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My Internet is Working, But Windows Vista Claims it Should Not Be

Wowbagger

The Infinitely Prolonged
Wowbagger
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Just out of curiosity, is anyone else experiencing this little glitch?

My "Network and Sharing Center", under Windows Vista has an "X" icon between my house icon (which represents the local network), and the globe (representing the Internet). The globe icon, itself, is faded gray.
My network icon, in the system tray, is claiming I have "local only" access.

And, yet, here I am on the JREF Forum, using that machine to post a thread. The Internet seems to be working just fine!

When I run Windows Network Diagnostics, it can't find any problems.

It has been like this for a few days.

Is that weird, or is that typical?
 
Yes. Vista breaks that way for me too; it's a bit aggravating. I think you'll note that you won't be able to launch Network and Connectivity Center either now, and that when you hover over the icon, you get a message "connection status: unknown server execution failed".

I forget exactly why this happens, other than that a process this icon depends on suddenly requires administrative access to whatever other process or service it's trying to access, and when it fails, you see this error. There are a couple of simple fixes for this:
http://www.fubby.com/connection-status-unknown-server-execution-failed-error-message/

Or:
http://www.chicagotech.net/netforums/viewtopic.php?t=2080
 
Really? Huh...

All right. Well, I think that the cures given will still work to resolve that. I know it's silly to worry about how one single icon behaves, but the fact is that lots of people like me depend on that icon to also tell me when wireless networks are available, and I hate it when it misfires. So I fix the problem. But, you may not be in that boat, so if the Network and Connectivity Center is responding fine, and if you don't worry about wireless network notifications, you won't have to do the fix.
 
Wowbagger said:
Just out of curiosity, is anyone else experiencing this little glitch?

My "Network and Sharing Center", under Windows Vista has an "X" icon between my house icon (which represents the local network), and the globe (representing the Internet). The globe icon, itself, is faded gray.
My network icon, in the system tray, is claiming I have "local only" access.

And, yet, here I am on the JREF Forum, using that machine to post a thread. The Internet seems to be working just fine!

When I run Windows Network Diagnostics, it can't find any problems.

It has been like this for a few days.

Is that weird, or is that typical?
Click to expand...

I've noticed it, but have always ignored it. I believe it only happens when your router gets reset and you have not yet manually connected to the internet (via port 80).
 
If it's 'working fine', then maybe chalk it up to yet another stupid glitch in Vista. I've never had a Windows machine that behaved particularly well in the 'connection status' department. My XP tablet machine has always had a habit of claiming to be disconnected when it was connected wirelessly, and connected when it was not. I seem to recall during the brief stint that Vista was on this machine (before I installed Ubuntu and deleted that bloated partition to make room for a couple of virtual machines) that it had similar retardations.

There are plenty more where that came from. Could be ONE of the protocols (like QOS) that is bent because that bit of your router software hung or something.

Try shutting everything on the network down cold, including your router, wait a few minutes, then starting with your router, reboot everything fresh. Most likely the 'idiot light' problem will magically vanish.

Try disabling every protocol but TCP/IP.

If it's not a portable machine, you can go into 'TCP/IP properties' and manually configure IP to something in the valid DHCP range of your router (pop up a CMD prompt and type 'ipconfig', and you should see your current IP Address... change the last number to something much higher.), and point DNS/Gateway at your router's IP address. That usually clears up all such 'issues' and causes your network connection to be 'instantly' available. If you want to be extra dirty, you can turn on the DMZ on your router and use that address. Then there'll be nothing filtering between you and the interwebz but the Windows firewall.

If it is a portable, keep in mind you'll probably have to go back in and configure it all to 'Automatic' again if you connect to another network.
 
For years I had a "dumb network" hub that worked just fine, but Windows 98SE and XP both reported "limited connectivity" and inability to access the internet. I now have a wireless router, and half the time my XP notebook reports limited connectivity on the wireless connection. I just gave up trying to figure out why, since it works fine.
 
Actually, both you and Vista are hallucinating.
This is not the internet.
You are in bed asleep.
When you awake, you will forget this ever happened, but you will want to drink lots of Coca Cola.
 
It should be noted that this is, in fact, the "worst" problem I have with Vista, at the moment. For me, at least, it has been a well-behaved O.S.
Not that anyone needs to upgrade from XP, of course. XP is still good, if you'd rather use that.

(The only other tihng I don't like, is that it doesn't ask "are you sure..?" when clicking one of the shut down/log off/sleep/etc. options. But, let's not get into a list of Vista issues, here. I just wanted to know if anyone else had this weird thing.)
 
Safe-Keeper said:
There's your problem. Upgrade to XP.
Click to expand...

:) That's a good one. I had the same problem with Windows ME... I had to upgrade to Windows 98.

I seem to always build computers when Microsoft makes its trashiest releases.

Nevertheless, I haven't had major problems with Vista. It's just too bulky and it's lacking in new features.

Windows 7 though, I'm looking forward to.
 
Wowbagger said:
It should be noted that this is, in fact, the "worst" problem I have with Vista, at the moment. For me, at least, it has been a well-behaved O.S.
Not that anyone needs to upgrade from XP, of course. XP is still good, if you'd rather use that.

(The only other tihng I don't like, is that it doesn't ask "are you sure..?" when clicking one of the shut down/log off/sleep/etc. options. But, let's not get into a list of Vista issues, here. I just wanted to know if anyone else had this weird thing.)
Click to expand...

It doesn't?

Good, I hate it asking me that.
 
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