Fixing the local only internet access issue in Windows Vista

Published Sunday June 08, 2008

Details

2011-03-14 – Update: Please make sure to first try the automated fix provided by Microsoft in the knowledge base article (look for the “Fix it” icon).

Recently I had issues with Windows Vista where it would get on a network, but would only have local access (i.e. “Access: Local only” in the Network and Sharing Center). After spending about an hour and a half I finally stumbled across the solution. Once again, the solution was hidden in a forum, and the Microsoft knowledge base article was fairly hard to follow. So, here are the steps summarized for quickly fixing this¹.

First we have to find the name of network adapter that you are using to connect, you can skip this if you know the name of your network adapter.
1. Open Network and Sharing Center (Start > Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center)
2. Click on “Manage network connections” under “Tasks” on the left side.
3. Note the name of the device in “Device Name” column for the connection that you are using (e.g. Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection)
Now we have to find the GUID of this adapter.
1. Open the registry editor: Start > type in 'regedit’
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards\
3. Look through the numbered sub-keys and jot down the “ServiceName” for the one that has the name of your network card in the “Description.”
4. Keep the registry editor open because we will be changing another key in the next step.
Once you have the GUID of the network then we have to toggle the broadcast flags.
1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
2. Now follow the resolution in the Microsoft knowledge base article
3. Make sure to set the DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag as described in the “More Information” section of the knowledge base article.
Finally, restart the computer.

Hopefully, after restarting the computer you will be able to access the internet.

¹Disclaimer, before playing around with the registry make sure to back it up first.

A Few Other Things to Try

Here are a few other things to try in case the above doesn’t work. These are based on the comments that people have left below.

Try uninstalling the wireless card drivers, restarting the computer and then reinstalling the wireless card drivers (see your manufacturer’s website). This seems to have fixed the issue for a few folks.
Try resetting your router.
Try the automated “Fix it” in the Microsoft Knowledge base article.
Try a different channel.
Try changing the IP address range (generally 192.168.0.xxx, change to something like 192.168.9.xxx).
Try a different security method (WEP vs. WPA). Please understand the this change because it might leave your wireless network vulnerable.
Try the same security method with access control list (example) on the router disabled.

Comments

The remedy suggested by the microsoft article didn't work for me. I have a Netgear DG834GT ADSL router, which I had previously been using with a Windows XP laptop. When I was forced to replace that laptop, its replacement was one running Windows Vista Home Premium and I immediately ran into connection problems. I could connect to AOL via the router if I used an ethernet cable but not wirelessly. For some reason the router would give the laptop an IP address when using the cable but not when I tried to connect wirelessly, which was when I got the local access only message. A call to AOL provided me with the remedy to this. What I had been doing was to use the WEP security method with another security facility offered by the router, called Access Control, which relies on allowing devices to connect only if their MAC addresses are those you specify in the router's wireless settings pages. I automatically assumed this would work with the new Vista laptop. This turned out to be incorrect. AOL told me I needed to use the WPA-PSK security method, and a little experimentation showed me that this only works if Access Control is not used. Since then I have been connecting wirelessly without problems on Vista and I would say that once the configuration was sorted out it's been just as reliable as when I had my old XP laptop.

This worked!!! Spent all morning trying everything. Thank you!

I created virtual SSID on my router and limited access to the MAC for the PC that was having the issues.

This is Crap. If you are using a Router. Try changing the wireless channel and reconnect to the network. If you do not have a router. Try to add the network manually. If it still not able to connect. Delete the preferred networks and try re connecting.

It worked like a charm!!

I was scared to do it thinking I wasn't savvy enough to do all that, but it wasn't bad at all! It took about 5 minutes and it worked the 2nd I clicked apply!!

Thank you!!!

Marc

GET A MAC AND YOU WILL NOT HAVE THESE PROBLEMS!!!!!

How do you change the wireless channel?

Hi Casey,

The channel is generally configured in your wireless router. Most of the operating systems pick up this configuration from the network so you shouldn't have to do anything on your computer once you have changed the channel on your router.

