Can't connect to home wireless signal ("Limited access") - Windows 7

Hello,

I am setting up a new Acer laptop and cannot access the internet via my home wifi network. I have 2 other laptops connected to the network and running fine. The new pc is running 64 bit Windows 7 (the others run XP) and has an Atheros AR5B93 Wireless Network Adapter. When I pan over the wireless icon in my taskbar, it says "Limited access" beside my home wifi signal.

Any help with this problem is much appreciated. Happy holidays everyone!

What do you see when you open the Network and Sharing Center (see attachment). What do you see when you fun ipconfig /all from a command prompt. What do you see specifically regarding your network adapter when you open device manager. Have you checked with Acer for all the latest drivers, have you googled your network adapter to see if perhaps there may be some new more current drivers. Presumably you're hooked to a router, which one and which type, check their website and see if they have a current firmware update. And finally try these
Check and make sure these Services are Started on all Computers
Workstation
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Server
TCP/IP Netbios helper
Computer Browser
Make sure Network Discovery is turned on, on the Win 7 machines
Make sure file and printer sharing is enable on both and that local firewalls are supporting it. Temporarily uninstall any third party firewalls or Internet Security Suites that may include some type of Firewall applet.
Make sure NetBios over TCP/IP is enabled in the properties of IPv4 on you network.
Look for Bonjour service and temporarily set it to manual or disable and stop, same with mdnsresponder. Also check services near the top for a peculiar string containing numbers and or special characters, disable and stop
Let us know how you're doing.

What do you see when you open the Network and Sharing Center (see attachment). -- My diagram at the top show my pc with a line drawn to an "Unidentified network," which line has the yellow alert triangle over it, and a line from the Unidentified network to the Internet, which line has a red "X" over it.

What do you see when you fun ipconfig /all from a command prompt. -- When I select "ipconfig" after searching for such term in the box at the bottom when I click the Windows symbol, a box pops up but then immediately disappears, too fast for me to read anything. I've tried 5-10 times and it keeps immediately closing itself. Any ideas?

What do you see specifically regarding your network adapter when you open device manager. -- The status is "This device is working properly." The Driver Date is 10/5/2009, and the Driver Version is 8.0.0.238.

Have you checked with Acer for all the latest drivers -- Yes - Driver version 8.0.0.238 is the most recent available.

have you googled your network adapter to see if perhaps there may be some new more current drivers.

Presumably you're hooked to a router, which one and which type -- Actiontec MI424-WR Rev. E

check their website and see if they have a current firmware update. -- I tried, but the website is messed up and I can't enter my password. I will follow up with Verizon if necessary, but this shouldn't be the source of the problem -- my other laptops access the internet just fine and always have (I'm using it right now with my work laptop). -- it's only this new computer that is having the issue.

I see under Network Connection Details that DHCP is enabled, but I don't know how to check for those other things you mention (DNS Client, Server, TCP/IP Netbios helper). Never heard of Network Discovery or Bonjour.

"Also check services near the top for a peculiar string containing numbers and or special characters, disable and stop" -- I am not sure what you mean by this. Near the top of what? Stop what?

Thanks for your help. Please let me know where I go from here.

Best regards

"What do you see when you fun ipconfig /all from a command prompt. -- When I select "ipconfig" after searching for such term in the box at the bottom when I click the Windows symbol, a box pops up but then immediately disappears, too fast for me to read anything. I've tried 5-10 times and it keeps immediately closing itself. Any ideas?"
Sorry, in my post I said "from a command prompt" you can run a command prompt from the search box, or from the "run" dialog box either one by simply typing the letters cmd. Then when the command prompt opens you can then type ipconfig and or ipconfig /all this should display the ip information for your network interface cards. Hope that helped.
It sounds like you have an issue getting DHCP information from your router, so maybe try unchecking IPv6 in the properties of your network adapter or else try assigning a stactic ip address to the properties of IPv4 within the properties of your network card.
A lot of the time when you get the unidentified network issue it is because the network card doesn't contain any IP information or is missing a default gateway. So DHCP, which should be comming from your router may be the issue. Post back and let us know what you get from the ipconfig /all command from "A Command Prompt / DOS prompt" it should stay there so you can read it and only go away when you close the window

My ipconfig results follow (I ran this after unchecking IPv6 in the properties of my network adapter):

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Anon>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Anon-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5B93 Wireless Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 0C-EE-E6-DD-95-DC
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.67.176(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR8132 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Contro
ller (NDIS 6.20)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-26-22-81-1B-25
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{9A138203-E95C-4F62-8226-FF6053F7194B}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Any thoughts? It looks like I may not have a default gateway, if I read this correctly.

Basically, you're not getting anything from DHCP. The 169.254 address is just an APIPA. What you need to do, probably first, is open services.msc then refer back to my first post and confirm the services that I listed are working. You can also try to statically assign an ip address to the adapter and see if that works, you should be able to ping the inside edge of the router, or you can plug in with an ethernet cable and see if that fairs any better, if so you can run windows updates and see if there is any help there.
Keep me posted

Thanks so much for your help -- all is working now. The problem was user error -- my WEP key was inputted incorrectly. Apparently, you get no notice when the WEP key is incorrect -- just the "limited access" notice mentioned earlier. I can't believe that the diagnostic tool says it can't identify the problem when it is such a simple matter. Seems like a bug to me -- not sure if it's my router, network adapter, or a universal issue. Everyone else take note -- always double-check your WEP key and don't count on the system to notify you if it is incorrect. Thanks again!

Merry Christmas!

I know, I've had the same problem with WPA with Vista it would show connected but I couldn't do anything, so now I always type the key in notepad, examine it twice and then copy and paste it into where it belongs.

ciao a tutti,
anche io ho lo stesso problema con la mia rete wireless. ho un acer con windows 7 e ogni tanto mentre sono in linea si interrompe la connessione dicendomi accesso limitato. scusate non sono pratica di computer potreste spiegarmi in maniera semplice quello che dovrei fare? non ho capito molto nella discussione qui sopra.
grazie in anticipo.

ephesi:
How is your english, my italian is pretty much non-existant, and my onboard translator gave me this
"hello to all, also I have the same problem with my net wireless. I have a acer with windows 7 and from time to time while they are online it interrupts the limited approached logon saying to me. excused are not practical of computer you could explain to me in simple way which I would have to make? I have not understood a lot in the argument here over. thanks in advance payment."
Which doesn't provide much of a hint as to your question, so if you could please translate, in english, thank you