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Thomson 585V7 DHCP problem, possibly Vista issue

alanfh
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Thomson 585V7 DHCP problem, possibly Vista issue

I'm trying to help a friend who has recently signed up with PN, and who is having trouble with wireless access using the Thomson TG585V7 supplied with the account. Everything works fine with his own laptop using Vista Home, but a guest with a laptop running Vista Business got  "local access only" i.e. no internet connectivity. The visitor has used the laptop in many other sites without difficulty. To cut a long story short, the problem was that no DHCP address was being acquired, and the problem is a dead ringer for:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us
the gist of which is that there is an incompatability in DHCP handling between some modems and the MS way of doing it in Vista. Editing the registry in accordance with the MS advice seemed to fix the problem, although I'm told that it did go wrong again and the fix had to be undone and then repeated.
What puzzles me is that it didn't happen with the other (Home) Vista machine, and secondly that a newly-supplied modem would suffer from a Vista issue which has been known about for over a year?
My friend has frequent visitors and obviously doesn't want to have to mess with their laptops every time. Is my analysis correct, and what can be done about this? Unfortunately on this occasion the PN support line hasn't been much help.
TIA, Alan
5 REPLIES 5
mal0z
Grafter
Posts: 3,486
Registered: ‎02-10-2008

Re: Thomson 585V7 DHCP problem, possibly Vista issue

I use a Compaq/HP laptop with Vista on the Thomson router using wifi and although I wouldn't say it has not given occasional problems - it certainly works 99% of the time.
I don't have laptop with me just now so can't exactly what I did when I had a problem - something like right click and "repair network link" ? ?
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Thomson 585V7 DHCP problem, possibly Vista issue

From the Microsoft article
"Consider the following scenario:
You connect a Windows Vista-based computer to a network.
A router or other device that is configured as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server is configured on the network.
The router or the other device does not support the DHCP BROADCAST flag.
In this scenario, Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address.
APPLIES TO
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit Edition
Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit Edition
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition
Windows Vista Starter"
If Vista cannot cope with some models of router then that will apply to all versions of Vista.  So that is NOT your problem.
If the guest has been touting his laptop round half the networks in the country it is much more likely that the laptop has acquired some weird settings.  Maybe it has a fixed IP address?  Did it really have local access - could you log in to the router from it?  Did you do an ipconfig to determine its IP address?
alanfh
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Thomson 585V7 DHCP problem, possibly Vista issue

Thanks for the replies.
DHCP was enabled, and ipconfig showed an address in the 169.254 range which is what (as I know know!) Windows assigns when it is configured for DHCP but can't get a dynamic address assigned.
I'm not familiar with Vista but as I understand it Vista presents a graphic representation of the local network, and the router was visible but indicating "local access only" on the internet side.
At one time we were logged into the router but I'm afraid I can't recall if that was with my friend's original Vista Home laptop or the troublesome machine. I presume it wouldn't be able to see the router if it hadn't got an address in the router's range?
The interesting thing was that as soon as the registry was updated with the settings in the MS KB article, and the laptop rebooted, it all worked (laptop and router had both been previously rebooted without success).
Alan
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Thomson 585V7 DHCP problem, possibly Vista issue

So before you fiddled with the registry you  actually had no access to the router (you presume correctly, it would not be able to see the router without an address in the router's range).  After making the change the connection was established but only temporarily.  Possibly you managed to reset the wireless connection in some way (but only temporarily).
I think the Microsoft article you found is barking up the wrong tree.  You need to check that the wireless connection is not set with a fixed IP address, find and delete the wireless connection set-up for the offending network and try again.       
alanfh
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Thomson 585V7 DHCP problem, possibly Vista issue

Thanks  for the advice. Unfortunately the original problem laptop owner has departed so I won't be able to try anything until another comes along - perhaps it will turn out to be a one-off.
Thanks again.
Alan