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Wifi not working with Vista - BT in denial

kingbeau
Member

I run a laptop repair centre in Dundee and have BT Business Broadband which was working fine until a few days ago.

Now, any vista machine refuses to connect to the wifi while XP and Windows 7 are unaffected.

I have hundreds of laptops in stock at any one time and this issue is affecting them every single machine installed with Vista. These same machines work fine when connected to another wifi service (virgin media).

 

I phoned to report this fault and have been told that it's not BTs problem and I'd have to pay to have someone come and look at it. I was put through to a supervisor who told me that it "was Bill Gate's fault"!!!!!

 

I've worked with Vista for the 7 or so years it's been out and know the operating system inside out.

This is NOT a fault with the machines, or Vista, this is definitely a router fault but the supervisor refuses to believe this.

 

I'm now trying to cancel my contract as I'm not receiving a full service.

This is absolutely unbelievable that such a major company can just brush me aside and deny there's any fault. They won't even entertain the idea of sending me another router to try!

Has anyone else had this problem?

8 REPLIES 8

MiloBT
Power User

Have you tried changing the settings on the router?

Specifically the security settings (WEP->WPA2), or perhaps even removing the security completely temporarily to see if you can then connect to the router.

kingbeau
Member

Thanks Milo,

That was the problem.

 

After phoning the same number, this time I got someone very helpful who knew their job well.

Apparently there is a known issue affecting certain routers at the moment. This problem causes connection issues with Vista machines on wifi and the fix is to reduce the encryption from WPA to WEP.

This works perfectly.

The person then explained that they were expecting a firmware update to be released soon for the routers which should cure the problem properly.

 

Why in hell did the person this morning not know that, and even worse, why didn't his supervisor that I demanded to talk to not know that either. He point blank refused to even consider the notion that the fault lay with BT!

 

Some staff need retrained not only on the technical aspect of their job but how to deal with customers as well....

MiloBT
Power User

Unfortunately, as with a lot of places these days, staff are not always that technically aware.

There also isn't always a simple, easy to search knowledge base that they can refer to, so they read from the 'standard script' or from experience.

 

 

joehall
Member

i agree it's all about who you talk to as to what gets done. i spent a lot fo today contacting bt, eventually i got someone who was prepared to do something and was less dismissive

kingbeau
Member

Just a follow up to this...

 

I spent this afternoon working on a few Vista machines via wifi and there was no problem.

Then before coming home I plug in a customer's Windows 7 machine and guess what....

No wifi connection

 

So then I tried an XP machine... no connection

Went back to another vista machine.. full signal full connection

 

So... On WPA it works fine with XP & windows 7 but won't connect with Vista

And on WEP (shared) it connects to Vista but not XP or 7

 

I went back into the router config menu and changed it to WEP (open) with no password, and it then worked with all operating systems.

Certainly not ideal to be working with an unsecured network so hopefully they'll either hurry up with the firmware update or replace the affected routers soon 😞

chrismcl
Power User

Just for a little info, when Vista was first released I was one who instantly jumped at the upgrade as it looked good. But I had the same problem you are describing with my netgear at the time. So I was off back to XP to get it to work. When I phoned Microsoft, they said there was a flaw in the wireless that it had to be WEP with most routers. Since I have gone up to windows 7 it has been fine. I have 1 vista machine in the house still and I can't get anything on wireless or ethernet. I get a 169.254 address when using ethernet because windows can´t identify the network. Similar thing on the wireless too. So it is a mix between the router and the operating system I would say. Partly both of them are at fault.

 

On another note, the XP and windows 7 machines should use WEP no bother. When you changed it to that, I assume you were still able to see the wireless network ? If so did you try removing it from the saved networks list and re-connecting?

kingbeau
Member

Hi Chris,

Yes these were machines that hadn't previously been connected to my network.

 

Bear in mind though that my router was working perfectly on any operating system until 2 days ago.

I just wonder if there's been a firmware update that's messed things up.

 

The situation seems to now be that if you have XP or Win7, you'll be unnafected and can carry on using the WPA as default.

If you're using Vista you should change to WEP Shared.

If you're using a mixture of all operating systems you should change to WEP Open.

notonline
Member

I have been having the same problem over the past four weeks since signing up with BT. I have been on to the call centre regularly and have spent hours on the phone and hours taking off my  firewalls, and security etc.  I have received two new hubs and still no good. An engineer came on Thursday and said that although his XP laptop didnt connect at first he manmaged to get it to connect eventually, but mine still wouldnt. 

 

I have been telling them that my  computer will go  on at my daughters and mothers, but when I bring their laptops to my house no chance , we are all Vista!

Thankfully the call centre has phoned me today and said they are doing something at the exchange tomorrow monring and then they will send another engineer if it still doesnt work.

 

Fingers crossed for me please!