Sony Vaio Wireless Woes

Today, Nicks asks:

I have a PC running Windows XP SP2. It is managing my Linksys WRT150N router (wireless network). Yesterday, I bought a Sony Vaio laptop with WLAN. I entered manually all the info to setup network connection between my laptop and my router (SSID, WPA, key, etc). It just doesn’t work. The computer recognize the network and the signal is very good but it just doesn’t work. I receive some kind of message telling me that there’s some kind of delay or user’s manual action. I’ve herd there might be a problem with registry for Vista (something set disable on XP but not on Vista). But since I’m an average user, I don’t understand what it means. And I don’t really want to mess things up in the registry if it’s not even the problem to my solution.

Ouch, been there. Perhaps not with Windows, but with other operating systems. Now understanding that a fix may already be out there, you might want to consider trying some of the following:

• Connect without security in place to determine if the issues is with WPA or the wifi device/driver.
• Check Windows Vista updates, there may be a patch or driver upgrade for this.
• From the device manager, determine which wireless device you are using and Google for any driver updates this way. Better yet, with the Vaio model you have, goto the Sony Support site to see if there is any help there.
• Try setting things up with a static IP. It’s a trick I used to have to use with Linux, so being as you are at the same disadvantage here, it might be worth trying.

Do you have an IT-related question? Perhaps you are just burnt out on writing on the walls with crayons? Whatever the comments may be, drop me a line, and you too can “Just Ask Matt!” Please address comments to the comments section above, my email address is for questions - thanks!