I've replaced my dad's old Solwise router (which has now failed) with a 
Netgear DG834GT one. He has several PCs connected by Ethernet, plus a 
standalone wireless access point (the Solwise did not have wireless) and a 
4-port switch to provide more Ethernet points than the four on the router. 
All the PCs except one are XP Home.

Since I replaced the router, his Vista Home Premium PC has had great 
difficulty getting an IP address. It makes no difference whether the 
Ethernet cable is plugged into the router or the switch. The PC almost 
always gets a 169.x.x.x address and has a status of "Local only". Neither 
rebooting the PC nor unplugging and replugging the Ethernet cable nor doing 
ipconfig /release and /renew makes any difference. Just occasionally, the PC 
is given a sensible IP address and works perfectly - until the PC is 
rebooted. The same Ethernet cable, in the same router/switch socket, works 
perfectly with an XP PC, so it's not a dodgy cable or port.

All the XP PCs work fine, both when connected by Ethernet or (for the 
laptops) when connected by wireless, either to the access point's wireless 
network or the router's wireless network.

I've tried giving the Vista PC a static IP address in the correct subnet, 
and setting the DNS and gateway address to the router's address (ie doing 
exactly what DHCP would do) but this does not allow the PC to ping the 
router, other PCs or external addresses.

Has anyone seen any compatibility problems between Netgear routers and Vista 
PCs? My own Vista laptop and desktop PC work perfectly to my own DG834GT 
router.

Could it be a dodgy Ethernet adaptor on the PC's motherboard?

In article , Mortimer 
says...

> Has anyone seen any compatibility problems between Netgear routers and Vista 
> PCs? My own Vista laptop and desktop PC work perfectly to my own DG834GT 
> router.
> 
> Could it be a dodgy Ethernet adaptor on the PC's motherboard? 

Make sure the router is running the latest firmware and also disable 
IPV6 and the thingy that does the location awareness whose name I forget 
at the moment but they're found in the properties for the network 
connection. 

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Conor
www.notebooks-r-us.co.uk
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