Starting Wireless Network before login

[rehanahmeds]

hi,

 

I am trying to get the wireless network working on a network before windows login window... usually wireless starts working after 30 seconds of login screen... I am using HP laptop 6710b

 

Intel Pro Wireless 3945 ABG wireless card...

 

I used intel wireless software and it was worse then windows built in wireless utility and it doesnt seem to start the wireless before login but we stay login when we log off which doesnt seem to help in anyway... i just want to start the login when XP says preparing network connection....

 

usually our network software updates kicks in when XP shows preparing network connection and it get the updates if its on wired network but if its on wireless it doesnt work...

 

any help please???

[plexer]

What authentication etc... are you using? how do you have it set? machine only, machine with user reauthenication?

 

Or is it wpa/wpa2 psk?

 

Ben

[djm968]

This is a known issue with the Wireless implementation on XP and GPO deployment. The only reliable option I have seen to work is installing a wireless LAN control system and configuring Static IP’s on the Laptops. However this is not cheap.

 

Might be better off just recalling laptops and hooking them to a cable for the software updates.

[Geoff]

When you install the ProSet WiFi drivers you have the option of installing a prelogin driver service. This enables the WiFi to start prior to login. If you just do a default install, then you can't install this option. Thus, no WiFi

[djm968]

When you install the ProSet WiFi drivers you have the option of installing a prelogin driver service. This enables the WiFi to start prior to login. If you just do a default install, then you can't install this option. Thus, no WiFi

 

That is true however, I have seen some flavours of Intel Wireless chipsets refuse to apply GPO even with the ProSet prelogin driver service installed.

[rehanahmeds]

proset pre login feature works when u log off and log on but not when u r restarting the laptop...

[DMcCoy]

Prelogin doesn't start before the network services however. The only way I've fixed this in the past was to try various driver releases until I got one that started correctly. Are you already running the latest driver version? There are some other reg keys that can help a bit, I'll see if I can dig them up, but really its all down to the driver.

[rehanahmeds]

thanks for the replies i think i found the solution and now it picks up all the setting before login... its a relief....

 

i just turned the feature on in driver setting saying "allow this driver to bring this computer out of stand by"

 

it worked for me i dont know abt other vendors or other devices

[wesleyw]

@DMcCoy: I'd be interested to know what reg keys can help?

 

I have a similar problem here.

[wesleyw]

All the laptops work fine on their own it's when used in large numbers that problems occur.

 

Wes

[rehanahmeds]

find the setting in wireless driver for enable this device to bring computer out of standby... similar to like wake up on lan feature like in regular ethernet wired card....

 

i just enable that and everything started working just like in wired it picks up gpo all the software updates.... i installed intel latest driver for my card before doing it...

[boomam]

WiFi and laptops are a pain in the rear!

We have 6 laptops here in one of our departments, all going through the single AP. And everynow and then they get connection problems.

One laptop, even though its had its wireless card, aerial and whatnot replaced twice, and rebuilt several times, refuses to connect wirelessly!

[techyphil]

If its the Intel Wireless (which it is) then I tend to open up add/remove - find the Intel Wireless software and click Change/Remove.

 

When the installer appears, select modify and basically make everything crossed out other then the driver (usually the top option). I do that on all our laptops.

[PaulBM]

We use the Intel Pro drivers and install the drivers using the following shortcut...

 

"Setup.exe" PLC=True Toolkit=True

 

This installs all the options, including the important Pre-Logon service.

[contink]

Have just hit a problem I think may be RADIUS related but checking this anyway...

 

It seems my GPO installs aren't being processed properly because of some kind of driver vs' login precedence issue or my gut feeling is that maybe I've fubar'd something in the RADIUS setup.

 

So questions that hopefully someone can answer.

 

1. would a RADIUS installed setup that has a certificate and PEAP setup to authenticate the machine at startup then the user once logging in, still have problems with an Intel driver not loading the wireless in time?

 

2. If No, are there any inidicators I should look for bearing in mind I'm using a Netgear WS709TP wlan controller?

 

 

Any help would be appreciated as I've just discovered my laptops are uninstalling office 2007 fine but balking at installing 2003 leaving the laptops office-less. Work around being to login using a wire but there's limited net ports to do it...

 

Thanks...

[powdarrmonkey]

I seem to remember hacking around this once, and I set a registry key that delays group policy until a connection is ready. It was a long time ago though so I don't remember what they key was off the top of my head.

[DMcCoy]

I've spent the last year dealing with this issue since implementing 802.1x network wide for wired machines.

 

The issue is this. There is no way to fix it, there are things that help, and things that can work. There is however no permanent fix.

 

Windows 2000 and XP have a race condition issue where the netlogon service is started independantly from the network authentication one.

 

I now have computers picking up the domain on boot around 95% of the time, but only after I stopped using Microsoft DHCP server for my guest vlan.

 

Microsoft have a KB that says gpo etc are not supported with vlan switching.

 

An additional 30-40 second delay can be introduced by windows xp sulking about getting NACKs from the dhcp server if it's a windows one, I'm using a third party one for just the guests and it ignores these initial requests (xp doesn't send a discover first)

[contink]

This doesn't sound too hopeful then... I was under the impression that using a RADIUS server avoided all this but it seems I was wrong... In a word... *rse!

 

If anyone can offer any of those suggested workarounds that sometimes work they'd be appreciated...

[powdarrmonkey]

Windows 2000 and XP have a race condition issue where the netlogon service is started independantly from the network authentication one.

 

Hmm, do you think making the netlogon service a dependency would work?