Did I crash my WLAN card by starting WZC?

My Dell WLAN card has always worked fine with its native driver. Recently, I
encountered problems with a local non-secure wireless network with a strong
signal: the connection status showed as "connected" showing a good signal
strength etc. But there was obviously no working connection: every attempt
to access a web page immediately gave a blank page with "Done." Also, I had
previously used this network with no problem -- yes, I did verify that the
network is still non-secure.

Assuming that the problem was with my card, I enabled Wireless Zero
Connection as described in Knowledge Base article 871122. Now the connection
still doesn't work (although the radio shows a strong connection in place),
and I'm thinking of disabling WZC. Should I do this by doing Configure ->
Advanced for my WLAN card and disabling "WZC IBSS Channel Number" and "WZC
Managed Ethernet"? Could I also have messed up the process of enabling WZC?
Now, when I attempt to "View Available Wireless Networks," I get only an
error message saying "Windows cannot configure this wireless connection" and
referring me to the Knowledge Base article on starting WZC. Get rid of WZC;
uninstall and reinstall; or try something different?

"greatcham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:201871D9-7BD9-431C-801B-(E-Mail Removed)...
......................
> Now, when I attempt to "View Available Wireless Networks," I get only an
> error message saying "Windows cannot configure this wireless connection"
> and
> referring me to the Knowledge Base article on starting WZC. Get rid of
> WZC;
> uninstall and reinstall; or try something different?

Ok since you can click on "View Available Wireless Networks",
the WZC is alive and kicking - but your wi-fi adapter is explicitly
configured NOT to work with WZC.
This is a persistent flag in the registry that survives reboot. The vendor
utility could set it.

Regards,
--PA

Hi
May be this can Help.
My Wireless does not work - http://www.ezlan.net/wireless.html
Wireless Basic Configuration - http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Config.html
Wireless Security - http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Security.html
Jack (MVP-Networking).

"greatcham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:201871D9-7BD9-431C-801B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> My Dell WLAN card has always worked fine with its native driver.
> Recently, I
> encountered problems with a local non-secure wireless network with a
> strong
> signal: the connection status showed as "connected" showing a good signal
> strength etc. But there was obviously no working connection: every
> attempt
> to access a web page immediately gave a blank page with "Done." Also, I
> had
> previously used this network with no problem -- yes, I did verify that the
> network is still non-secure.
>
> Assuming that the problem was with my card, I enabled Wireless Zero
> Connection as described in Knowledge Base article 871122. Now the
> connection
> still doesn't work (although the radio shows a strong connection in
> place),
> and I'm thinking of disabling WZC. Should I do this by doing Configure ->
> Advanced for my WLAN card and disabling "WZC IBSS Channel Number" and "WZC
> Managed Ethernet"? Could I also have messed up the process of enabling
> WZC?
> Now, when I attempt to "View Available Wireless Networks," I get only an
> error message saying "Windows cannot configure this wireless connection"
> and
> referring me to the Knowledge Base article on starting WZC. Get rid of
> WZC;
> uninstall and reinstall; or try something different?

Thanks! This helped me look at it more closely. But it's still not working
because

1. WZC is NOT running according to 'Services' (i.e. Run => services.msc),
and the device says it's using the manufacturer's driver (Broadcom). As a
result, it's not possible for me to roll back to the previous driver, because
the Device Manager thinks I never changed.

2. But as you point out, WZC IS running somehow, because when I ask to view
available networks, I still get "Windows cannot configure...." (You're
correct, the device says it's connected.)

You're also correct, this 3-year-old card cannot use WZC at all.

So how do I purge this ghost WZC? When I started it yesterday, I followed
these instructions from the Knowledge Base article
>To start the Wireless Zero Configuration service, follow these steps:
>1. Click Start, click Run, type %SystemRoot%\system32\services.msc /s, and then click OK.
>2. Double-click Wireless Zero Configuration.
>3. In the Startup type list, click Automatic, and then click Apply.
>4. In the Service status area, click Start, and then click OK.

There was a previous step in those instructions that I possibly did not do,
although I doubt that caused trouble:
>If your computer or your wireless network adapter did not come with its own >wireless network software, follow these steps:
>1. Click Start, click Run, type ncpa.cpl, and then click OK.
>2. Click Network Connections.
>3. In Network Connections, click to select your wireless connection, and then >click Change settings of this connection.
>4. On the Wireless Networks tab, click to select the Use Windows to configure >my wireless network settings check box.

