T61P keeps kicking other laptops off wireless... mystified, HELP!

[rtilghman]

Okay, so I've been dealing with this problem for months now, and I've tried more or less every solution I can think of (and am pretty handy with network tech), and I've got NOTHING on this one.

PROBLEM

Whenever our T61P laptop is connected to our Belkin N router it causes other laptops in our apartment to lose their access to the internet... basically the laptops go "local domain" and, while they seem to be connected to the router, have an exclamation point (connection problem) and cannot reach either the router (gateway) or the internet.

Looking at ipconfig for the wireless I see that the domain has changed to local domain (windows default), and the IPs make little to no sense.  Trying to repait the connection is useless... NOTHING gets it to fix itself (reset, off/on, reboot, nothing).  However, RARELY it will fix itself without rhyme or reason.

ANALYSIS

As I said, I've tried a lot of different solutions.  I've fully updated the T61P's drivers and OS, and installed all updates.  Aside from trying to fix the connection manually on the second laptop II know it's the T61P for two reasons.  First, whenever it happens the T61p is on.  Second, if I turn on the T61P the problem immediately surfaces with the other laptop.  Second, this is the second laptop the problem has happened with consistently.  The first laptop was a Dell Latitude with Vista, the second is a Dell Latitude with Win 7.  T61P is running Vista SP2.

Does anyone know what might be causing this issue?  Is there some issue with the T61P's wireless that would cause it to freak out the router?  Does it not work with Belkin routers? 

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.  At this point I'm reduced to turning off the T61P's wireless whenever i want to use the second laptop, which is obviously untenable.

Thanks,

Rick

[mixz1]

I'm guessing the problem is the Belkin router and not the ThinkPad. If you take your ThinkPad to another location, say a Starbucks or a friend's house, does it cause the same disconnect to the other machines?

Another thought is are all the machines in your home 802.11G? Or do you have 802.11N adapters installed? If all your machines are 802.11G, can you access your router's setup and change it from auto to G exclusively?

Let the board know and good luck.

[rtilghman]

So it's now effecting my iPad as well.  Tested changing to a G only network... didn't work.  Still causing all other devices to get kicked to Local Domain and lose connectivity with the router.

I'm pretty sure this is a problem with the Thinkpad... I've never EVER had any problem like this with a router before.  Driving me batty.  Anyone else have any thoughts?

Thanks,

RT

[bananaman]

Hi rtilghman, and welcome to the Lenovo User Community!

Is the T61p configured by chance to run Internet Connection Sharing? That could confuse things.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

what spectrum are you using for your n wireless? 2.4 ghz or 5.2 ghz? also are you choosing auto or 20 mhz band for these.

[rtilghman]

No, ICS isn't enabled, at least not as far as I can tell looking at the network settings/properties. It's kind of hard to tell what's happening sometimes with all the gobbledygook software Lenovo dumps on top of the OS.


Thanks,

Rick

[rtilghman]

It's not an A router, it's a B/G/N router. So we're using 2.4ghz. In general I've left it at 20mhz. In terms of the wifi, I've set the router to channel 6 and to channel 11 (trying to see if the high end of the band reduces interference), but that had no impact on the problem.

The problem is pretty eratic... sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, and when it does happen ipconfig displays the following:

domain: localdomain
ip: 192.168.43.x

The weird part is that I have no idea where this alternative IP set is coming from... my network is 192.168.10.x.  Basically it's like the computer is connected to the router (show it connected), but it's getting put on some kind of weird subdomain or separate network.  I guess the T61P could be trying to manage the network, but why on earth would it do that?  Is there something Lenovo has on here that could cause it?

Thanks,
Rick

[bananaman]

If you're using ThinkVantage Access Connections, remove it. Use Windows 7 to manage the connection.