone who replied here.

Lev,

Thanks for your input. I've tried pinging various websites while the wireless system is unresponsive (it just times out), and doing an ipconfig just results in a "media disconnected" report.

I would like to think that the issue is with my router, but when I can normally see 10 or so various access points around my neighborhood at my house, and then I can't see a *single* one when I have this issue, I feel that the problem is due to the laptop/software setup and not the router/access point.

However, I let my computer go into standby over lunch today, and when I came back I took it out of standby. The wireless worked just fine. After I write this message, I'll test the wireless after disconnecting the AC power...

liliggyracin wrote:I actually had a similar problem as well and what we narrowed it down to was the sonic wall wireless routers that we were using. After changing o Cisco Wireless routers we havent had a problem since. Not sure if this is your case or not but was ours.

Thanks!!

Curtis

I use linksys and what i did is to refresh when i encounter this same prolem (details way above on my reply).

Well, the wireless seemed fine after removing the AC power earlier today from my last message... I tunred off the computer with the AC off.

Ran home, and booted it up. No wireless (pings failed and ipconfig reported "media disconnected")!!! Arg. Oh well, one reboot later, all is good... I may try to mess with the WPA settings on my router (it's using AES currently, I may move it to TKIP). I still don't really think it'll do much due to the fact that I can't see any router, not just mine when I'm having this "initial bootup" wireless problem.

You might give the following a try for restoring your connection. It is included in IE7, but can be downloaded and installed for IE6.

Using the Network Diagnostics Tool

EDIT:

@Gator-What are your PM settings for the card?

I just found that the PM setting "allow system to turn device off to save power" setting had been re-enabled somehow. I disable it and I once again get my connection back when resuming from sleep.

This setpoint is unnecessary for me when using AccConn as the profile changes vary the device on and off. If I am somewhere where I am not attempting to network I typically hit the front switch so that nothing is enabled. I can also select a Wired profile and just allow the system to remain in the disconnected state.

I don't know if this is of any help to the OP, but it might be of use to some of the other posters.
----------------------------------------------

As I had indicated in my post yesterday, I'm running no Symantec software on my machine and it's performance on WiFi until very recently has been flawless.

This disconnection only occurs after a standby (sleep) state in invoked. Using AccConn all that is required for me to get it back is to select a dummy wired ethernet profile that I've created allow it to fail as I'm not plugged in and the reselect the appropriate wireless profile desired and everything is back to "normal" until the next machine nap.

@AdHoc - I'm sure you realize it, but my point on the WZC is that it needs to be disabled under Services when AccConn is the program in control, AccConn cannot disable it upon installation or use.

When changing locations with your system (ie. work/home) do you have 2 different profiles is AccConn set up to AutoSwitch locations?

So if you try setting up a Home Wireless and a Work Wireless and under location switching in AccConn make sure that they're at the top of the list and the only 2 profiles to be interchanged you might have some luck.

I am still experiencing the same issues as you are though and so far the only quick way around it until I've solved it is to use the "dummy profile" method.