Thinkpads Forum

I have a new x60 tablet pc running vista. It has problems staying connected while on wifi. If the pc is connected, it can run for hours with no problems and then it will lose it's connection for no apparent reason. When it loses the connection, I check the network and sharing center and it shows it's still connected. Then if I view status of the connection it will show that it is still receiving data. But I am unable to go to any new websites while on firefox or IE.

I've tried to diagnose and reset the network card using the network and sharing center, but it always says there isn''t a problem detected. Then if I disconnect and try to reconnect to the same connection or connect to another connection it doesn't work. It won't even work if I plug in a LAN. The only way it will start working is if I restart the computer. Then it finds and connects like normal.

Does anyone know what is the problem? Also, I should mention that I'm not using Access Connections because I uninstalled it. I was having the same problems when it was installed, even after I upgraded the software. I have also upgraded the software through the auto upgrade of thinkvantage and microsoft.

The way that you describe the problem "everything says I am connected, but IE and Firefox cannot connect to websites" suggests one thing to me. Name service. If the DNS is hosed, you can be connected fine, but IE and FF will fail to connect because they will not be able to resolve hostnames.

You can test this by trying to access a site in IE or FF using the IP address. Instead of 'http://www.host.com/', you would use something like this: 'http://192.168.1.1/'. You can get IP addresses for hostnames in a number of ways. One is to open a command prompt and typing 'ping www.host.com' (use your favorite web address). Ping will print out the IP address it resolved for the hostname you provide.

Here is what mine looked like: Note the IP address in the square brackets: [216.75.32.50].

This is also a good way to test connectivity.

Anyway, if the problem is name resolution, in other words you get error messages saying that the hostname cannot be resolved, then your problem may not be connectivity. I vaguely remember being at a coffee house that had a problem with their DNS (name service) getting hosed frequently. I remember someone stating that the router (probably a LinkSys) had issues.

I tried putting in the IP Address instead of the name of the website and it's still a no go. It continues to not let me connect to any websites via IE or Firefox, but I am connected to exchange and gtalk.

This problem happens randomly, once per day. It also occurs whether I am at home on wifi or cable, or a hotspot wifi.

Any other suggestions.

Just to clarify your problem...when IE and FF start to fail, Exchange and Gtalk continue to work? When IE and FF fail, can you ping websites that you haven't accessed during that particular internet session?

I don't have Vista, but it sounds odd that one type of internet connection would work, but another wouldn't. If that's true, it sounds like the HTTP port is somehow being lost/disabled while other ports remain working.

Have you tried running Vista's equivalent to IPConfig (from the command line) to verify that your laptop's IP address, subnet mask and gateway are still correct?

Also, have you tried 192.168.1.1, or other variations on the theme (192.168.0.1 sometimes works if the first doesn't)?

bhtooefr wrote:Also, have you tried 192.168.1.1, or other variations on the theme (192.168.0.1 sometimes works if the first doesn't)?

Running IPConfig would tell him the proper gateway address to connect to, rather than randomly selecting "default" gateway IPs. It really sounds like his IP settings are getting hosed. IPConfig would be able to reveal whether that's happening or not.

True...

It's still ipconfig - try Start>All Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt. And I want to smack the idiot that thought it would be a GOOD idea to remove Run from Vista's start menu.

Ping and ipconfig are pretty much the only things I use the command prompt for now-a-days. I do an occasional tracerte now and then too.

When the problem starts, I can still ping any site using the name of the site on the command prompt. For example, ping www.google.com. I can also ping my router, it comes back at 2ms. Even though I can't connect on IE or Firefox, my outlook is still connect and I can send and receive emails. Also, my gtalk is still connected and I can IM with friends.

I don't think it is my router, because my other pc which is connected via LAN cable works fine. But if I connect my notebook via cable it continues to have the same problem. The only way the problem fixes itself is when I restart the notebook then everything goes back to normal.

This is really frustrating. I researched the DNS problem and I was told that if the IP address worked but the site name didn't work that it was a DNS problem. But neither works.

Williamsgood wrote:When the problem starts, I can still ping any site using the name of the site on the command prompt. For example, ping www.google.com. I can also ping my router, it comes back at 2ms. Even though I can't connect on IE or Firefox, my outlook is still connect and I can send and receive emails. Also, my gtalk is still connected and I can IM with friends.

If you have other internet connections working when the problem occurs, it sounds like something is interfering with Port 80 since that's the main port that HTTP uses. One thing you might consider doing is checking to see what programs/tasks are running when IE/FF are working and then when the problems start, see what tasks are running then. Another thing to consider is trying connecting to a site that requires a SSL connection since SSL uses port 443 (something like https://www.bankofamerica.com or something like that).

Do a search on the forum; this problem is common with X60 and X60s as well. I don't know if the tablet has the Thinkpad wifi card, but mine did and was dropping wireless connections constantly. Replaced it with an Atheros card, which also improved sensitivity, and the problem went away. There is a procedure of removing Access Connections, Hot Key, etc...which should also help, but it did not in my case.