I am still having problemns connecting to the internet....I get local access only.
How do I change the channel on my router?

Which router do you have? Here is a guide that talks about changing channels: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21132/change-your-wi-fi-router-channel-to-optimize-your-wireless-signal/

hi, I am having dell inspiron laptop with Vista home premium preinstalled in it. From around 3 years I am using GPRS (internet) with USB modem on it with no issue. It was working fine but automitically stopped working 15 days before. I tired each and every thing from diff forums but the "Local only access" message is fix .. now after trying many diff things I am getting the internet globe for 5 mins but it again goes to local only access. But within the 5 mins too no website is loading. I don't have any problem with my wireless and lan connection. They both are working fine(I hv tested). Its only for my nokia usb modem. I hav tried using GPRS from diff operators but it's givin local only access for all and when accessed internet in mobile all are workign fine.
Plzzz help.

I had the local access only and had read somewhere else about a guy who plugged in a lan line connection and then unplugged it and suddenly his wireless connection was back to normal.

I tried this myself after a couple of days of other stuff and for some reason it has worked!!
Might not work for all, but thats 2 people and its easy to do for us lacking IT skills.

after intermittent problems with vista "forgetting" how to access the wireless, this seems to have been the fix I needed. thank you!

i'm sorry, but this didn't work for me. Thanks though.

Disconnect if u are connected to internet. Hold down windows key and

type R > in Run windows type services.msc click on OK > Click on

Continue > Look for service 'winhttp web proxy auto-discovery service'

turn this service on and change its startup type to autmatic.

Disconnect ur connection and conenct it again .access local only' will

disappear.

I am having problems connecting to the wireless network at my place of work with my HP Pavillion dv9000 Vista 64 machine. The company uses WPA-PSK and I can get connected but I get "Access: Local Only" displayed in the Network Activity, and cannot access the Internet at all? I contacted their support but they said to contact the laptop's OEM for possibly an updated driver? I was going to try using the fix mentioned here, but does this mean I would have to revert back to the previous settings for my network at home that works fine without any changes?

Any help would be a appreciated!
Thanks.

I have followed through all the instructions and just restarted the computer...I am still getting local only :(

I was having the same access problem. I just went to the microsoft link that was posted and at the bottom, clicked the fix it button. After the restart, the internet works perfect

this worked for me, as soon as i clicked ok on the registry entry i was up and running on the internet again, thanks for the help, all this time i was thinking it was one of my routers on my network, but then i noticed that after rebooting my vista machine it would connect but then shortly after would go into local only access. thanks again for all your help. i think that M$ should have a patch/fix for this, just another point to show how much more reliable XP is over vista

Thank you so much. I had been trying various "solutions" for three days until I stumbled on this one... which worked! The pathway to the networkcards key was different in Vista home premium but once I found it, I was off and running. Very much appreciate you posting this!

Thank you so much for posting this.

It worked for me and the detail you provided was excellent!
-Stever

Can someone help me with the follow issue. I have vista and unable to browse in safe mode or normal. Initially, I was able to browse only in safe mode w/ networking. While trying to resolve the normal mode browseing, I screwed something up( I think when I deleted the winsock registry). Anyway in normal mode IE/Firefox would open and close. I'd installed Spyware Terminator and Perfect Optimizer and believed that resolved the crashing of the browsers. Then I was getting 169. ip addy. Resolved that. Now I get a vaild IP behind my modem, router & wirelessly, however the little blue bubble is not over my network icon on the task bar. I open the browser and get page can't be displayed. I've deleted norton and disabled Win Firewall. Been working this issue for 3 days...HELP!!!!

Thank you, this article fixed my problem, very helpful indeed, I don't think I would have totally understood the Microsoft article as written. What I can't understand is why the laptop and router worked fine for over 6 months and then suddenly stopped working.

Hi Mark. If you can connect to one network, but not the other then there is a good change that this could fix the problem. Generally the routers are "backwards compatible" with this change so this shouldn't affect your existing connection and you shouldn't have to make any changes there.

