PCFormat Forum Archive

i have recently bought a laptop with windows vista business.
i have tried to setup a wireless network at home.
the problem i have is that after a few minutes it disconnects from the network.
as soon as i go in my network places it has changed the ip to "optain ip automaticly"
how do i fix this problem coz i dont wanna come home and sit the home night just trying to connect on the network at home.

you using a router?

why not enable DHCP and then never worry again?

Thats why I love routers

DHCP should never be run over a wireless network unless there are good reasons for it; my reasons for this point of view are explained in the "So you have ADSL, and it's up and running" thread. Besides, a protocol that manages the allocation and re-use of IP addresses is hardly appropriate for a network with a handful of nodes on it. On the plus side, it does make configuring clients easier.

Ironically, I do run DHCP over my own network, the reason being that when I have the friends over for LANs, they don't have to worry about IP settings. (They're really lazy buggers.) Because of this, I have taken the time and effort to secure the wireless part of the network as best as I can.

Moving on to the problem presented by the original poster. You have two options here. Firstly, you could assign your client a static IP address. I'm not sure how you would do this in Vista (as I refuse to downgrade to it), but I don't suppose that it's much different from XP. If Vista is actually resetting your network connection's settings to obtain an IP address automatically (and you know, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was doing this), then you'll have to enable DHCP in your router, assuming that your router can function as a DHCP server. Of course, should you go this route, you should also make sure that your network is as secure as possible.

Try and enable the DHCP on your router if you have the ability to assing alloweable MAC addresses to it... Then you FORCE the wireless network to only accept connections from your devices...

To see the mac address of your wireless network card in your lappy, goto start -> Run -> "cmd" -> type "ipconfig /all"...

It will show you all your connections, so make sure you select the WIRELESS one, else it wont connect.

There is a adrress in a xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx format.

This is your mac address. If you can force your router to only accept connections from your fixed addresses, you should be sorted...

i came right with the network, i have found if i disconnect my dshpa i can connect with my onboard modem and with my external modem. strange but ja it works

i ment hsdpsa