windows did not receive a response from the router or access point

Question

I will try and explain the strange situation I am experiencing with a home wireless network and would welcome any help!

We have sky ADSL broadband using a ‘locked down’ Netgear DG934G. We have an ‘old’ laptop running Windows XP home with a Dlink USB wireless adaptor, a Nintendo Wii and two Dell Inspiron 530 Vista home premium pcs with internal wireless cards (both ASUSTek WL-138G_V2 but called Broadcom 802.11g network adaptors.)

Until a week ago all machines would happily connect to the router and the internet without problem. A week ago one of the Dell machines would not connect to the router – it would see the router and show it with excellent signal strength. If I tried to connect it would issue the following message and trouble shooting indicated a low QUALITY (not strength) signal.

"windows did not receive a response from the router or access point"

Contacted Dell who helpfully performed some diagnostics and sent a replacement network card which (you guessed!) had the same issues (I did uninstall old one and do a restart with no card in at all before switching off and installing new card).

Now the other Dell has started to have the same issue when connecting, this one is my daughters pc and is basically used as a TV (media centre in Vista home premium is pretty good) so apart from auto virus and windows updates has not been touched.

So I did a restore back to 10th Jan on my pc thinking an update must have spoiled it all but no such luck. I have now tried updated the system BIOS and drivers for the wireless card (tried windows, ASUS and Broadcom ones (not sure why Broadcom but they were listed on Dell website).

Wii and laptop still carry on working fine. I have tried reverting to factory settings on the router (its pretty locked down so not much scope) changing channels, setting it just to 802.11g, removing WPA key.

To make matters worse when I try the Dlink USB stick in the Dell that works fine.

How can I get the two Vista Dells to work as they used to using their internal wireless cards? I am all out of ideas.

Thanks in advance for anyone with the patience to read this far…..

Rebel9 · Answer

First, you might try this tool and see what the results are. Note - the instructions say that for the most accurate results, you should connect the computer directly (not wirelessly) to the router.   Another important step is to check the Netgear site for a firmware update for your particular router model. A firmware update often solves this type of problem, especially with Vista.

rcssmb · Answer

An update on this one. The other 'TV' Dell is working fine, I only tried it quickly the other day as the system was coming of a sleep and it gave the same message. Hope this one was just a strange blip. I've also tried connecting to another router (without the ADSL connection - ta Sky!) and got the same message so I am putting this down to PC issue not a router problem. I will get back to Dell.   Thanks to Rebel9 I had spotted that tool on another forum and router passes its tests! Unfortunately this is a 'locked down' router (Sky dont issue username and password to connect to their servers) so if I did a firmware update I couldnt connect :smileysad:

Rebel9 · Answer

One last thing to try. If this doesn't work, hopefully someone else will jump in with some suggestions.   From the 'problem' computer, open Vista's Network and Sharing Center. Click on 'Manage Network Connections'. Right click on the local area connection and select Properties. Uncheck 'Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP IPv6). OK your way out, reboot and see what happens.

rcssmb · Answer

I have tried removing TCP IPv6 with no avail. After four nights on with Dell support they are sending a replacement PC as they have been unable to solve the issue. Thanks for your interest in this problem.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

windows did not receive a response from the router or access point

Was this post helpful?