Good luck,
Farhan

Thanks Satya,
Your fix worked ,after we had tried everything else.

thanks again,
John

Thanks a lot Satya. We have been trying with this problem for a long time. It's fixed now. Thanks again.

If the registry setting was different on Vista home Premium - why not post the difference as a token of your appreciation?

Satya's fix worked for me. I had applied the Microsoft Fixit previously which worked OK for about 3 weeks, but then the dropping off to local only started happening again. If it really is a Vista only issue then Microsoft should take a more active approach to fixing it. I considered upgrade to Windows 7 but it started to feel like sending good money after bad! Thanks Satya.

Hi Guys !
It didnt worked for my friends case but this one worked
follow the same instructions as mentioned above (need not be) and addition to this
Just change your settings as mentioned bellow in the same service
i.e.,
Dhcpserver should be the same as that of DhcpNameserver
and try to have IP address similer to xxx.xxx.x.x
close restart and connection should be working

This is can be one of the causes. I would suggest troubleshooting with something like wireshark which might expose other possibilities.

- Farhan

do you people even check the issue instead of coming up with retarded ways to fix it? i mean seriously you obviously dont know what your talking about so go play warcraft and leave the it to the pros.

Thanks for the info - it didn't work for me but at least I could follow the Knowledge base fix with your help.

I had this same problem, Network Access: Local Only on a Lenovo X310 laptop with Vista Business. The client could see all network drives and folders but could not access the internet. I tried many other "fixes" but all failed. After 2 hours of trouble-shooting and rebooting I found this article. It worked perfect. Now I'm happy and the client (my boss) is happy. Thanks!

Your fix helped but it is not the end all to my problem. I use fixed IPs on the local network and this fix won't work when the IP and DNS values are fixed and not established by DCHP.

Any ideas?

Sorry, Al, I haven't had to work with fixed IPs in a while. My guess would be that the DNS server isn't setup correctly.

wat do u mean by navigate to after you open the registry editor?

In the registry editor (regedit.exe) go to specified location in the tree on the left hand side. Every back slash denotes a level in the tree. Good luck.

I was advised my the company that supply my router to remove the 3rd party firewall I'd installed in addition to Vista. Problem went away.

What o u mean by"Make sure to set the DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag as described in the “More Information” section of the knowledge base article" b4 that i have set it to "1",y need change back to "0".Cant understand

You need to set that to 0 so it stops sending the DHCP discovery packets. That article has details on what and why: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us

I had a client who received some 'assistance' from their broadband support tech. He had them connect via ethernet to their router and hard-coded the IP settings to 192.168.1.64. This allowed access to the router and Internet ok.

Following the instructions above we could still only get a 'local' IP for the wireless connection. I found the problem was caused by the IP allocated to the ethernet port being the first address allocated by the DHCP server built in to the router!!!

As soon as I changed the ethernet IP to one outside of the DHCP pool (or anything other than the first one) the wireless was able to obtain a valid IP and give full Internet access.

If you hard-code any IP addresses for any devices ensure they are outside the DHCP pool so no conflicts arise with any device trying to obtain an automatic IP.

I hope this helps solve a few lingering headaches.

After upgrading my Bluetooth adapter driver, my wireless internet gave me the problem as listed above. After following these steps, the wireless is working again. I've been monitoring it for almost 3 weeks and no problems. Thanks for making this simple to follow!

This worked. I edited the register per microsoft link and IT WORKED! saved alot of down time...I will forward this site to others in need of IT support.

Thank you so much. This procedure worked and saved my day.

Thank you so much!!! I'm glad this worked..My brother was going crazy with out his internet. I feel pretty proud since im younger than him and I was able to fix the problem, with your article ofcourse =)..took a couple 'system restores' to actually work but Im glad it finally did! Thanks again =]

Lol :) I am glad this worked. Have fun!

After numerous other attempts at fixing the problem, this worked perfectly for me - thanks.

