Windows Zero Connect was no help either. Any ideas? As many things can contribute to wireless connection issues, the most commoon items I found that causes wireless problems are:. One of the most common sources of wireless connection problems is interference operating at the same frequency as cordless phones, baby monitor, etc….

If you are running a firewall make sure it's not blocking access to the router. If it is, enable it so Vista can see it.

XP and Vista are not the same. If you had a wireless card that used to work on XP and now it won't work on Vista, it may be incompatible with Vista driver only works on XP. Try using a different adapter.

I fixed it! Thanks for the tips. I had pretty much checked all this but it inspired me to run a step-by-step systematic diagnostic of my own. Maybe this will help someone else. I connected the laptop to the router with a hard LAN cable so I could maintain control of the router while troubleshooting the wireless connection. First I disabled all firewalls to confirm that there was no interference, which there wasn't.

Then I took the router down to an unencrypted basic state to confirm it would connect via the wireless adapter, which it would. I then turned back on the Norton Internet Security firewalls, and connectivity was still good. I then increased encryption on the router one step at a time, matching the settings on the wireless network properties. I went to WEP with a hexadecimal key, and got good connectivity. I then increased to digit WEP and reestablished a good connection. I then went to WPA personal successfully.

The frustrating thing was, aside from the time I spent figuring this out, was that nowhere did I see this idea of step-by-step increases in encryption or suggestions to reduce it.

No user guides, no help pages, not the manufacturer. The best help was this forum and the Linksys router guide I downloaded. Thank you. I have solved my problem and hopefully someone else will benefit from my experience.

That's great news! The valuable information you provided, should help out a lot more Vista users with wireless network problems. As you experienced, sometimes it just takes a little more digging to solve these pesky problems. I have a desktop running XP and a laptop running Vista. The desktop is wired to the Netgear router and the laptop connects wirelessly to the router. The two computers share a printer and this works too. It all works but when I click on the little icons on the Vista laptop to see what wireless networks are available, there appears to be two.

The other says it is an un-named and unsecure network. There is nothing I can do to connect to this unnamed network. If I turn off the wireless operation of my router, both these apparent networks dissappear. I have WEP security enabled. What is going on? What is this second network? And can I get rid of it. It must be coming from my router I guess. More than likely the 2nd network is from your neighbor and somehow your Netgear router is picking it up.

When I see odd things like that on my Network, I know it's time to change all security settings on the router…you may want to do the same thing. Nope, I do not believe is not a neighbour. I do see other networks, but this unsecure un-named one dissappears if I turn off the wireless operation of my router. Surely that means it is something to do with my router. Any external network should still show up on the laptop shouldn't it? I think it's the remnant of when you had your network up before.

I found that when I changed the name of my network, the old name stayed as a viable option to select — even though the router was no longer transmitting that name.

Try turning on broadcast mode again until you have everything solved. Change the name to something else so you can tell which is which, and use WPA. Then, if you find an old network that isn't "real" anymore, delete it by using the REMOVE option when you have all available networks showing.

Ken Croft — look like you are not the only Netgear user who has encountered this. Disabling SSID broadcast only disables broadcasting the name. The network will still be announced but no one will be able to connect to it. Looks like you may not need to worry about it. Many thanks to you all. This was very helpful to know that I am not alone and that it is just a quirk of the Netgear router.

Just one more though, for Steve. Presumably this is in a menu somewhere in Vista? Thanks again Ken. Select Manage Wireless Networks. All the networks will be displayed — those your computer's wireless can see, and those it has ever chosen before such as hotels or airports, in case it ever sees them again.

Select the network that you no longer want. The Change Adapter button becomes the Remove button green minus sign , available to be selected.

Select Remove. That network is removed from the list of available networks. Good luck. My laptop detects the D-Link router when I open "select a newtwork to connect to",but shows a red cross. It then tells me that the security settings in Vista do not match those for D-link.

Any ideas. If you do, then you will need to configure the wireless adapter with the encryption settings on your laptop. I'm not sure if this is a similar issue. No issues connecting with unsecure networks.

