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ITsVISTA Tip 47: Improve Wireless Connectivity in Vista

March 22nd, 2007 · 17 Comments · 40,486 views
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TipsVista’s new TCP/IP stack offers plenty of improvements, but unfortunately doesn’t always play well with older hardware that isn’t aware of the newer features it uses. Steve Riley on Security mentions that this can be a problem when trying to use wireless networking with a router that doesn’t understand the updated ‘Windows Tuning’ feature. He suggests this is more common with routers used for public internet connections, such as at a hotel. The fix is to disable autotuning, which happens to be the same fix from tip 25 which dealt with threaded network applications.

  1. Click on the Start menu and type cmd in the search box. Type CTR+SHIFT+ENTER to tell the command prompt to open with elevated privileges.
    Open Command Prompt
  2. In the command prompt window, type netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable and hit Enter
    Disable Autotuning
  3. After getting the OK returned in the command prompt window, restart to activate the change.

If the change doesn’t help, you can always revert by going though the same process, but instead, use the command:
netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

Don’t forget to reboot!

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Comments

  • Wireless networking trouble with Vista

    Mar 22, 2007 at 1:35 pm

    [...] Re: Wireless networking trouble with Vista This tip may work, it seems to be a ‘solve all’ type thing that is suggested for many networking problems in Vista: ITsVISTA Tip 47: Improve Wireless Connectivity in Vista [...]

  • Tony

    Apr 7, 2007 at 8:02 am

    Tried this tip actually not to solve a problem but an annoyance, namely: I have among others a notebook with vista installed. After booting up it would take aproximately 2-3 minutes untill vista connects and “identifies” my wireless network (through my home router) which is defaulted in vista. This tip did not help but I would surely appreciate any other tip on resolving this!?! Thanks!

  • Chris

    May 7, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    Tony. I would suggest you try and find the latest drivers for your wireless card and possibly do a firmware update on the router. I had a similar issue a while ago on XP and the firmware update on my d-link worked a treat.

  • Tony

    May 8, 2007 at 5:52 am

    Thank you Chris, wireless card drivers up to date through Microsoft Update, wireless router firmware updated to latest from the vendor site. Any other tips?

  • Darren

    Jun 4, 2007 at 9:07 pm

    Are you using a readyboost flash drive?..I’m not a networking expert but have found vista responds beautifully when one is plugged..that includes less boot time and quicker connections to wireless. Of course this does not solve the underlying issue but may serve as a handy solution for the time being. Good luck.

  • Tony

    Jun 5, 2007 at 12:11 am

    Thanks Darren for the follow up. No flash drives used as supplimentary memory as my system has 2GB of RAM, boot time is ok, power-up to desktop in less than 20 seconds, problem is that desktop locks 15 seconds after boot for a minute or so untill wireless networking is established and network identified.

  • jonam

    Jul 27, 2007 at 9:25 am

    Tony: slow desktop.
    pl try removing the pasword on your router ( if you had setup one ). pl also set your router to NOT broadcast the ssid.
    regards,
    -j-

  • K

    Nov 19, 2007 at 9:55 pm

    worked great

  • LindsayG

    Dec 14, 2007 at 5:47 pm

    My machine isn’t old, it’s brand new, but this solved the problem. Nice one!

  • Frank

    Jan 9, 2008 at 9:15 am

    Try this tip and doesn’t work on mine either. I have a Belkin N wireless router and try to hook up wireless with my new notebook with Window Vista, if I don’t set any security password at all, it works. But if I set WEP or WPA, it can’t connect, I can’t connect for over a month now, and I try most of the tips here….think I will give up and go back to XP instead….

  • Randy

    Aug 5, 2008 at 12:43 am

    I am going to try this when I get home. Hope it works.

  • Randy

    Aug 5, 2008 at 12:44 am

    Still think VISTA blows though.

  • Frank Slovo

    Aug 9, 2008 at 2:49 am

    I am trying to connect an iPod touch to my wireless base station. In the wi-fi settings in the iPod I can see my Network name but when I enter my password it comes up Incorrect password for my network connection. Okay I reset my Base station and re-entered a new password (shorter this time) made sure I entered it right and clicked JOIN on the iPod but still I get the incorrect password error. Any suggestions? Thanks

    Frank

  • Paula

    Dec 17, 2008 at 6:32 am

    When I try this, it says ‘set global command failed on IPv4 The requested operation requires elevation.’ What does that mean?

  • Zack

    Dec 21, 2008 at 9:57 pm

    I followed steps one and two but got the message: “Set global command failed on IPv4 The requested operation requires elevation.” Help! I have a Toshiba Satellite with Vista and my wireless internet seems to drop out intermittenly whenever it feels like it. A reset will bring the connection back but needless to say it is annoying to have to reset all the time. I have noticed that my connection seems to hold when I make sure the connection doesn’t go idle (for instance, leaving a streaming video playing in the background) but this can be a drain on bandwidth and sometimes I forget to restart the video when it’s over.

    P.S. My internet dropped out while I was in the middle of typing this the first time. Grr.

  • Zack

    Dec 21, 2008 at 10:05 pm

    To Paula: I just found a link that addresses our mutual problem:

    http://www.chicagotech.net/netforums/viewtopic.php?t=1619

    Rebooting my computer now and crossing my fingers that this fixes my internet connection!

  • hb

    Jan 31, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    want the best ? issue : netsh int tcp set global…
    and add these options—–

    TCP Global Parameters

    ———————————————-
    Receive-Side Scaling State : rss=enabled

    Chimney Offload State : chimney=disabled

    Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level : autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

    Add-On Congestion Control Provider : congestionprovider=ctcp

    ECN Capability : Ecncapability=enabled

    RFC1323timestamps : timestamps=disabled

    ======================

    also…..I run wpa-tkip on a 11g platform, with BELL firmware automatic updating, and DRIVERs upto date. U might want to find a good channell as well. there are 11, each overlaps a bit of the others, I use 3 my neighbours are on 1 and 6 (actalluy 6 has 3 users, poor guys!!). get a free net analyzer to see your best chanell or use AUTO, and power off every 2 weeks to get yourself moved about.
    ============
    I also get “discovery” mesages at boot time, that go away. BUT if u need try the REGISTRY items about IgnoreBroadcastFlag, and other new flags. see — http://blogs.technet.com/teamdhcp/archive/2006/11/08/use-of-broadcast-b-flag-in-dhcp.aspx good luck all.
    p.s. I run a wireless and a wired connection, so that I can download fast, and test the wireless-connection, that others on my net use. ialso broadcast my ssid presence. since
    NETSH WLAN SET BLOCKEDNETWORKS , allows anyone to set ALL SSIDs possible.
    and suggesting no security is “out of mind”, wep is not that good either!

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