Are ther any Sure Fix for this issue.
Tried All the steps provided but got no solution. i have Huawei E156G modem with 3 and this issue happensonly in Vista tried the modem on XP and Win 7 the modem is working fine .... please help

This was one solutions that I was aware of. If you have the latest drivers for the card handy (or can download from manufacturer's site) then I would suggest completely removing the specific network card through Device Manager (check the option to delete the drivers). Once you have deleted the drivers and card then scan for hardware changes and reinstall the latest drivers. Doing this might work.

Good luck.

I tried the same it worked for 1 hr and then it gave "Local Access only" again. its a nightmare.
can i disable the IPV6 in the regedit.msc

Faisal - did u ever resolve this issue ? I have been using Huawei on 3 for a long time with no probs and now suddenly I get the Local Only problem evry browser session (it seems to change to Local Only when the browser closes or a page completes). I've tried three or four of the various "fixes" but to no avail.
===============================
10:33 a.m. Tuesday February 16, 2010 (about 1 year, 8 months later)
Access Local Only — Faisal Shaikh
Are ther any Sure Fix for this issue.
Tried All the steps provided but got no solution. i have Huawei E156G modem with 3 and this issue happensonly in Vista tried the modem on XP and Win 7 the modem is working fine .... please help

I tried all of the above and they didn't work so I decided to install windows XP in place of the rubbish Vista - unfortunately having done this I was no further forward as I could not find the correct drivers anywhere on the internet, so I had to reinstall Vista using the manufacturers (Fug/Semans)disk - Hey presto, after having done so the computer connected to the internet no bother, so it may be worth reinstalling your Vista opperating system which is not a bad thing to do from time to time anyway - Microsoft are next to useless so the best thing to do really is to save up and buy an Apple Mac

Download and install the Norton Removal tool - This fixed my issue

http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&selected_nav=&pvid=&docurl=20080828154508EN

Norton removal tool worked for me too. Thanks Jim.

Tried "solutions" from several other sites before finding this one, which worked for me. Thanks!

I am glad this worked for you :)

After reading pages upon pages of posts with people with the same problem, I finally figured out the solution by actually calling Netgear.

The router was connected to the internet and the laptop running Vista could connect to the router but NOT the internet. All externals like Ipod Touch and PS3 could connect to the router/internet, but the laptop always just said local access only.

After playing with all of the setting here, Ip6, reinstalling the driver, EVERYTHING - it still said local only.

I called support for the router and here is what he told me:

VISTA systems do not really support WPA/WPA2 security settings for the router. Seriously, that was it. He had me do the following:

Type 192.168.1.1 into an internet explorer browser (while you have the wired connection working - so the ethernet cord plugged from the router into the laptop).

On the lefthand menu you will see "Wireless settings" click on that and type in a new name for your wireless connection (You can put a 2 next to the current name or something).

Change the channel to 6

Change the security settings to WEP

scroll down - you will see a field for a passcode and then 4 keys. Keep everything blank except in the Key 1 field, type in a 10 digit number that you will remember (MAKE SURE TO WRITE IT DOWN). Click apply.

You can now unplug your ethernet cord. Go to start, connect to, click the new connection name you just made. Now if it asks you to press a button or type in the code, click the type in the code thingy and then type in that 10 digit code that you wrote down.

You should be connected wirelessly to the internet.

I followed all the instructions and restarted it. In the start upp screen, I can't do anything it just stays stuck and on the left corber of the screeb it says pres f2 to enter setup. It doesn't go beyond that screen and can't even press alt ctrl del :( help?

IT W0RKED! Youre a genius! Thank you. Thank you!

I have had this terrible problem myself after getting a new router (netgear WNDR3400) on my hp pavilion dv9700 with the Atheros AR5007 with Vista. After scouring for days trying to find a solution, I got one and feel obligated to pass my fix (understanding it might not be the same for everyone). I had to go to http://www.wireless-driver.com/atheros-ar5xxx-ar9xxx-wireless-windows-drivers-ver920310/ or http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-download.php?chipset=22&system=3 to get the right driver and then followed the instructions here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070128195048AAe5VAN (For a .sys file you would goto the device manager (right click on my computer/properties/hardware/device manager). Then click on the icon for you adapter (probably the one with the yellow tag on it) and click on change/update/or install driver. When the box comes up for the driver, choose the option where you can locate it yourself and then point in to the .sys file you downloaded). I turned off all internet.. rebooted.. turned wifi on.. fixed! Good luck, hope this helps.

this helped me reconnect to the world! Thank you!

