Wireless has stopped working, halp please

Hello. I see some strange things happening here that I really can't explain. Basically, it appears your computer is getting partial information from the Airport extreme but not everything it needs to communicate. I began to look into it a bit more and it appears this is most likely related to a problem with the Airport and just being incompatible with your laptop. I also suspected it might have something to do with IPv6. From what I'm seeing its a pretty common problem with the Airport. Although, I couldn't find any specific examples looking exactly like your machine does. I suspect your computer is trying to use some IPv6 cofigurations and seems how IPv6 is hardly ready for the mainstream it has broken your computer. I also suspect that if you plug directly into your cable modem with the laptop and power cycle the cable modem you will get on the internet just fine. There are three suggestions I have for you - well four. First, plug directly into the cable modem like I suggested earlier and power cycle the modem. Give it some time to reboot and see if you can get on the internet. I'm 99% positive you will. After that, my only other two suggestions are educated guesses and the last looks a little like this: 1) Try updating the firmware on your airport extreme 2) Disable all IPv6 support on the Airport (you'll never know its gone) - I have NO experience with an Airport. But, I hear you open the "Airport Utility", click Manual Setup, click the Advanced button then the IPv6 tab and change the IPv6 mode to Link Local only. 3) Call Apple to help you reconfigure your Airport because I don't believe there is anything wrong with your computer.

You know you're not doing well when it takes two days to realize the thread has expanded to two pages. I took my laptop into the other room and connected it directly to the cable box and restarted it, and nothing happened. Should I turn off the wireless switch while I'm at it? Or does it matter? The rest of your suggestions seem to be centered on the Airport itself. Do you think it would be worth simply replacing it entirely? To be honest, I'm not sure which would be harder: convincing my family to update the firmware, or just replacing it. On a side note, what is causing this? IPv6? Why did this happen so suddenly?

Hello. Don't replace anything until we are sure what is wrong. Yes, you have ot turn off the wireless on the laptop. If it is still connected to another network when you perform the test its not going to work right. The cable modem has to be restarted to be sure it accepts the connection from the laptop. Sometimes they are finicky depending on which you have. It must be completely power cycled. The laptop doesn't need to be restarted. Give the modem a couple of minutes to boot up and see if you can get on-line. Lastly, I know this is tedious, but we have to be absolutely sure we are on the same page and aren't missing something in order to make a proper diagnosis. So, if you would, after testing your laptop, if it still doesn't get online when connected directly to the cable modem with an ethernet cable then unplug the ethernet cable from your laptop and plug it into your other computer (macbook?). See if it can get on-line when connected directly to the modem, just to make sure we aren't missing something. If the other computer gets online then I guess I am wrong, and it really must be something wrong with the laptop. Let me know.

So I connected my borked laptop directly to the cable modem, and unplugged it, let it sit for a minute, then plugged it back in. There was no resulting connectivity, not even the little LAN thing in the system tray. Still following your advice (don't worry about tedium; I'm determined to make this work), I took this laptop (the fine one) and plugged it directly into the modem. Interestingly, this seemed to ruin the entire network. Not a single computer in the house had connectivity until I restarted both the modem and the router twice. It was quite a scare, and I was wondering how I would post here on my phone. While the working laptop was plugged into the cable modem, I noticed that, unlike the borked laptop, the system tray added the little "connecting to wired network" icon. It even told me that the connection was fine and functioning properly, with full connectivity. All webpages and other internet programs failed to connect though.

Your messed up laptop should not be continuing to display that it LAN port is disconnected when it is plugged in, does the cable modem indicate a "PC Link" when it is plugged in? I don't really understand what you mean when you say it messed up your entire network. Ofcourse it would mess up your network, in the process of connecting your laptop directly to the modem you have to disconnect the Airport router - thus everything else on your network. But, that cable modem needs to be completely power cycled after plugging in the differnet equipment, rather it be the Airport, the bad laptop, the good laptop, etc. Otherwise, you can't be sure it is functioning properly after you plug different equipment into it. This is not a successful test. If you can't get a known, working laptop plugged into that cable modem working then you cannot be doing something right. Once you figure that out and confirm the laptop is working, you repeat the procedure on the messed up laptop and see if it will work. You probably just need to reboot the modem in between plugging in different devices. Please confirm you are also not using the USB port on the back of this modem.

You're right, apparently I can't tell one end of the cable from another. I read your post and, puzzled, went to retry the experiment and see what I did wrong. Apparently I grabbed the end of the cable that was in the modem and stuck it in my working laptop (thus connecting it to the router). When I realized my error, I corrected it, and sure enough, this working laptop was able to connect to the net, while the other one (connected to the correct end) was not. I also watched the PC link light, and it flickered and flashed for both computers, including the broken one. Thanks for your patience in this matter

I'm really at a loss as to what is going on. Try disabling IPv6 on the messed up laptop. Click START and type in network and sharing in the search box. Click on Network And Sharing Center. Click on Change Adapter Settings on the left hand side. Identify your wired network (Local area connection), right-click it and click properties. Uncheck Internet Protocol v6 and apply your changes. Try plugging in your laptop again. At this point I really don't know what else to try. I would be performing a system recovery by now. Which reminds me, have you tried doing a system restore back to the time prior to having any issues?

