SmartWi Connnection Utility Question

Every time I start this program up on my Z, the icon pops up on the right task bar for a few seconds and then just disappears. The Task manager sees it running in the background, but I'm unable to actually use the program.

Has anyone had this problem or can help me out in some way?

Thanks!

 

Your phrase "right task bar" indicates that you are running Vista, where gadgets appear on the sidebar.
(Unless you meant "right hand side of the task bar", what we call the notification area).

If this is Vista, and it is indeed the gadget that crashes, there can be many reasons. One is installing IE8 -- the Sidebar is only compatible with IE7. Another is a broken .NET assembly. Unfortunately, Microsoft has dumbed down Vista and (even more so) Windows 7, so you can't easily get to the tools to check and repair that.
But anyhow, if it's the gadget that won't run, that's no big deal. You don't really need the gadget.

But really, unless you use WWAN, there is absolutely no need for SmartWi, and many good reasons NOT to run it, like SmartWi disabling the ability to be on two networks at the same time, and the ability to use a real (non-tunneled) IPv6-only network.

 

I'm running Windows 7, It pops up right next to the battery icon.

Do you know of a better alternative to SmartWi to manage my wireless settings?

 

It moves to the hidden icon area. Click the little up arrow and you should see it. If not select customize at the bottom of that window and you will see how to unhide it.

 

Well the icon disappears fully just after a few seconds of just clicking to open the program. Yet the task manager still recognizes it as running in the background.

 

Use the right version (Win 7/ Vista) that came with your model.

 

I installed it from the SonySupport driver website, so it should be up to scratch. Seems really odd.

 

Did you go to customize and select "Show Icons and Notifications" for that application as I mentioned above?

 

Yes, I did. Still nothing.

 

Okay, This might help you out:

Notification Area Icons - Reset - Windows 7 Forums

 

I mean the icon is not the issue, I have it set to show any notifications. The program just won't load up.

 

You said that you see it running in task manager, so it is running and loaded. You access the program by clicking the tray icon. If you can't see the tray icon as you said earlier then it is the issue.

BTW, all this program does is it allows you to turn on and off your wireless and bluetooth adapters. It does not actually manage connections.

 

Do you know of any other better programs that manage wireless better than SmartWi?

 

Unfortunately, this is not the case. It will:
- hang up one connection when another of a different type is established
(which is a bad thing to do, because some of us have more than one network)
- disable a connection if it can't see an IPv4 address
(which is a bad thing to do, because some of us have IPv6 networks)
- allow you to connect through WWAN and use the GPS. In fact, on the early US models with Sprint WWAN, SmartWi is the only way to use it.

But unless you need it for WWAN/GPS, I'd say ditch it, because the limitations it imposes, and the incompatibilities it has makes it worse than nothing for all other uses.

 

Um, Windows' own built-in Wireless management?

Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> Manage wireless networks
Once you have your first wireless network configured, you'll have an icon in the notification area that lets you switch networks simply by left-clicking it once, i.e. it's easier to use than SmartWi.

 

This has not been my experience at all. I run multiple connections all the time. Wired, wireless, vpn with no such issues what so ever. On my F series Smart Wi serves only to turn on and off the wireless and bluetooth adapters. All connections are managed by windows and via the windows interface.

 

Is your SmartWi different from what I have on my Z? Try this:

1: Connect with WiFi. Now make a Bluetooth connection. Observe WiFi being disconnected. This prevented me from doing BT auto-connect, because if I walked in range of the laptop, it would connect with BT, and hang up WiFi.

2: Connect with WiFi. Plug in an ethernet cable to the same network. Observe WiFi being disconnected.

3: Connect with WiFi to an IPv6-address network that hands out the IPv6 address over DHCP. Watch SmartWi disconnect and reconnect you every minute, presumably because it doesn't see an IPv4 address.

I solved all the tree above by ditching SmartWi.
(In addition, I could upgrade to IE8 in Vista. IE8 doesn't work with sidebar gadgets that don't scale correctly. With DPI set correctly to 140 and IE8 installed, the SmartWi widget would display with a magenta border and eventually freeze and crash. So it forced me to stay on IE7 for a long time, until I ditched it.)

 

As I said, none of that occurs on mine. It is simply an on and off switch for the adapters. It could be that the Z and F series use a different version. What you get when you click the tray icon is shown below. The small blue links take you to the windows management interface for each adapter. As far as I can tell it is just an on and off switch, which I need because there are no hard wired switches on the F Series.

That being said, I do not have it start with the computer, I only start it if I need to turn on or off either the bluetooth or wireless adapter.