[Tabvla]

I am running some beta testing on Vista Beta 2 ~ 32-bit. One issue that has arisen is that Vista does not recognize my Netgear DG834G ADSL Router. I have tried all the normal things but Vista does not like any of them.

The solution provided by Netgear Support is to do a complete reinstall of the Router. This involves physically resetting the Router via a specially recessed "Reset Button". I am not referring to a reboot of the Router, but rather to a complete firmware reset to factory settings. Once reset the Router has to be completely reconfigured.

Time-consuming and a real pain in the b**t but not too difficult.

The problem of course is that when I want to do some real work and boot back into XP I will have to go through the entire process again.

To me this sounds like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. I don't doubt that the advice from Netgear Support is well-intentioned, but surely there must be an easier way to get Vista to recognize the Router.

Testing Vista without Internet connection is time consuming because all the software and hardware that I want to test needs Vista drivers and updates, which of course now have to be downloaded from within XP and then moved over to Vista. Not really practical.

If someone has a smart answer to this I would be grateful to hear from you.

[TechB]

That doesn't sound right to me unless you have disabled DHCP on the router. If this is the case you'll have to setup Vista with a static IP. I suspect the problem is with Vista and not the router. What IP address is reported in Vista? At a cmd prompt type in "ipconfig /all" without the quotes.

[Tabvla]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I am currently back in XP. I will check the results from ipconfig/all when I log back into Vista. I have a suspicion that the result of that is going to be no IP address.

I can also confirm that DHCP is ON from within XP.

I am also a little confused by Netgear's advice. Routers are not my field of expertise so I cannot argue with Netgear. However, I find their advice a little strange in that they say that there is no requirement for either a driver or firmware upgrade as the Router will work "as is" with Vista.

The Router is 2 years old and had been on the market for about a year. So I assume that the firmware and software were developed without any consideration of Vista. Agreed, I am using the Router with Vista 32-bit so the basic coding platform is the same, but I still find it incredulous that a Router developed 3 years ago will work with Vista.

Before I installed Vista I asked Netgear Support if I required a new driver and they replied that the Router will work with any OS as supplied and did not need a driver update to work with Vista. It was only after I went back to them and told them that Vista would not recognise the Router that they came back with this "solution" to do a complete reinstall of the Router firmware.

It sounds nutty to me.

[JohnWill]

Well, they're correct. Vista should work out of the box with any standard Ethernet router. I have fired up several releases of Vista, and I just plugged the Ethernet cable in, and I was on-line.

I suggest that whoever you talked to at Netgear the second time needs to revisit his Networking 101 course, because he forgot the basics.

[TechB]

Routers are OS independent. They should work with any OS. At worst the DHCP server in the router may not work with some OSs. This would be very unusual. I have never seen it in many years of setting up networks but I have heard of it. Even if that was the case you should be able to set a static IP on the computer and still access the network and the Internet. Some advanced features like uPNP and QoS may not work with all OSs but they are not needed for basic operation

[Tabvla]

Thanks for the feedback.

As I mentioned in a previous post I have not paid much attention to the hardware side of Routers ( usually because they work out the box!!) so don't know much about that side. I am much more competent in setting up the software and networking side.

At least I have learnt something in that I assumed incorrectly that a driver or firmware upgrade would be needed to work with Vista. At least Netgear got that right.

I have a number of PC's connected to this Router, so I am definitely not going to follow Netgear's advice and do a firmware Reset - I would rather use Vista without an Internet connection that have to setup the network again.

I think I am looking in the wrong direction. This needs a rethink. I will post any progress made.

[jmwills]

Sounds like a NIC driver issue and not the router.

[Tabvla]

Thanks for the suggestion jmwills

I agree. I think the message from Vista is confusing the issue. I don't think it is the Router but rather the NIC.

The NIC that I am using is a 3Com product. I cannot find a driver on their website. A call to their support was dealt with less than helpfully. I quote "....we (that is 3Com) don't create drivers for beta software, when Vista is released we will create the drivers necessary to support our products....". Won't be rushing out to buy 3Com products now will I

No problem. I have a couple of other NIC's so will see if I can get a driver for one of them.

Will be testing Vista again tomorrow and will post an update.

[passat11]

hi there
I have a netgear routor and it will not work no vistia it said it will not connect to the wireless router
i am running out of idears can some 1 help i need to get this done asap thanks

[DaveA]

passat11,
This thread is almost 2 years old. You need to start you own NEW thread.