Windows 7 - Shows As Not Connected But Is Connected

Asked By Dell Bo

02-May-07 07:15 AM

I am connected to the main wireless network I use but the wireless icon in
the system tray is showing that I do not have a wireless connection, i.e.
there is a red cross next to it. When I click "View Available Wireless
Networks" the Wireless Network Connection window shows a status of "Not
Connected" alongside the network I am connected to and the button at the
bottom righthand corner of the Windows says "Disconnect".

I find this quite confusing as I am never quite sure if I am connected or
not. Can anyone suggest a solution?

02-May-07 10:18 AM

First you write that you ARE connected and then you write that you
aren't sure if you are connected.  Can you access the Internet? Ping the
router or another computer on the network?  If not, why do you think you
are connected?

If in fact you are connected but you see the "not connected" icon and
status you describe, you may have two wireless configuration utilities
running simultaneously, and you should disable one of them.  See
http://www.ezlan.net/wzc.html

--
Lem   MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

02-May-07 12:54 PM

Thanks for replying.

I'm definitely connected, I'm just confused visually by the red cross by the
wireless connection icon in the system tray.

Yes the Dell wireless utility is running, as it has been for the last two
years since I got the laptop, but I use Windows to manage my wireless
connections and have never had this problem before.

02-May-07 12:58 PM

To clarify my last comment that I use Windows to manage my wireless
connection, I mean that the Windows Zero Configuration service is started and
is set to automatic startup.

02-May-07 01:12 PM

WZC has been updated from time to time (by Windows Update).  Perhaps
something has changed that now doesn't get along as well as before with
the Dell utility.  There isn't any good reason to have to configuration
utilities running at the same time, and it may lead to problems.  Stop
one of them and see if that clears up your problem.

--
Lem   MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

07-May-07 07:51 AM

I believe I have replicated this issue and found a solution.

In my testing, this issue was caused when a Win XP SP2 machine established
an automatic connection to a wireless network secured with WPA-PSK and the
security was then removed from the wireless network. Each time that the Win
XP SP2 machine connected to the wireless network after the WPA-PSK security
had been removed the symptoms I described in my post above were experienced.
This happened across various vendors machines, various vendors wireless
adapters and both with and without the vendor's wireless utility installed.

To resolve this issue (assumes you are using Windows to manage your wireless
connections0:

1. Right click the windows wireless network in the system tray, click "View
Available Wireless Networks" and then click "Change Advanced Settings"
(bottom right corner of the Window).

2. Click the "Wireless Networks" tab and remove the wireless network from
the Preferred networks list and reboot the machine.

3. Re-connect to the wireless network.

After re-connecting the issue was resolved.

Hope this helps someone.

07-May-07 09:54 AM

Glad you got things sorted out.  Thanks for the feedback.



--
Lem   MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

23-Jul-08 03:13 PM

This was the solution to my problem. Running XP with dell wireless 1350 PCI card, and trying to connect to a linksys router

07-Jan-09 07:34 AM

Thank you so much for your research. My problems were with a livebox wireless router. My laptop connected fine as did the PC, however my work laptop would connect then a red cross would appear on the wireless icon. I would still be connected and would log onto work. This would work for a couple of minutes and then drop out.



The laptop is running Win XP SP2 and when I followed your advice the problem went away,



thanks, Richard

20-Apr-09 01:01 PM

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16-Aug-09 03:41 AM

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18-May-10 03:34 AM

I disabled alot of services on Vista to speed my laptop up and I got this problem.  I fixed it by re-enabling the Network Location Awareness Service.



To do this go Start -> Run, Type services.msc and click Ok.  Scroll down to Network Location Awareness, right click, Properties, change Startup Type to Automatic, click Start and click Ok to close the Properties windows.