I tried many, many things. Countless hours, worth more than the value of a three year old laptop to do this.

Just follow what WIN DOS SUCKS has written above. The drive update, which Windows itself is not able to do, is the only that has worked flawlessly.

And, I like the name Windows Sucks.

I had the problem of Local Only in Vista.

Did the Microsoft Fix patch - no change.
Did the services change to automatic - no change
Tried the channel change in the router - no change
I wasn't using any fixed router addresses for specific computers so that wasn't relevant

It finally fixed itself when I disconnected from the wireles networks and while using ethernet conection changed the range of my routers IP addresses for DCHP so that when I connected again the Vista computer would have to use a new address. I also changed the lease time for addresses from Forever to Half an hour but that didn't work by itself, although I probably didn't wait half an hour).

When I disconnected the ethernet and reconnected to the wireless it connected through to the internet. I checked the address in the router and it was a new one (the old one was say 192.168.0.2 and the new one ended in 7 as I had made the first one in the range in the pool end in 4.

Thanks to all who posted solutions. I hope this acomment also helps someone.

Brilliant! This problem had been irritating me since I got a new router from AOL. My laptop with Vista only connected to the internet occasionally after that. My new netbook was ok.
This is a great step-by-step solution.

THANK YOU.
THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR TWO YEARS. THANKS YOU SO MUCH!!!!
I LITERALLY HAVENT USED THIS COMPUTER FOR TWO YEARS BCAUSE THE INTERNET WOULDNT WORK AND ONLY OPENED IT BCAUSE ME DOG CHEWED THE POWER SUPPLY TO MY OTHER LAPTOP.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your explaining things is a bit hard to fallow

unbelievable saga for me, trying to get daughter's Vaio to connect after a Restore C to factory settings. Disabled the IPv6 as often recommended - got to the stage where "local and internet" was showing, but STILL could not load web pages. Here's what I found, just trying random things out of frustration: go to Advanced properties of wireless connection, and DISABLE "802.11n". After I did this, perfect connection, stable since then (and through around 120 Vista updates...) Hope this helps any poor souls out there driven CRAZY by this issue - why, in this day and age, can systems not self-diagnose this kind of thing...

1) I have connected ethernet cable - to get connection to the internet
2) Wireless card driver update did the thing.

Brefore I have tried everything described here and there.

My kids got a new laptop and a xoom for Christmas.
In trying to set them up the xoom worked np but the laptop had the "local only" network connection issue. Spent 2 hrs on the phone w/India and still ng. Finally did a restore of the system but no time to check it as we were headed out for the holiday. Took the laptop with me to see if it would work in a new environment. Sure enough worked like a charm @ my sisters house, thought I was done. We return 2 days later and the new laptop now works fine on our home network but all of a sudden my laptop, which had been running just fine for 2-3 yrs encountered the exact same issue. I'm thinking virus:(. Tried many of the suggested fixes to no avail. Then I remembered, for added security, I had set our DHCP server to only use 192.168.1.3-192.168.1.12 when assigning ip addresses, a total of 10. It seems by adding the xoom & the laptop we exceeded the number of devices requiring an ip address within our house. As soon as I went into the router and expanded the range a bit and rebooted everything, we are all back in business.

Once again the law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head.

Just remember, sometimes you need to step back and take a larger look at what’s going on to find the answer.

That worked!!! thank u so much

I also tried everything on the page - the fix for me (using a HP Pavilion Computer connecting to a Cisco E3000 router) was changing from WAP2 to WEP.

Seems like Microsoft would mention this somewhere in the knowledge base.

Thanks to all who contributed

Ok I see people saying the fix is to change WAP to WEP this is no fix this is a work around. I have 3 desktops with winxp two laptops with vista all work but one of the vista systems.local only..Any one with a FIX not a workaround for WPA please let me know..THANKS...

