Sony Vaio Laptop Wireless Problem

Hi, this will be my first post on this forum
Sadly, the reason I am here is because of a wireless issue

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ180E laptop that I have had for about a year now. It is running on Windows Vista SP1 with the latest drivers and updates.

Recently its been developing problems when I connect to my home's wireless router to access the internet. After bootup, the internet connection is made with no problem whatsoever. But after several hours of use [there hasn't really been a pattern to the time interval] the browsers stop working and Firefox tells me that there is a page load error and the resulting webpage cannot be loaded. The weird thing is that my AIM and other internet connected software still manage to relay information to the internet without problems. I have tried pinging websites such as google.com and yahoo.com using CMD during the problem and the data packets were sent successfully and the Ping usually averages at 10-30ms, pretty normal figures.

I have tried to reset the router, and also tried to run diagnostic tests on the laptop's wireless adapter during the problem but I find that the only way to fix this issue is to do a restart. It is also weird that the Intel Diagnostics monitor for this wireless adapter consistently returns passing results during the wireless failure without any problems at all. I've checked and turned off firewall settings for now to make sure that isn't blocking anything.

Oh, my wireless adapter is called: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN

I can't seem to find or think of an idea other than to re-format the laptop to see if it will resolve the problem. I'd greatly appreciate it if you guys have anything to add to help.

 

Since you are using Intel Wireless 4965, try downloading their WiFi Connection Utility. I notice I have similar problem when I was running Vista on my TZ91.

If that doesn't work just download the driver only from Intel and remove network card from device manager and update the drivers again.

 

I have done exactly this, and yet the problem still remains.

There was one time when I opened up the Vaio wireless utility and ran a diagnostics test and the connection came back. But this only happened once.

The other times have been completely unsuccessful.
The weird thing is that the browser doesn't even try to load the website when you put in any URL but I can ping just fine using CMD. The Intel utility as well as Vista tells me that I am connected to the wireless and have internet access.

Why can't I use the browser then? Why would IM programs still be able to send IM while the browsers are not working..?

 

Do this. Open a cmd window and run "ipconfig /all" (without quotation marks) and post the results.

 

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : James
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-E8-7E-08-27
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet
Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-A9-C4-0D-A9
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::a8:52c0:66ec:ea0b%8(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.108(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, January 14, 2009 8:30:40 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 15, 2009 8:30:40 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 201331625
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4137:9e50:1cb8:110f:3f57:fe93(Pref
erred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::1cb8:110f:3f57:fe93%9(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{4E0BE641-F470-4505-A4E3-EF6ACD1EA
542}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5efe:192.168.1.108%21(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 10:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 12:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 13:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 15:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 16:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 17:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

I am now also having the same trouble with an Ethernet connection. When the browsers stop working and I try to repair the network it tells me that it cannot ping microsoft.com. However, I find that I am still able to ping other websites just fine..

I am on the verge of reformatting, as much as I don't want to, but is there anyway to fix this without resorting to a full system restore?
Thanks for any help.

 

What router are you using. I had a similar problem with D-Link a few years ago. I did not see it above, but have updated the router's firmware? Also, I don't recommend the latest Intel Driver for your 4965 card. I loaded it last week and problems. I went back to the original - which then prompts Windows update for an update from Sept. 08 and it is working well again.

 

Holey moses! You sure do have an awful lot of IPv6 tunnels set up! Do you (to your knowledge) use IPv6?

If you don't know the answer, then odds are you don't have any use for IPv6, in which case you should simply disable it. That may help to solve some of your problems.

Also, you cannot use both wired and wireless connections at the same time. If you plug a wired connection in, the system will disable the wireless connection.

That is what your ipconfig results show right now; would it be possible for you do run another ipconfig /all with just the wireless going, and the wired unplugged, so that we can get an idea of whether the DHCP server is setting your wireless card's settings up correctly?

 

I've never touched the IPv6 functions, those just seemed to be there on default.

BTW, I seemed to have fixed the problem. This has been the longest run on wireless without being D/C'd [it's been about a day and a half now]. Hopefully posting didn't jynx it haha.

Solution: I went to vaio's diagnostics menu and rolled back the network ethernet and LAN adapter driver/settings to factory defaults. Restarted the laptop, connected back to the router and decided to give wireless another shot. [I thought it was just the wireless adapter being broken so I switched to ethernet, but it died after about 3 hours of connectivity with the exact same problem]

But yeah, the problem seemed to have disappeared and the wireless has been working fine. I tried to load some bandwidth intensive websites like youtube vids in HD and streaming video websites to see if it would D/C again [I noticed heavy bandwidth usage D/C'd me in the past] and it hasn't done so yet.

I will continue to post updates if anyone is curious to see the progress, thanks for all the help guys.

PS: http://forum.oscr.arizona.edu/showthread.php?t=1117
This forum has helped me out quite a bit too in troubleshooting the issue. Perhaps this will be of help to anyone with the same problem.

 

Unfortunately, in _Vista IPv6 is enabled by default. It can be a problem because there are some security applications (e.g., some A/V) that aren't set up to scan IPv6 traffic specifically, so malware can in certain circumstances be smuggled into a system via IPv6 even if the system has an otherwise robust A/V capability. As such, unless you specifically know that you need to have IPv6 enabled, it's best just to disable it for now.