Workarounds for Vista's Networking Problems?

tridium asks: "I recently moved into a new place where the landlord left a Linksys WRT54G v2 router for us to use. The three laptops in the house running XP connected to it fine, but my desktop, running Vista RC1 build 5600, had to be hardwired. The Internet worked fine for a bit, but I noticed some websites weren't loading up (Google, Gmail, and several others), and IM clients weren't working. Vista's self-diagnosis said it couldn't communicate with the DNS server, so I researched and it seems the new TCP stack in Vista is wreaking havoc with my router. I upgraded the firmware from Linksys, tried manually setting IP settings, modified the registry to disable TCP window stacking, but nothing helped. Linksys support was also useless in fixing the problem. I'm at a loss and any help, short of downgrading to XP, would be greatly appreciated." Other people have experienced problems getting Vista to work with off-the-shelf routers. A thread from September identifies the new window scaling feature as a potential culprit, while another article says that Vista and SPI-enabled routers don't play well together. Whether the problem is related is unknown, but another thread offers some troubleshooting tips for anyone else who may be experiencing this problem. Has anyone figured out how to disable (or at least work around) some of the more troubling aspects of Vista's new TCP 'features'?

Comments

workaround

[JamesTRexx]

I can't help with changes in Vista itself, but if nothing works, think about running an old pc as dns server which in turn forwards requests to the dns servers of your provider.
You may even want it to run a proxy like Squid, that way Squid is requesting dns and not your own pc.

Re:Here's a thought...

[dan828]

Or sign up for Technet plus and get it now. @ $350/year it's a better deal than buying Vista retail.

Re:Install the latest service packs.

[LunaticTippy]

For me it stopped being funny after the 10,000th time. Imagine if every linux question were guaranteed to include multiple "Install the latest patch from Redmond" variants. Sure, it is funny once (especially the redmond one I just made up) but give it a rest once in a while. I'm extra unsympathetic to downmods since this used to be a guaranteed +5, Insightful. Stupid karma whores.

Anyway, even the most rabid linux fan has to admit that there are people who, for various reasons, use windows. Let them ask questions and get answers without snarky unhelpful "advice" from time to time ok?

Using a third-party TCP/IP protocol with Windows?

[LoadWB]

This relates to a question I posed on Amiga.org:

Amiga.org - Forum
http://www.amiga.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?t opic_id=35273&forum=22#forumpost417060

"Is pluggable TCP/IP stacks feasible in mainstream operating systems?

On Amiga we have been graced with AmiTCP, Termite TCP, Miami, Genesis, and probably other TCP/IP stacks about which I do not know. IIRC, these mutated from an original stack produced by Commodore (AS225?) and all offer some compatibility to what appears to be ubiquitous among Amiga, the bsdsocket.library.

So I read about how Gibson Research decried the raw socket access introduced by the new Windows XP TCP/IP implentation (which has not caused the end of the world, best as I can tell,) and Windows Vista introduces another TCP/IP stack. All of these harken back to winsock.dll and winsock2.dll.

Then there's the TCP/IP stack within the Linux kernel, and found in most Unix implementations such as Solaris (/dev/tcp, /dev/udp, etc.)

We run into so many issues with vendors' TCP/IP stacks (like Windows XP SP2's half-open connection limitation,) why do third party vendors not create third-party TCP/IP stacks? Or do they?

Regardless of the thought process behind the curiosity, could we speculate on the viability? Would it be a potential segregation of the mainstream OS world, or could one vendor's better implementation take over?

I see potential for the server market where many system builders, administrators, and maintainers would like to tweak system performance and security as much as possible. Would TCP/IP outside of the operating system allow for such an approach? And would it be too much of a potential black-eye for OS vendors to ever allow?"

have you considered flashing the router to linux?

[artifex2004]

If you would like to keep scalable TCP windows, you might try flashing your Linksys with DD-WRT or one of the other Linux-based firmwares. One or more of them is bound to have support for it.

Re:Here's a thought...

[nachoboy]

Unless I am reading the Technet site wrong, the subscription gives you access to the latest software for evaluation purposes. It's not like the MSDN subscription where you get to have a production install.

You've got the Technet site right (eval use only), but possibly misunderstanding the MSDN terms. Please reference the full MSDN license.

Some snippets from the MSDN license FAQ:

The MSDN End User License Agreement (EULA) allows each person with an MSDN license to use all of the software that is included in the subscription for development, test, and demonstration purposes only.

The FAQ also addresses production use, which is specifically prohibited, unless you subscribe to MSDN Premium, in which case you can use one copy of Office pretty much however you like.

May I use MSDN Subscriptions software to install software for day-to-day (production) use?
No, but with one exception. [...] One exception is that the MSDN Premium subscription comes with one license to Desktop Applications (typically on blue discs) such as Microsoft Office Professional 2003, Visio Standard 2003, and Project Standard 2003 for business use directly related to the design, development, test, and/or demonstration of software projects. [...] In addition, one copy of Office Professional 2003 can be used for general business use, unrelated to development and testing.

Some people blatanly abuse MSDN licenses by buying a subscription and then using the software however they please. Others understand that the software is intended for dev/test work, but don't realize that right is exclusive of all other use: you're not allowed to use that software for any personal use at all, even in combination with other dev/test activities.