Thank you fr this info ie the netgear solution worked for me.

Also had done the registry changes - no change, still Local only

Yes!!! Thanks man. Upgrading the driver worked. I hate Vista so much! If Vista was a woman, she would be Rosie O'Donnell :)

I just got AT&T uverse today. Im having the local only issue..will this solution work for me?

thank you so much. changing to WEP was the solution!

It is probably worth a try. Good luck!

I've tried just about any suggestion I could find on the internet. In the end out of desperation I've changed the fixed IP address on the router from x.x.x.42 to x.x.x.47. It worked immediately. I have other resources using addresses below and above x.x.x.42. Vista was working fine on this address for years. LAN worked just ok. Go figure...
I hope someone will find this helpful.
h.

Awesome...3 days and this is the only thing that worked!!

Hi
tried everything for days

just updated my Wireless driver and it worked instantly

I upgraded our Motorola SBG900 wireless g router to the latest Motorola SBG 6580 n.

Had same problem as everyone else when trying to connect my son's Compaq laptop - kept getting local access only.

I have tried almost every patch/fix attempt I could find, but to no avail.
I did however work out an albeit not perfect fix.
My new router enables me to create primary and guest networks. I created a primary wireless network and created a WPA AES encrypted password. This works 100% with any device not running Windows Vista.
For my son's Vista laptop, I created a separate guest network without any WEP encryption (open network). Then I was able to make it a Closed Network via my Motorola router software. This means that although it is unlocked, a user would have to know and type the exact network name into the available network list instead of selecting it from a list. When scanning for available networks, it simply show up as un-named network, then when you click to connect it asks you to type the exact network name. Nice stuff Motorola!

Not exactly an ideal fix, but it kinda works for me until we can upgrade his laptop with Windows 7.

Hope this helps someone? Believe me, I feel your pain! :(

Hmmm...nice 'fix' if you can afford one of those $150 Motorola SBG6580 routers!!!

Thanks tho ;)

hellllppppp, the suggestion above didn't work on my vista. I tried it step by step but nothing happened. i still can't still access to the internet:( huhuhu:(

mine normally works and is connected to local and internet, but then sometimes when i stream videos or browse the internet, it changes to local only and i cant browse anymore. how do i fix that?

Try disabling the connection and then re-enabling it (http://compnetworking.about.com/od/windowsxpnetworking/ht/conndisenable.htm). I have noticed that sometimes my Windows desktop can loose connection if I am copying too many files for too long, at once on the network. This behavior is unacceptable, but this has happened so few times that it hasn't bothered me yet.

- Farhan

HI, Just wondering if there are any fixes for this problem that actually work? There seems to be lots of suggestions but they only seem to work for some people.
This problem is becoming a pain in the proverbial.

cheers

I had this "local only" problem and tried everything. (Even reformated my hard drive and installed a new ethernet card...did not work!)...the only thing left was my D-Link router to change...but luckily... I found out this reset button in the back of the router where you have to insert a pen...I pressed it for 5 to 6 seconds and everything started working normally.

The sure way to get rid of "Local only acess" is to uninstall the driver and update it. It worked for me after trying all other methods on this page.

Guys i tried all these things for 2 days. i discovered that if you update your wireless driver it will resolve the problem only took 5 mins.

I got a new Virgin Media Superhub. A vista laptop. All other wifi connections worked on wpa auto. ie smart phone and win 7 laptop.

I tried the above advice registry edits etc. didn't work (but thanks for sharing experiences)

Then i did a driver update for the wireless modem in Device manger. It worked.

Thanks Everyone who contributed

After trying so many different thing to my "local access only" problem it turns out all I had to do was change WPA to WEP and I was connected.

Thanks Farhan. The register edit solution fixed my problem!

I am glad this worked for you. Have fun!

Thanks worked perfectly!

