Wireless issues. Vista works. XP doesn't. 128bit WEP. WTF?

[Jayce]

Verizon DSL.
Actiontec Modem+Router
HP Windows XP Professional Laptop.
HP Windows Vista Home Premium Laptop.

This is my dad's setup. I went over today and called Verizon DSL. Turns out there was an update released for XP that caused conflict with DSL service. So, they adjusted that accordingly and I had access to the internet then. I set up 128bit WEP encryption. I was going to use WPA, but 64bit WEP was already on it, and WPA was giving me issues, so I at least wanted to beef up the WEP a bit. So, it worked.

Both laptops online. Wirelessly. Secured. Good, we're golden now. Dad tried logging on his Outlook Express (Verizon) email. No connection. Some kind of port error on port 110 with POP3. No idea what it was, so I ignored it and figured I'd research it later.

But, hey, both laptops were online. Bingo. Great. At least they have internet connection.

Two hours later, dad calls me. His laptop won't get online. He can successfully ping multiple web sites with average response times of 32ms. However, when he opens IE or Mozilla Firefox, no matter what, when he tries to connect to the EXACT same web sites he just successfully pinged, it times out.

I asked him about the Vista laptop. Vista laptop works. Perfectly. It pings + gets on the web sites as requested.

I said, hey, plug in the XP laptop via patch cable to the router and see if you grab a connection then. So, he disabled wireless, plugged in the XP laptop via patch cable... nadda.

Vista laptop? Still works.

His XP laptop runs slow... considering the AMD Turion + 2gb 667mhz RAM, it's unusually slow. My laptop, also running AMD Turion + 2gb 667mhz RAM on XP Pro kicks the pants off of that laptop. I mentioned backing his stuff up on my external drive and reformatting. He was hesitant of that.

But I have no clue what else to do. My theory has always been this... what's more worthwhile? Spending 4 hours trying to troubleshoot a problem or spending an hour and a half to format, reinstall, and transfer all of your files back over to the computer?

What do you guys think? Is there anything in particular that I could try?

 

[Lexluethar]

Okay, to start off lets do the outlook. You may have to change the incoming and outgoing ports. You will probably have to call your ISP to find out what they configure. I have incoming as 110 and outgoing as 465 (but also 25 works for me too). So try that for the email and see if that works.

As for the speed of the laptop - always try five things first then i agree with you if you have the capability and software to wipe the drive and start over do it. If i troubleshoot for two hours and can't resolve the issue, if i have the software and backups i just reformat. Because i can do that within about 3 total hours. Anyways do (in this order) Spyware check (spybot S&D), AntiVirus Scan, Disk Cleanup, Disk Defrag, and finally error-check the disk. If none of those work and you don't have a rediculous amount of crap on the computer, or 60+ services going at startup reformat IMO.

For the laptop not connecting wirelessly. Obviously it isn't the router or DSL, because the Vista machine works. Double check the settings. Can't really think of anything specific since you can ping sites, but IE won't work...

 

[Jayce]

Yeah, that's what's really confusing. He's had the computer for about 8 months or so, and doesn't use it all that much besides looking up information online about his motorcycle when he adds new parts to it and such. So, I'm not too sure a defrag would make a significant difference due to his limited span of use.

It got so confusing over the phone due to a language barrier (blah) that I allowed Verizon to take control of my laptop. I brought my laptop to configure his network with it and would just transfer the settings over.

Sure enough, the few settings I thought I was setting right were indeed right. Put the WEP key in, hit connect, bam, good. So I just transferred the settings to my dad's laptop, where I stayed on the phone with Verizon until I booted my dad's laptop up twice to ensure it connected automatically and I was able to get on several known web sites.

The other thing is, his laptop worked fine for two hours. He called me two hours later when I was at home and he said the network is down, yet, the Vista laptop can get online.

What I should do is drive past his house and see if I can connect to it. All of his settings are saved in my wireless history. That way, since we're both running XP Pro, I could ensure that my laptop can get on with the same OS. The reason I mention this is due to the fact MS released an update earlier this month that really messed up a lot of things with Verizon DSL, but the release was only for XP, not Vista...

Antivirus scan was done. Nothing found.
Adaware scan was done. 22 objects found.
MSConfig is relatively light on bootup.
When it boots up, background shows for about 2-3 minutes, then the icons and start bar slowly start to show up. Another 2 minutes and the laptop is usable.

 

[Lexluethar]

Hmm, again this is really weird. For the speed of the laptop see if you can download a free memory scan - to see if perhaps some of his ram chips are going bad. If the PC is new, has no virus or adware (now), and doesn't have a lot on it that leads me to believe that there may be a hardware failure (you are seeing the early signs of it with the system being slow). You could reformat if you have the time and ability, but if the computer is in the type of shape you say it is in (nothing really on it, nothing at startup, etc) then i don't think a reformat will work.

As for the connectivity, since you said MS had an update check w/ verison and MS to ensure you have the most recent updates... Download the latest IE if you haven't already. Sorry i can't be much more help...

 

[Jayce]

Problem solved.

That update I spoke about from Microsoft ended up kicking a lot of XP User's firewalls into high security. That's why I could ping sites, yet I couldn't actually visit them. Once it was kicked down to medium, everything was good to go.

He also had a boat load of spyware. No viruses, though. He also is doing a defrag. I told dad to call me later today and let me know how it's running, but I'm relatively certain that it'll be fine.

I gotta admit, there is a time and place to call ISP providers. I absolutely hate it. A lot of times, I either get somebody who doesn't know a **** thing, or somebody who can't speak my native language. However, had I not called Verizon, I would have NEVER known about this update MS sent out that interfered with the firewall settings.

I disabled Zone Alarm when I was working on it and got the laptop working. So, Dad must have rebooted which re-enabled Zone Alarm. That's why I got the call two hours later when he said he can't get online. He rebooted and ZA took effect, still at high settings.

But, like I said, all good now.

 

[Lexluethar]

Ya calling ISP's can be a pain. You get level one techs who will take you through the most basic issues like restarting and they usually aren't much help. But like you said sometimes configuration or update issues are only known by calling the manf.

Glad to hear everything is working.

 

[Jayce]

You know you have quality help desk when they say:

"Sir, please go to start, then run. In the dialog box, please type the following."
"C as in Sally."
"M as in Michael."
"D as in Dog."

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahaHAHAhaa...........



..ha!