What's wrong with my wireless connection? Intel 5100 issues...

I struggle with this issue every single day and it's extremely annoying. It seems to happen only to certain networks and not others, but let me try to explain in detail what happens.

The one it happens most with is my university wireless LAN. As soon as my computer turns on, my Intel 5100 immediately connects to the network and it shows an excellent signal with FULL bars. However, when I turn on Firefox, I see that there is no actual internet connection. Then I roll the mouse pointer over the network icon and again, it shows an excellent connection with full bars BUT it also says "Identifying network". After a while, this changes to "Unidentified network" and stays this way for some time with no connection. And finally, after about 15-20 minutes, this disappears and it just shows the full bars with an excellent connection and my internet begins to work.

What's going on here? Can I fix this? Thanks for all the help!

 

It's the university's fault. You are connected locally but you don't have internet. Call the Residential Internet Office if you have problems.

My school (UCSD) had problems yesterday. I wasn't able to get a ip address.

 

Yeah I'm at UCLA but this happens every single day. I don't see what they could do to fix it. Also, it's strange that it eventually works if I don't do anything. I've contacted them before and they said that the places I'm trying to access the internet aren't the best wifi spots or something, which again doesn't make sense because eventually I do get internet.

Also I should mention, resetting the wireless adapter doesn't do anything. I just have to wait until eventually I get some connection.

 

I recently received my new Latitude E6400 with the Intel 5300 card and I am having EXACTLY the same issues... it's driving me nuts. My home network was one of the many that this problem was occurring on which I was using a WEP encryption. Changing it to WPA solved the issue at home, but still it is happening all the time at other networks. I have yet to call Dell Support but plan on doing so shortly... having a card that is incompatible with WEP is absolutely unacceptable as many networks still use this encryption (this is my guess as to what the problem is).

 

Very interesting. The wireless network I'm connecting to is unsecured though, no WEP so that can't be the only issue.

 

Okay, now I am really confused as to what's going on. What is really strange is that I have been looking all over the internet for a solution but I have not been able to find large mentions of such a problem occurring... I am starting to think that I might have a bad card. I was starting to think that I was the only one with this issue.
As for my home network upon which this had been happening, I have been using a Latitude D610 on it for over two years now and have never had an issue with it (during which time I was using WEP).

 

I still think you should contact the internet admins. I know that ucsd resnet will help you fix your problems if you contact them.

 

check the range of your ip addresses during those times you can't connect. they should be in the 192.xxx range, not for example 16x.xxx. You may show a wireless radio connection but your machine still has to be able to accept the ip address that the school's router is trying to give you.

make sure your settings are correct. if the settings from location to location differ, you may need to make a separate profile for each venue.

update the drivers for your wireless card.

then try different things. disable/enable. repair the connection, reboot the computer, etc.

.

 

I've updated the drivers and tried disabling/enabling, repairing, etc. Still no luck.

What would contact the admins do? Wouldn't I just have to contact them each time I'm having issues (which is every day)? I've talked to them once before and they just told me that I'm connecting in poor reception areas or something even though I get a good signal.

 

Do you have the VPN client installed? According to these UCLA FAQs, you may need to have the VPN client installed in order to access the wireless network in certain areas.

 

LOL you actually got me the UCLA link, that's awesome haha

And yes, I have the VPN client but it doesn't connect if your internet connection doesn't connect first.

 

I try, sometimes!

 

The one thing you haven't mentioned is whether or not you're getting the WEP/WPA key from whatever network you're trying to access, and using it to access the network router. You do know each network with encrypted security has a separate key right? Most people assume that everyone knows that, but I assume nothing. If you do, that's okay. However, if you don't know that....

You also haven't said whether or not your setting up different connection profiles for each network you're trying to connect to. Try giving out some more specific details.

 

Actually, I was able to get mine to work (and yes, I did know that about the network keys considering I set up our home networks myself). While I am still not 100% certain exactly what the problem was, I am almost certain that it had to do with complications between the three programs (Intel/Windows/Dell ControlPoint) which were all trying to control the Wifi card. After uninstalling the networking portion of the ControlPoint software as well as changing the Windows power management settings and updating the drivers, I have yet to have this problem occur since. Thanks for the advice... though if I was using the same network key wouldn't I not even be able to connect to the network (ever)?

 

The 5100 has alot of conectivity problems, so i would probably blame that. I suggest getting a 5300 and upgrading. It will probably stop the problem.

 

Can't get the 5300 because the laptop only has 2 antennas and the 5300 uses 3.

 

I am facing the exact same problem. Does it help uninstalling the 'Vaio Smart Network' utility? Is there a way to turn off the windows wireless utility and use only the intel wireless tools? I was able to do it on my Dell in the past.