Vista "Local Only" plague.

[YourGrandpa]

I have recently fallen victim to what is seemingly a wide spread problem with Vista.

This past Friday my PC suddenly decided that it no longer wanted to connect to the internet. When I clicked on my network adaptor, it was now listed as "Access: Local only". Not thinking I had much of a problem, I grabbed my laptop and attempted to look up a solution. After hours of research and trying countless suggestions, I've found myself back where I started. With a problem that doesn't seem to have a fix.

I've tried turning off IPv6. Uninstalling and reinstalling my network adaptor. Disabling and enabling my network adaptor. Putting the PC to sleep, then waking it. Updating my router firm ware (which was up to date). Updating my chipset drivers/NIC card Drivers (which were up to date). Editing several suggested registry settings. Resetting the DHCP stack and various other TCPIP settings... NOTHING WORKED.

This may be a T&T topic. But this issue looks like it has been around since Vista's inception. Even after all of my reading, I couldn't find a valid explanation from Microsoft as to why or how this happens (at least one that fits my and many others criteria). This problem just appears out of nowhere. No system changes to hardware, software, drivers or peripheral devices required. Vista seems to randomly decide that your network adaptor can no longer access the internet. I mean, why have a local only mode at all? Who wants a PC these days that can't get on the internet? And, if you're going to have a local only mode that can be enabled for no reason, at least have some simple check box to disable it.

I think I've exhausted my efforts, given my limited networking experience. I've put in a call to a friend that has more network certs. than any one person should. Hopefully he'll be able to provide a fix, outside of reinstalling the OS. If so, I'll post the findings.

[Foo]

other machines in the same house on the same network using the same router still connecting OK?

Local only means the box can't talk through the gateway (your router) to the net for some reason.

[Foo]

if you run cmd then enter:
ipconfig /all

Does it come up with a gateway address? If so, can you ping that address?

Is the PC having the problem wired or wireless?

[Massive Quasars]

I've experienced a similar problem recently due to that piece of urethra faggot shit, ZoneAlarm. It installs a TrueVector service that will NOT allow any internet activity without the loading of ZoneAlarm. Set it not to boot on startup and voila no internet with no readily identifiable explanation, truevector will not yield until you get a proper uninstall of ZA.

This problem is worse for those with fucked installations or where ZA won't uninstall for whatever reason. Manually attempting to activate TrueVector service is not permitted, you must load ZA to run it, and you must answer ZA prompts to confirm uninstallation.

[YourGrandpa]

That seems to be the root of this problem. No Default gateway address is being assigned.

I've tried manually setting my IP, subnet and gateway. That doesn't work either.

[Foo]

But can you ping the router?

May be worth trying a different cable, port on the router, and/or try hooking the laptop up through that same cable to see if that's the problem.

[YourGrandpa]

I've experienced a similar problem recently due to that piece of urethra faggot shit, ZoneAlarm. It installs a TrueVector service that will NOT allow any internet activity without the loading of ZoneAlarm. Set it not to boot on startup and voila no internet with no readily identifiable explanation, truevector will not yield until you get a proper uninstall of ZA.

This problem is worse for those with fucked installations or where ZA won't uninstall for whatever reason. Manually attempting to activate TrueVector service is not permitted, you must load ZA to run it, and you must answer ZA prompts to confirm uninstallation.

I don't have ZA. Never have.

[mjrpes]

i had a similar problem at work with vista not finding an ip (it'd set itself to something like 169.x.x.x). tried all sorts of things to figure it out like reinstalling tcp/ip, setting static ip, etc. i kicked myself when i did a hard reboot and it fixed itself.

just one more problem with vista that i would have never encountered with xp.

[YourGrandpa]

But can you ping the router?

May be worth trying a different cable, port on the router, and/or try hooking the laptop up through that same cable to see if that's the problem.

I've tried a new cable, different port and pinging the router. Nothing worked. I get a transmit failed, error code 1231, when I ping the router.

[Massive Quasars]

Is your NIC busted, tried swapping out for different card or wifi?

[Foo]

But can you ping the router?

May be worth trying a different cable, port on the router, and/or try hooking the laptop up through that same cable to see if that's the problem.

I've tried a new cable, different port and pinging the router. Nothing worked. I get a transmit failed, error code 1231, when I ping the router.

is there any 3rd party network security software installed on that machine at all e.g. norton?

[YourGrandpa]

AVG.

[Foo]

Newer versions of that have a network security module I think? May be worth uninstalling it just to find out (can't get a virus if you're not on the net anyway, right).

Only other thing I can think of is if there's been software on there in the past and part of it's still lurking around under the surface.

May be worth taking the cable out of the PC and rebooting with no cable plugged in. Wait a few mins after logging on, then plug the cable in.

[Kat]

I had this problem with a NetGear and it turns out that yes, it's a 'legacy' issue, Vista doesn't like WEP encryption and just falls over without reason sometimes, the only solution is to change types. So, have a look at your router settings and if WEP is enabled, switch to WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key) and when you add the password/key, press the submit button twice (once, then wait a few seconds and do it again). You'll probably need a reboot - I'm surprised it's effecting the wired connection though.

[GONNAFISTYA]

lol

Sorta on topic: I just finished spending most of my afternoon completely reinstalling XP Pro and getting it back up to snuff....for the sixth time in the last year....because Microsoft makes shit products.

From the bottom of my heart: I'm so fucking glad I never bothered getting Vista and I'm buying Macs from here on out.

And a pre-emptive "fuck u fanboi" to all you MS lovers out there.

[Dr_Watson]

had the exact same problem with my onboard nic.
had to turn off the tcp stack tuning and it's been rock solid for the last year.

do this:
open cmd
netsh interface tcp show global

if you see:
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level : normal

do:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled

that will kill the tcp tuning.
(will need to reboot after, might need to re-install driver for good measure)

[YourGrandpa]

had the exact same problem with my onboard nic.
had to turn off the tcp stack tuning and it's been rock solid for the last year.

do this:
open cmd
netsh interface tcp show global

if you see:
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level : normal

do:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled

that will kill the tcp tuning.
(will need to reboot after, might need to re-install driver for good measure)

I don't know if he tried that or not, but nothing seemed to work. Apparently my PC had a corrupt TCPIP stack that could not be repaired.

There is a hot fix that could prevent this from happening. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952876 But applying it to my PC (after the fact) didn't work. You should also disable sleep mode for your NIC cards.

After 6 hours of fucking with it, we decided to just reinstall windows.

[Transient]

lol

Sorta on topic: I just finished spending most of my afternoon completely reinstalling XP Pro and getting it back up to snuff....for the sixth time in the last year....because Microsoft makes shit products.

From the bottom of my heart: I'm so fucking glad I never bothered getting Vista and I'm buying Macs from here on out.

And a pre-emptive "fuck u fanboi" to all you MS lovers out there.

That would have pushed me way over the edge. I'm glad I'm using Ubuntu now. MS can go suck a fuck.

[AmIdYfReAk]

have you tried flat out disabling Ip V6, and only runing off of V4?

then try manually assigning an IP/Gateway/DNS and see if it will allow traffic.

[YourGrandpa]

have you tried flat out disabling Ip V6, and only runing off of V4?

then try manually assigning an IP/Gateway/DNS and see if it will allow traffic.

Yeah, I tried that. But it didn't work.

[Tormentius]

The dumb has been pruned.

[YourGrandpa]

Update..

The windows install fixed the constant problem. But now every time the PC goes into sleep mode and wakes my internet connection is Local Only. The olny fix is a restart.

Vista 64 ++

[FragaGeddon]

Don't use sleep mode.