Windows 7 on wired computer prevents wireless connections to router

Hello.

I own three computers. One has a wired connection to my wireless router (Linksys WRT54G v. 6 with latest firmware), the other two use wireless adapters and are running Windows XP Professional 32-Bit. If I run Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit on the computer with the wired connection, the other two computers cannot connect to the router (access point). Here's what's troubling.

If I leave the other two "wireless" computers turned off, and run Windows 7 on the "wired" computer, then turn off the "wired" computer, and turn on one or both of the "wireless" computers, they still cannot connect.

In order to establish a wireless connection, once again, I must reset the router , then reset the security, and finally, enter the new network key on each of the "wireless" computers. It doesn't matter whether the "wireless" computers are on or off when I either install or run Windows 7 on the "wired" computer. The problem occurs even when I turn off the "wired" computer before turning on the "wireless" computers.

At this point, I can only "assume" (either from lack of knowledge or imagination) Windows 7 actually makes changes to the router's settings. I cannot access the router's web-based utility from Windows 7 or from Windows Vista. I must access it from Windows XP (I quad boot XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Ubuntu). My problem with wireless networking only occurs with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit. I don't experience this problem with Vista Ultimate 64-Bit. Also, I have no networking issues with Windows 7 running on the "wired" computer.

Perhaps there is a simple solution. However, it's disconcerting that Windows 7 can prevent other computers from connecting to my router. Windows 7 should only be concerned with connections made to the computer it is running on, and not take over the responsibility of the router. If this is the case, then I find that to be completely unacceptable. I'm not using the wired computer as a gateway for the other computers. The Linksys router is the default gateway. Furthermore, I'm absolutely not interested in sharing music or files through Home Group, since this feature of Windows 7 is only compatible with other computers running Windows 7, and I'm not about to replace XP on the "wireless" computers with a beta version of Windows 7. I suspect Home Group might be the culprit here, or the reach of Windows Firewall is now out of bounds.

If you know or have an idea of what might be the problem, please let me know. I'll have to leave Windows 7 alone until I find a solution, as I'm not going to go through the hassle of reseting the router and network keys every time I run Windows 7. Unplugging the computer from the router is an option, but to do so would cripple the OS and the fun of using it. Besides, the beta needs access to the Internet for updates and to report problems.

access point? is it possible to just switch it back to being a router with nat?

its possible that in ap mode it cant handle wired and wireless and that the wired connection takes priority of the only available ip address, thus the wireless cards cant get an ip and so cant connect.

of course that could be b*****s but you never know.

yes i know you said it works fine when using xp pro so maybe the router doesnt release the ip correctly with win7.

any chance of installing a wifi card from one of the xp machines into the win7 machine just to test it?

can you test connecting one of the xp machines with wired and see if the other can connect using wireless?

I experienced the same problem XP systems with wireless connections lost their connectivity after the Windows 7 system got on the home network. Under Network and Sharing Center, hit the Advanced sharing settings and at the bottom select "Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computer" under Windows HomeGroup connections.

You will have to reboot your router and all the wireless XP systems, while the Win 7 system is off. You may have to reboot the router once in a while. Not the most elegant solution, but this is the only way my XP systems with wireless would work.

Disabling HomeGroup fixed my problem... I've been up and running 24 hours without requiring a router reboot and wireless is working great.

Yup. Disabling homegroup worked. All my wireless clients can connect just fine now.

Hope this gets hammered out before the win 7 release. I like the concept of the homegroup.

I will figure out the exact cause tonight and post a reply here. Also, I have found out that once you reset the router, only one wireless connection can be made before it screws up again.

Laterz, Twitch(the origional)

sure sounds like that router / access point is not IPv6 compatable! Homegroup runs on IPv6 so I assume it was not homegroup but the underlying protocol that is hanging up the router. my AR670W has a similar issue (but not as bad as loosing connectivity)... wireless windows7 homegroup members can see eachother, and wired windows7 homegroup members can see eachother, but wired and wireless cannot see eachother! the IPv6 is not passing between wired and wireless segments in the router.

Hi folks -- Had a similar problem and was able to fix the issue. Here are the quick details:

Run a home network which consistes of 3 XP laptops (one wired and two wireless), wireless printer, and wireless TiVo connection. Introduced a fourth laptop Windows 7. For some reason, it brought down the whole network (Linksys WRT54G router). When I removed the Windows 7 machine, it worked again.

Updated the firmware on the router which did the trick.

I had a similar problem, but probably not the same as yours.

I followed the instructions for using my Toshiba laptop with my Linksys WRT56G router with Windows7. It said to connect the laptop to the router with a wire cable, which I did. The router is rated at "G" speeds which is the wireless speed; I got 100 mbps with the hard wired connection, though my internet modem only gets 56 mbps. So, I was getting about 56 mbps net at the laptop (minus some performance for net overhead etc.).

I could not get the laptop's wireless connection to work. I even tried using "Network Magic", the new Cisco software they acquired along with Pure Networks; it indicated the connection was being made between the router and my laptop's wireless adapter, but no internet connection.

I struggled with this for a couple days; since I had not used VISTA or Windows7 before, I stuck with the instructions, and tried every tip and trick I could find listed. No luck.

Then I decided to put the written instructions aside and see what my instincts developed over several decades of experience would show me. It wasn't long before I realized that the wireless adapter in the laptop did not have its own 'NIC', so to speak, but used the regular NIC which the laptop used for wired connections to a network. Hence, using the furnished instructions, I was attempting to connect to a wireless node on the network at the same time as I was connected to a hard-wired node, which meant the laptop had to establish two separate connections to the router: one wired, and one wireless. It was then easy to see that the laptop couldn't do that with only one "NIC" for both connections!

I used the wired connection to the router to set it up and make sure all was well with it, including use of the internet. I then pulled the plug on the hard wired connection, and went to the wireless setup and connect routines in the laptop, which now worked just fine because they could use the internal "NIC" chipset of the laptop, which it could not do when the hard wired connection was using the NIC chipset.

This fooled me for a while because I can connect both a wireless and hard wired connection to the router on my desktops, because they use separate NICs for each connection; the wireless adapter has its own network interface chips rather than sharing those used for hard wired connections.

I have to admit I feel sheepish about disclosing this, as it makes me look pretty dumb, to not have realized this immediately, as soon as I read the instructions telling me to connect the hard wire to the computer (to set up the router, test it and the internet, etc.) while attempting to connect the wireless also. As a design engineer who has designed a wide assortment of peripherals for PCs and laptops I should have seen that problem immediately. However, I didn't at first realize that the laptop, in order to save space and power, used the network interface already present for the hard wired connection, and added only the "radio" part of the wireless adapter, with the "radio" doing the transmitting and receiving, and interface to the NIC already present in the laptop. Obviously, with a single channel NIC interface between the computer and the router, it can handle only one connection, and, if I first established a hard wired connection to the router, then attempted to use the same NIC for the wireless connection, it wasn't going to work! Only when I released the NIC from the hard wired connection to the router was the wireless connection able to use the NIC and establish a connection.

Sorry this is so long and 'wordy', but I wanted to explain thoroughly in case it may help some others I have seen on the internet with the same problem, ie, not being able to connect wirelessly when the hard wired connection is already established.

Larry

Here is a stab in the dark..Is it possible that windows 7 when wired is "sharing" the internet connection and commanding all other connection resources to authenticate through it? I dont have windows 7 installed yet but check you internet sharing ...see if you cant turn it off..reboot and still find it off...then turn on you laptops...see if this works.

Renshi