Wireless NIC suddenly "Media Disconnected"

[kivieg]

My Wireless NIC is acting very strange. Windows XP Pro, SP2.
I installed the new AdAware SE the other night, no idea if this is related... Before that, I was surfing wirelessly just fine.

cmd prompt, IPCONFIG reports "Media Disconnected"
here's the wierd part: from the UI, I can see all of the wireless networks! It updates and refreshes no problem, even if I switch locations.
But when I hit "connect", it fails, without giving an error. The "connecting" dialog just disappears.

And, IPCONFIG reports "Media Disconnected". That can't be right, though, since the UI is correctly reporting the wireless networks is sees...

Thoughts?

joel

[kivieg]

Stuck? No ideas?

Here's a teaser: It worked for a short time today. I had booted with the ethernet cable in, but it connected wirelessly and then I was able to remove the cable and use the wireless network.
But I tired to boot with the Ethernet cable in just now and the wireless is failing again (same behavior as before: can see networks but IPCONFIG reports "Media Disconnected")...

joel

[heresy_is_progress]

Here's something you could try:

1. Go to the control panel & select "Administrative Tools".

2. In Administrative Tools, go to "Services".

3. On the Services screen, scroll down until you find "Wireless Zero Configuration".

4. Start this service.

5. Now go to "Network Connections" and right click your wireless adapter icon.

6. I can't remember exactly which tab it is, but find the one where you have the option
to check or uncheck "Use Windows to configure my wireless connections" or something to that effect. Make sure it is checked.

I saw this thread yesterday trying to resolve this same problem, and thought I'd post what fixed it for me.