neowin.net

After several happy months of running Windows Vista RC1, I've upgraded to RC2. Ever since that day, I've been intermittently getting a "Limited connectivity" error that requires my network adapter to be reset. I don't want to go back to XP or RC1, so I need to make this work.

My specs: a Pentium D on an Intel board with integrated PRO/1000 PM network adapter. Linksys WRT54G v4 router, connected over wire.

The problem seems to be worst when the connection is consuming a lot of bandwidth (particularly when using uTorrent).

So far, I've tried a few things (based on extensive research):

1. Reinstalled the network card drivers
2. Changed the advanced settings to turn IPv4 and IPv6 checksums off
3. Disabled SPI firewall on the router.
4. Installed the DD-WRT firmware (v23SP2) on my router.
5. Decreased the number of allowable half-open connections in uTorrent to 2.
6. Unchecked the IPv6 protocol in my network settings.
7. Switched from using the router's DHCP to a static IP on my machine.

After all of these things, I still have intermittent connection drops where the lovely yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it proclaims that I have limited connectivity. It seems to me to be more like *zero* connectivity, as I can't usually even reach my router once this happens.

Based on all the research I've done, I really feel like Vista's relationship with my router (specifically after the installation of RC2) is the area of trouble. I've considered going back to RC1, or XP, but I would like to resolve this issue if at all possible.

Thanks in advance for preventing me from having to reinstall my OS!

Try this - go into the properties of your network adapter and DISABLE the following:

IP Checksum Offload
TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4)
TCP Checksum Offload (IPv6)
UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4)
UDPChecksum Offload (IPv6)

I've already done this (see step 2 above). No dice. I'm considering changing network cards or getting a different router, but I would hate to make an unnecessary purchase. Does anyone else have any alternative thoughts on this?

I have that issue w/ a v5 of that router.

I dont know how things has changed in Vista Network stack. But it will properly take a few firmware upgrade as well as driver upgrade to smooth things out.