I did try a system restore, but since I couldn't remember exactly when the wireless failed, I couldn't be sure when to restore to. I also had very few choices (since I've never actually used the system restore before now) to choose from, and it appears that I don't even *have* a system restore point beyond that time. Is there any other advice you can offer regarding the system restore? I've backed up things so if I need to try it again, let me know. I disabled IPv6 on my laptop, and am going to try the wireless (since its easy and right here) then go and plug it in. Update: As I said, I disabled the IPv6 and connected my laptop to the modem this time (I'm learning!) and power cycled the modem. No dice. Not a peep.

Might be worth trying Dial-A-Fix. Stupid name but a very good program. It has a warning on the web site

Dial-a-fix also has a critical unpatched bug that will delete your C:\Documents folder.

but I've used it numerous times and never had a problem. I know Appleoddity has also used it successfully.

If your concerned, backup your C:\Documents and Settings folder first.

Just click on the double green check marks at the bottom then click GO. Let it run to completion then reboot.

If that doesn't help, can you summarize exactly where you are at this point. I've read the thread a couple times but I'm still not sure.

The primary points I liked addressed are:

1. Disable wireless. Connect the computer directly to the modem (no router) with an Ethernet cable. Power off modem and laptop. Power on modem, wait till lights settle, then power on laptop. Does it work or not?

2. Remove Ethernet cable, enable wireless. From Device Manager, expand Network Adapters. Right click on the Wireless connection and select Uninstall. Shutdown the laptop. Power off modem and router. Power on modem, wait till lights settle, then power on router and wait till lights settle then power on the laptop. XP will rediscover the device and reload the driver. Does it work or not?

And that makes yet another thing that I should have mentioned at the very start of all this. I'll just mention it here for the record. For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry I keep saying, "oh by the way, x y z" I'm currently running Windows 7, on a stock Asus G-73jw. Your Dial-A-Fix states in the red box at the top of the page that it won't work with Vista or 7, so I'm not going to use it until you say that it's okay and I can (for whatever magical reason). I just wanted to get that out in the air right now, since it's something that I really should have mentioned at the very beginning. I will, however, try step one of your requirements that you listed. I'll refrain from step two because I'm not sure I want to try that until I know how Windows 7 handles uninstalling and reinstalling a device. I suspect it's the same as XP, I don't really see any reason why it'd be terribly different, but I'd still rather not tamper with something I might not be able to reverse. Will update this post with results from step one. Update: Step one was a bust, here's what I did: Took the laptop out to the room with the modem. Hooked the laptop to the modem. Turned off the modem. Powered on the laptop, disabled the wireless, turned it off. Waited a moment, then turned on the modem. Waited for the lights to settle, then powered the laptop on. I realized another assumption on my part: when the modem powers on and starts functioning, the little pop-up display on 7 where the "wireless bars" in the system tray should have a section for "Ethernet" or "LAN" or something? I noticed it had a collapsible menu for wireless, and surmised it must also have one for wired when it detects such. Please advise as far as step two is concerned, so that I'm not going into it blind. Thanks!

Yes, dial a fix is only for XP and will not let you run it on Vista or 7.

We have basically eliminated the possibility of any outside source causing your problem. It is definitely an issue on your laptop that is not hardware related. We have connected directly to the modem - successfully restarted both in proper order - and have tried both wireless and wired connections with the same results. We have reset the TCP/IP stack with no avail. A previous look at logs suggests there is no malware on this machine. We have also tried the machine in a limited startup mode with still no success. Looking at the logs reveals quite a bit of junk on the computer, but not the usual security software nightmare I would expect with only Avast running if I remember correctly.

Hopefully that is a good synopsis of where we are at.

Frankly, there must be some corruption in the TCP/IP stack, or some other program that has hooked itself into your TCP/IP stack, or otherwise and is causing problems. It could be a security program, or what not. Did you recently change security programs? Recently install Avast and remove Norton, or something like that? There isn't much to lose now. Roll back as far as you can go in system restore.

You said you've got your data backed up. That is good. It may be time to wipe the system and start over… Sometimes that is just the way it is.

See here: http://support.asus.com/Troubleshooting/de…os=&no=1775

My apologies. I completely missed that you had Windows 7.

No no, I don't think I even mentioned it before now. That was my fault, I'm kicking myself more and more for not making all this clear from the get-go.

A last ditch effort - although unlikely - go in and disable your windows 7 firewall. You'll find it in control panel. Completely disable it and do some further testing.

I went in to look at the Windows Firewall, and can't find a button to turn it off. Literally the only options I have to click on are "What are network locations?" "What are the recommended settings?" and "Use recommended settings." This is after I click on "Turn Windows Firewall on or off" in the sidebar on the left. When I clicked on "Use recommended settings" (for lack of anything else to do, I figured I could access some other options and get to an on/off switch) an error box popped up saying: "Windows Firewall can't change some of your settings. Error code 0x8007042c"