When I attempt this now, of course there is no option to "Change settings of
this connection" because WZC is already in control.

Instructions???????


"Pavel A." wrote:

> "greatcham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:201871D9-7BD9-431C-801B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> ......................
> > Now, when I attempt to "View Available Wireless Networks," I get only an
> > error message saying "Windows cannot configure this wireless connection"
> > and
> > referring me to the Knowledge Base article on starting WZC. Get rid of
> > WZC;
> > uninstall and reinstall; or try something different?
>
> Ok since you can click on "View Available Wireless Networks",
> the WZC is alive and kicking - but your wi-fi adapter is explicitly
> configured NOT to work with WZC.
> This is a persistent flag in the registry that survives reboot. The vendor
> utility could set it.
>
> Regards,
> --PA
>
>
>

PS: just to confirm, I also can't get rid of WZC by going to Advanced
Properties of the connection, because the option "WZC Managed Ethernet" is
already marked "disabled."

"greatcham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:27EF7C99-525F-40FC-A48D-(E-Mail Removed)...
> PS: just to confirm, I also can't get rid of WZC by going to Advanced
> Properties of the connection, because the option "WZC Managed Ethernet" is
> already marked "disabled."

Now I'm confused... where is this "WZC Managed Ethernet" setting?
Three years old driver definitely may support WZC (perhaps without WPA2
encryption).
Maybe your best option here is calling Dell support.

Regards,
Pavel

Thanks for asking -- I managed to truly disable WZC now. My Lotus/Meraki
connection is running fine again and I'm going to stay off my neighbor's!

I was at
Control Panel -> Network Connections -> this Dell card -> Connection Status
-> Properties -> General -> Configure -> Advanced. This gives a list of
about 20 properties, starting with

802.11h
Afterburner
Antenna Diversity....

Toward the end of the list there are
WZC IBSS Channel Number (set by default to 11)
WZC Managed Ethernet

I found "WZC Managed Ethernet" marked as disabled. Now, I enabled and
disabled it again. The take-home part for me is that this panel really
allowed me to change the status, whereas the system Services panel did not.
Thank you so much for helping me look over it.

"greatcham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4E4DB65E-3171-40EF-973A-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for asking -- I managed to truly disable WZC now. My Lotus/Meraki
> connection is running fine again and I'm going to stay off my neighbor's!
>
> I was at
> Control Panel -> Network Connections -> this Dell card -> Connection
> Status
> -> Properties -> General -> Configure -> Advanced. This gives a list of
> about 20 properties, starting with
>
> 802.11h
> Afterburner
> Antenna Diversity....
>
> Toward the end of the list there are
> WZC IBSS Channel Number (set by default to 11)
> WZC Managed Ethernet
>
> I found "WZC Managed Ethernet" marked as disabled. Now, I enabled and
> disabled it again. The take-home part for me is that this panel really
> allowed me to change the status, whereas the system Services panel did
> not.
> Thank you so much for helping me look over it.

Glad to be of help. You're welcome.

--PA

"greatcham" wrote:

> My Dell WLAN card has always worked fine with its native driver. Recently, I
> encountered problems with a local non-secure wireless network with a strong
> signal: the connection status showed as "connected" showing a good signal
> strength etc. But there was obviously no working connection: every attempt
> to access a web page immediately gave a blank page with "Done." Also, I had
> previously used this network with no problem -- yes, I did verify that the
> network is still non-secure.
>
> Assuming that the problem was with my card, I enabled Wireless Zero
> Connection as described in Knowledge Base article 871122. Now the connection
> still doesn't work (although the radio shows a strong connection in place),
> and I'm thinking of disabling WZC. Should I do this by doing Configure ->
> Advanced for my WLAN card and disabling "WZC IBSS Channel Number" and "WZC
> Managed Ethernet"? Could I also have messed up the process of enabling WZC?
> Now, when I attempt to "View Available Wireless Networks," I get only an
> error message saying "Windows cannot configure this wireless connection" and
> referring me to the Knowledge Base article on starting WZC. Get rid of WZC;
> uninstall and reinstall; or try something different?