Thinkpads Forum

I've searched these boards thin, and nothing have helped so in a last desperate attempt to get this working again I'm hoping someone has experienced the same or has the knowledge to help me out.

I have a T60P 2613HPU with WinXP, with a Thinkpad ABG (Atheros I believe? not the IBM one) and all the latest updates both from ThinkVantage System Update as well as Windows Update.

My wireless used to work fine, till one day (out of the blue it appeared) it stopped working, I tried everything and nothing worked and then it started working again. And now it happend again, but this time it's still not working.

I have a Belkin Wireless Pre-N router, F5D8230-4 v2 version. Which has worked flawlessly for some time ,and I am on the internet through a cable attatched to it now. Other people can connect to the router as well, so I know the problem is with my Thinkpad.

The router has mac filtering turned off (I've tried with on and with my wireless MAC address on it as well) and is running WPA-PSK Authentication. I've also tried turning it off.

Now it's no problem connecting to the router, the problem is I don't get assigned an IP address.

I found some threads stating that the problem might be with Access Connections (AC), so I've tried uninstalling, and re-installing. No luck. Then I read that I should uninstall AC and then the Wireless abg driver (7rwc06ww.exe downloaded from Lenovo). Then reboot, reinstall drivers, reboot and still same problem with the IP address (stalls at Acquiring Network Address, then turns to limitied or no connection). I get the same error with AC but worded slightly different. I've of course also made sure tha the wireless radio button is on.

The settings are for my router to automatically assign me an IP address (I dont have static IP).

I get the same problem on any other wireless I try to connect to.

So I am at a loss for what the problem could be. Hopefully someone can shed some light on my ignorance.

Waiting for IP configuration then Connection Failed, is the error I get in AC.

So you uninstalled and reinstalled Access Connections -- but did you also try without Access Connections at all (ie before reinstalling)?

This is what I found on another Thinkpad forum. It helped me.
-Peter
I quote::

"...have a T60p Widescreen (8743-CTO) system that I purchased back in April.
I love the system, but shortly after I received the system I started seeing problems with
my Atheros Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express a/b/g/n adapter not reconnecting to the network
after being in standby mode much like those described above. I have been working with IBM's
tech support (which has provided excellent service) on this problem ever since.
We have tried reloading the OS (which resolved a hang problem I was having when the network
connection would be dropped), tried two different wireless cards and even replaced the planar
board on the system. Unfortunately none of these changes have completely resolved the issues
I have been seeing. I have found a couple of things that seem to help reduce the frequency
of this problem.
1) Set the 'Power Save Mode' for the Atheros a/b/g/n Adapter to 'Off'. This seems to resolve
the Windows Explorer hangs I was seeing.
2) Go into Access Connections, Configure -> Global Settings and uncheck 'Enable automatic
wireless LAN radio control'.
3) Follow the directions above for disabling the Intel PRO/1000 PL Network Connection's
Deep Smart Power Down feature.
With the changes above in place I only see the Wireless LAN problem after standby one out
of every 6 to 8 times.
I continue to work with tech support on this issue. They escalated it to their 'Hot Line'
this last Wednesday (6/6/07) as I was one of 4 or 5 people that had been through similar
steps but were still seeing the problem. I hope to hear back from them soon.
I will post updates here as I learn more about possible resolutions to this problem."

In addition to your own findings, I can say that a ThinkPad with XP (Pro), the IBM Atheros wireless card, Access Connections (any including newest version), and a Belkin wireless router works an absolute treat. Been there, done that all.

So another approach is to uninstall Access Connections including profiles, uninstall the wireless NIC, restart, install the newest wireless NIC driver, install Access Connections and restart again. Should work.
... JDH

jdhurst wrote:In addition to your own findings, I can say that a ThinkPad with XP (Pro), the IBM Atheros wireless card, Access Connections (any including newest version), and a Belkin wireless router works an absolute treat. Been there, done that all.

So another approach is to uninstall Access Connections including profiles, uninstall the wireless NIC, restart, install the newest wireless NIC driver, install Access Connections and restart again. Should work.
... JDH

Hi JDH,

That's exactly what I did (see the driver specific mention in my first post, where you explode the exe file and then use the setup.exe located in drivers/win/andwhateveritwas. Didnt help, still hangs on trying to get an IP. (I think it was your advice I followed from a previous post you made in another thread.)

Any other suggestions, anyone?

Err, did you try without Access Connections installed? I did suggest that earlier in the thread. (This will eliminate -- or confirm -- the possibility that it's Access Connections causing the problem, rather than the wireless hardware.)

tomh009 wrote:Err, did you try without Access Connections installed? I did suggest that earlier in the thread. (This will eliminate -- or confirm -- the possibility that it's Access Connections causing the problem, rather than the wireless hardware.)