My problem is I can't access the internet if there is a security password requirement. I never am prompted to enter the Network key. Something is probably set wrong on my system but I can't find a setting to force a password prompt if there is a secure access point.

Please, someone, help. At first I was able to "connect" but with limited access meaning no internet connection … I then disabled my router security and retried — I was then able to connect with no problem. Or you can open Network and Sharing center select Manage Wireless Networks from left pane , right click on the Network, select properties and check the box to Connect Automatically.

What do I do when the connect to a network says "the settings saved on this computer for the network do not match the requirements of the network.

I have an issue with Vistas' wireless network settings. I have to continually connect to the router manually. I have the same issue as Steve. Everytime I boot my laptop, I need to specify the network name, the security key and the type of encryption. Despite checking the 'Start this connection automatically' box, it does not save the settings.

Do you have any resource material that covers this type of issue? I find lots of good stuff that covers the opposite hooking a Vista into an XP wireless setup. Thank you for your consideration. Sorry, Vista is neither easier nor more intuitive. To start with, simply by moving every single parameter to somewhere other than where it was, MS has made it harder on everybody.

Then there are the piles of extra things to set, unset, unlock, whatever. Researching to get a new laptop on a secured network that works just fine with two XP laptops, three Linux devices, and a Mac, I have even found suggestions that it takes creating a new entry in the registry. If MS had spent half the effort on evolving XP, instead of making all new chrome with less functionality, maybe it would have worked better.

I don't know if anyone can help me, but I was running XP on my computer until a virus made me wipe the whole thing clean, and Dell gave me the Vista installation CD instead.

So I installed Vista, and I am not sure on how to connect to the internet in my apartment. I live with 2 other people, and we have a wireless router in the living room, but somehow my computer is not picking it up.

When I go into the 'Set up connection or network,' there is no option for me to manually add the wireless router. Is there a step that I am missing? Or some form of hardware. Any advice would be helpful. Marisa:…This may not be the solution to your problem…. Do you have any problems connecting to a hard wired router or modem?

I was able to connect to our wireless network just fine for months, than the day before i lost connection. On the other pc, i can stil see the network broadcasting and i can connect to it the laptop refuses to see and connect to it even after the following steps:. Click Start. In the Start Search dialog box, type: cmd, and right-click cmd. Click Run as administrator. Restart the computer C 2. I have done all that is said and still i cannot see the network nor can I connect to it after manually adding it.

I am about ready to light it on fire if that would work, but I still have hope for someone out there to help me. Hi Team I am having problems trying to setup Vista Premium on wireless. I am not sure whether it is a problem with Vista or the wireless router settings. I tried all other security options and it still doesn't work It picked up automatically by the laptop but it doesn't connect. I also have a problem accessing to internet using my wireless router. My wireless never ask me about the password for a WEP security enabled network, But it never connects neither… How could I insert the password in order to have access to the web?

I'using windows vista…. Was i really talking to a ATT rep that i dont know. I'm able to connect to some unsecured networks neighbors, etc and even to a few that say they are secured poor setting of passwords IMO, since I was able to guess them.

Get new features first. Was this information helpful? Yes No. Thank you! Any more feedback? The more you tell us the more we can help. Can you help us improve? Resolved my issue. Clear instructions. Easy to follow. Did you check the status of wireless service i. Do you've any security software installed on the computer?

Did you make any changes on the computer recently? Let's first try to start the wireless service i. To do this, login to the computer as an administrator. Click Start, type services. Under General tab, change the Startup type to Automatic and click Start button. Click Apply and then ok. Click on Network and Sharing Center. Click on Set up a connection or network. Click on Connect to the Internet [source: Microsoft ]. Right click on the connection icon, which is located on the bottom of your screen in the notification area.

Choose Diagnose and repair from the menu to guide you through remedies for possible problems. Try resetting the router by unplugging it from the electricity, waiting 10 seconds and then reconnecting to the Internet [source: Microsoft ]. Cite This! Try Our Crossword Puzzles!