Windows Vista won't connect to Internet. Shows full signal strength on Airport Express, and directly connected. Help me fix this...

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I have an old Vista Gateway laptop (9 years old) that hasn't been able to connect to the internet since October 2016.  I didn't give it much thought since I knew Microsoft was killing support in a few months.  So last week before I moved iTunes to my new Dell Inspiron laptop I tried going online one last time to update everything but still nothing; even now as I write this, nothing.

So, does anyone know what happened back in October 2016 (some update perhaps) that may have caused this problem?  I'm willing to give this Registry edit a try but I would rather use a confirmed process rather than some off-the-cuff attempt that works for some but not for others.

What I don't need is someone pretending to be a Microsoft Engineer or someone with no know-how giving help that isn't the solution but more of the problem.  I apologize for the snarky comment but I've grown very tired of being led around on wild goose chases on these forums by people who don't have a clue to what's going on but continuously pat themselves on their backs with their impressive Microsoft credentials and useless help from the comfort of their parent's basement.

Hi Jesse,

Thank you for posting your query on Windows Vista Forums.

To reset the TCP/IP stack go to this article and either click on "Fix it for me" or follow the instructions to fix it yourself:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

Disable IPv6:

Try uninstalling IPv6 on all interfaces, removing any IPv6 virtual adapters, and resetting the TCP/IP stack. To remove IPv6, go into the properties for each network adapter and either uncheck the box next to the protocol "Internet Protocol version 6 (TCP/IPv6), that will disable it, or select it and click uninstall, which will remove it off the computer. Then go into device manager and remove any 4to6 adapters, WUN miniport adapters, or tunnel adapters.

NOTE: You should do this for each network connection.

Disable the DHCP Broadcast Flag:

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928233

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ ) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers

To resolve this issue, disable the DHCP BROADCAST flag in Windows Vista. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then click regedit in the Programs list.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.

Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces{GUID}

In this registry path, click the (GUID) subkey that corresponds to the network adapter that is connected to the network.

On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.

In the New Value #1 box, type DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then press ENTER.

Right-click DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then click Modify.

In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

Close Registry Editor.

By setting this registry key to 1, Windows Vista will first try to obtain an IP address by using the BROADCAST flag in DHCP Discover packets. If that fails, it will try to obtain an IP address without using the BROADCAST flag in DHCP Discover packets.

You can also try the following articles on tips on common networking issues.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/33307acf-0698-41ba-b014-ea0a2eb8d0a81033.mspx

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/fc58605e-a2be-470c-95b3-6808a76347991033.mspx

Hope the information will help. Please post back and let us know.

Thanks & Regards

Ashish Gupta

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

One more update.

I did everything recommended in this thread up, and realized the problem is not with the network.  I connected directly to the modem, restarted the computer and modem, obviously no internet.  So I went into control panel, and the computer says it is connected to the internet.  It won't let me diagnose anything if the computer thinks there is a connection.  Is it possible that when the computer crashed, it took out a piece of hardware in such a manner that Vista knows its connected to the net with a good signal, but there is a piece of hardware not allowing in/out transmissions?   Anything?  I don't want her to have to take it in somewhere to pay money and find out it is a simple setting that reconfigured when the computer crashed.

I must say, I have a lot of respect for the people that work on and maintain windows machines everyday, these things are a pain to even figure out what is wrong, let alone fix a problem.

My vista machine woke up one day from hibernation and decided it could no longer identify my wired network.  I've tried a number of other fixes, including modifying my registry, and they do not work.  How can I get in to see the DNS servers (I'm hooked up to a Motorola (don't know exactly what model, I'm not home at the moment to look) cable modem)?  Will I have to borrow someone else's computer and hook it up to see this?

One more update.

I did everything recommended in this thread up, and realized the problem is not with the network.  I connected directly to the modem, restarted the computer and modem, obviously no internet.  So I went into control panel, and the computer says it is connected to the internet.  It won't let me diagnose anything if the computer thinks there is a connection.  Is it possible that when the computer crashed, it took out a piece of hardware in such a manner that Vista knows its connected to the net with a good signal, but there is a piece of hardware not allowing in/out transmissions?   Anything?  I don't want her to have to take it in somewhere to pay money and find out it is a simple setting that reconfigured when the computer crashed.

I must say, I have a lot of respect for the people that work on and maintain windows machines everyday, these things are a pain to even figure out what is wrong, let alone fix a problem. r

Okay, I ran into this issue only with Machines running vista and with wirless and wired connections And they did see full connections and said limited connectivity or access it was confusing the ____ out of me ! the computers seen the router but didnt want to go past it this is a dns issue and THIS ALL HAPPEND AFTER A FEW UPGRADES AND I BELEIVE ITS IN SERVICE PACK TWO !!!!!!, What i did was went into the router and wrote down the dns servers and staticaly put in the ip add and dns servers in the network cards ip proporties .it worked fine.got on line and the neowrk discovery was a.o.kay  but it wasent good enough the router should do this on its own being that dchp is enabled on the router. going into the registry and enable and disable the dhcp brocast flags didnt seem to solve the problem.  being that vista per say does not like non microsoft dhcp/routers. Being that its designed to run very efficient in a Full microsoft environment pulling packets from microsoft dhcp/dns servers. The poblem is the router it might need a firmware upgrade being that Vista uses newer protocols over the basic TCP/IP  that most routers older than vista use . So staicaly placing the ip add and dns servers seemed to do the trick . . Your firmware upgrade might accept these protocols and avoid the issues with vista not accepting the dhcp packets request. Or you could just go to the network and security center and then go to manage connections right click on the connection go to properties and then to tcp/ip version 4 then to proporties click the button for Use the following ip adress and do the same for the dns servers put in the ip adress its prob gonna be like this ip 192.168.1xx. netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.1 and then dns servers 8.90.2.3. 8.90.2.4  dns example dont know your servers those dns numbers are for illustrate purpose only do not put those in . then click okay.  then you should be on the internet........ you will see that you will have full connection to the internet with in the networking and sharing center. You could leave it this way it will work just fine. But  once i got online i then i found  the firmware upgrade for my Linksys router downloaded it and then installed it and then went back to  put all nics wireless and wired back to full DHCP and everything is running fine.....  now..........no problems......

ip          192.168.1.1xx

sbnt       255.255.255.0

gateway 192.168.1.1

dns 1    8.90.2.3 yours in this place

dns 2    8.90.2.4  yours in this place