Partial fix, remove adapter and uninstall the driver. re insert adapter. Much better but still failed after awhile.
Then uninstalled Norton. You need to go to ftp://ftp.symantec.com and get the un-installer there. This seemed to clean things up a lot.

i have spent three days trying everything suggested on many geek sites, microsoft.com etc nothing worked . finally in desperation i uninstalled the wireless driver for vista and installed the xp driver- worked like a charm .

Wow! Barry you is da man ! All the bollox these nerds recommend didn't work , keep it simple bro !Nice

OMG Barry you bloody legend! THIS WORKED! Bought this Acer (Aspire) 4520 from an ebayer who sent it with a broken screen and other things not in "perfect working order". Disputes later, had to buy other wrecks to make one great one. Used recovery to re-install vista, but got "access: local only" on the Atheros AR5007EG adapter. It's been months of reading god knows how many of these hints pages by 'experts' and even Microsoft's fixes for the famous Vista 'Access: local only' problem got me nowhere - the latter not caring now about Vista as Windows 7 is all the rage, Win 8 soon I assume. Anyway, I installed XP onto a used hard drive and installed it into the Acer 4520 as a test and viola the wifi worked - and the best bit? It ran much faster than my other Vista-running laptops. But still I felt 'ripped off' by not being able to fully use my Vista OS. When I read your suggestion I felt like a proper idiot because I thought how good it would be if the XP driver worked in Vista but had no idea how to or the courage to load it. I found my Atheros XP 'Windows Wizard' installation file and tried it in Vista. It ran and was loaded but Vista could not recognise it in Device Manager. Hmmm... So while in Device Manager, I forced it to look in the folder where I had ALL the Atheros XP files and hoped for the best it loaded something. After a few minutes I noticed the Wifi light flashing realy fast, and thought OMG the XP driver works in Vista! Bingo!
Which as far as I'm concerned means your solution IS the right one because everyone else's trying to fix their 'slow' Vista wifi, but with the XP driver running it's the best of both worlds! Thanks for the inspiration, mate.

OMG!!! Updated my wireless driver and just like that i'm online!!! WOOOOO HOOOOO!!! Thank you so much for the suggestion!!! I was about to cancel my service because I couldn't connect!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Y'all are the bomb!!

After making the changes in the registry and running the microsoft fix, my future daughter-in-law's Toshiba running Vista still wouldn't connect to the internet. So I found a post on chicagotech.net regarding Norton 360. She had something done by the Geek Squad and her Norton subscription was deleted or at least appeared expired. I uninstalled Norton and now it works...go figure. I left the registry modified as microsoft suggested in the fix.

It bothered me quite a bit that some web pages reported an alleviation of this problem with an upgrade of the driver for for Atheros AR5007 (and other) drivers for their modem.

Every attempt to update the driver automatically resulted in Windows (I hate, and keep one machine at home for that rare instance an older web page won't load Safari on Mac) telling me that my HP/Compaq had the best and latest driver. Following a link from CNet (http://forums.cnet.com/7723-12546_102-522932.html) I was led to a page that had a driver that was 3 years and many generations younger than what Windows claimed to be the best and latest. The link from CNet is to: http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-inf-file.php?inf=236&chipset=21&system=3

At any rate, I've been running fine for about three hours now.....a record on my laptop who would connect and go local every five minutes.

Best of luck.

Just responding that after 24 hours it works, and it never stopped working. Always connected, never to local only.

After doodling with all the microfrost help, entering unusual commands, etc.

My driver is a 2010 driver now, vs. 2008.

Thank you Win Dos Sucks. It is the only thing that worked for me.

I have suffered for months until the driver upgrade.

So disappointed in MS. I might go Ubuntu.

I updated my card's driver, and sure as hell, I'm connected again! :-)

Thank you Wind Dos Sucks.

Nothing has worked except your solution.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5061881_enable-ip-addressing-dhcp-vista.html

I have vista in laptop and sudently couln't connect to internet (only local connection with both wireless and ethernet cable).

As it seemed i had just to enable the DHCP

lindsey i tried all of the other solutions and yours actually worked. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. took less than 5 minutes..you are the greatest :-)

Thank you so much. After trying a zillion other things, i finally was able to connect to the internet. Thanks again.

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