Yes same problem without Access Connections. It functioned fine just two days ago and it has done this once before though, so I doubt it's hardware related.

I was jumping through hoops with another Belkin router. Drove me and my client nuts.

I would try another router before you hang your ThinkPad.

I used a Linksys there and everything immediately worked perfectly.

That is my suggestioin.

Brad

Brad wrote:I was jumping through hoops with another Belkin router. Drove me and my client nuts.

I would try another router before you hang your ThinkPad.

I used a Linksys there and everything immediately worked perfectly.

That is my suggestioin.

Brad

Hi Brad,

I think I wrote it in my original post as well, I currently have 3 open networks available from my appartment (which have worked in the past as well) and I've also been to the library where they have around 11 open networks free for use. No dice on either of them, it's the same error. So as I said I'm sure it's not the router, it's the Thinkpad and probably a software related issue since it has worked fine before.

Thanks again, keep the suggestions coming =)

Sorry I must have missed that part. I am just so mad at Belkin I recommend almost anything else. Took me and my customer too much time and wasn't right, just wasn't right.

If I think of anything else I will let you know...

Godspeed...

Brad

Try repairing the Winsock. Also temporarily turn off any software firewall to rule that out as a problem. And you can try connecting without security enabled, to see if that works. I assume you already tried rebooting both the Router and the ThinkPad. Here are some links to help you try and fix your problem.

How to recover from Winsock2 Corruption

Troubleshoot TCP/IP Connectivity

Using the Network Diagnostics Tool

Corruption at the Jersey Shore

Minimizing 802.11 Interference Issues

I had the same problem... and I have the same wireless Belkin PreN router... I did everything as in reinstalling drivers and etc. But I found that as for me I had to "reset" my router not by turning it on and off but actually going into the program and select resetting router to default. Afterwards it worked... Hopefully for you too. I don't know the reason behind it but it's worth the shot.

tockki wrote:I had the same problem... and I have the same wireless Belkin PreN router... I did everything as in reinstalling drivers and etc. But I found that as for me I had to "reset" my router not by turning it on and off but actually going into the program and select resetting router to default. Afterwards it worked... Hopefully for you too. I don't know the reason behind it but it's worth the shot.

Thanks for the post, but as I said before I really doubt it's a router related problem since I can't connect to any other wireless networks.

GomJabbar wrote: Using the Network Diagnostics Tool

FINALLY!! That did it, who would've thought.

Thanks a ton GomJabbar, if you're ever in Denmark I owe you a nice cold beer!

So what did the Network Diagnostics Tool find that resolved the problem?

I would be curious as well. The Network Diagnostic tool doesn't provide much more information than was presented here. Please let us know. ... JDH

With my new X60s I had the same problem, could connect to one router fine, another router not at all. LAN connect was ok, WLAN not, whatever I tried. The other, older, Z60t we're using connected to both routers fine. The router, or rather access point, is an older model Siemens. Since the old access point was up for replacement anyway, decided to buy a new one, and the X60s connected straight away.

Now the new issues are with using WPA instead of static WEP, but thats for another post.

Yeah, so this problem is back and I can't change it. Only thing that works is to use a revert some time back, even though I didnt change anything.

It seems like I'm not the only one, but I've found no solution so far.

This happens randomly with PCs at work. Same symptons, PCs work fine, then completely fail to connect to any of 4 local networks that anyone else can use. We have this happen on multiple brands of PCs, different NICs, secure and unsecure networks.

If the standard reinstall the NIC and connection manager fails, the fix is almost always the same. Run a spyware/adware check on the PC, you networking protocols could have been hijacked and no ammount of adjustment will fix it until you pull up the problem by the roots.

Hi ocellaris,

I made some progress and actually got it working before I read your reply.

Here is what happend, when the "waiting for IP configuration" occured, I would get an IP assigned that was not within the IP range (when doing a ipconfig /all) and therefore, if I set it manually with the correct data and checked to override it, it works.

Now this seems to be something like what you are saying, so any suggestion how I fix this?

I have Spybot search & destroy, and Adaware and they both turn up empty except for the cookies they always find. Also a online scan with Kaspersky free online scanner, gave me a score 0 problems.

Any suggestions?

Give the following a try. Try the first link below first.

How to recover from Winsock2 Corruption

How to troubleshoot wireless network connections in Windows XP Service Pack 2

Troubleshoot TCP/IP Connectivity

Using the Network Diagnostics Tool