I bought a DLink wireless network adapter about a month ago. It worked fine in Windows XP until I installed my new dsl modem. Then it started to connect and disconnect over and over every 30 seconds. I know! Nothing had changed on the computer.

I tried every which way to uninstall and reinstall the adapter but it still did the same thing. My laptop wifi adapter had no problem with the new modem.

I bought my computer the same week as Vista was released so have an upgrade disk. I had decided not to install it after reading all the nightmare stories but started thinking maybe it would fix my adapter problem.

I used the great advice I found here to do a clean install of Vista and I like it so far but my adapter is still quirky.

I found vista drivers on the dlink website. I cannot use the management software that came with the adapter, it works sometimes and hangs up other times. Letting vista manage is much better but still not perfect.

Other software and hardware changes cause the adapter to malfunction. I cannot plug in my Motorola Q because the adapter stops functioning. When the computer goes to sleep the adapter malfuntions on wake.

Is there something I am missing that will make this thing more stable? If not I will have to go buy a vista compliant adapter, but would prefer not.

Vista in general is not stable with a lot of hardware. Even though DLink released drivers and whatnot, Vista still has some quirks to work out.

You could try some simple things as putting it in aother PCI slot if you have more than one. if your adapter fails when your machine wakes from sleep, try disabling it before your put your machine to sleep, if you have that option.

Look into the Moto Q issue a bit more. It seems odd that it'll fail like that. I would bet it might be the firmware. Check the version of your firmware and update if possible. Also, check the settings on your new DSL modem that I am guessing has wireless capabilites. What is the make/model of your DSL modem? If you got it from Qwest, I would bet it's made by Actiontek. If it's from Comcast, I would bet it's a Netgear. anyone else I don't know.

Let us know some of the specifics. Obviously you have vista, but what version? have you gotten all the Windows updates?

Just some stuff to throw out there.

Let me know what you got. I'm sure someone else can help too.

3 changes that may help to increase the compatibility of Vista with older networking devices:

1) Disable the IP Helper service:


2) Disable IPv6:

NOTE: You should do this for each and every network connection that is shown in Step 1.

3) Disable the DHCP Broadcast Flag (from this link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928233 )

NOTE: You should do this for each and every GUID subkey that is shown in Step 2

AFAIK, the only program that relies on IPv6 is the new Windows Meeting Space. The first 2 changes will cause that program not to work - but will leave all of your normal (IPv4) connections unaffected. If it causes problems that you can't overcome, simply revert back to the original settings.

Thanks! I did #'s 1&2. I don't have enough confidence to do #3 yet.

I bought a Belkin adapter that claimed vista compatability and got the newest drivers off the website. It took some trial and error but it's pretty stable now. I guess I'll have to buy another computer to go with my extra DLink adapter. Not vista, though!

I am certainly not any kind of expert. It appears there is an additional layer of networking security with Vista that I don't understand yet. For example, I tried to transfer a large file from one computer to the vista computer and it quit with some kind of error message. Then the network locked down so I didn't have internet connectivity. When I rebooted all was set right.

I appreciate all the time it took to give me this advice! Kim

I spoke with the team who developed the network protocols last April (at Microsoft) and their answer was to disable the DHCP Broadcast Flag (#3) - the other steps have been suggested to me by others and they do seem to help out with connectivity issues with older hardware also.