Must Reboot XP after switching wireless network

I switch between 2 WEP encrypted wireless base stations daily and each time I switch, Windows can't connect to internet. XP sees the wireless network name, just can't get IP from it.. I must reboot XP in order to connect to internet. I don't have to restart Parallels, though.

This could be a problem with my MBP, the well known issue where airport can't auto connect to previously connected WEP wireless?

Anyone else having this problem?

Otherwise, this thing rocks!

 

Welcome to Microsoft Windows

 

My guess would be that windows does not notice the network change because of the bridging.
Next time I would try the following from XP:

Open a command prompt and type:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

 

This just worked for me today.

Came into the office and had a suspended Windows XP VM. Bridged to my wireless connection.

No DNS until I did the /release and /renew ipconfig sequence.

Then I had DNS and network access -- did NOT have to re-start the Windows VM.

YMMV

Jim

 

Some more experimenting reveals that once I did the /release and /renew, suspending and resuming the VM while in the office did NOT give me back network access. I needed the same /release /renew trick again.

This should not be necessary, but I am not sure the fault is with Parallels or my office DHCP setup.

At home, with own wired/wireless network, I have been able to suspend and resume the Windows XP Pro VM and have network access come back fine if it was working fine prior to suspending the VM.

I will see what happens when I get home and try this evening.

I did change my VM in that I made it join my office domain. Don't expect this is a factor in wireless bridging behavior.

 

Well, I tried the same thing at home and now I can't get a suspended VM to re-acquire networking using wireless after resuming UNLESS I do the /release and /renew dance upon resuming the VM. I swear it was working this weekend.

An equivalent mechanism is to use the network connection control panel in Windows XP and then use the repair button.

I suspect that Parallels needs to be more aggressive when a suspended VM is resumed so that a change in network (e.g. new DHCP server due to change in location) is propagated to the VM.

 

It has nothing to do with Parallels... When windows has an IP address from one network and you suspend then connect the mac to a new network windows has to release and renew otherwise is assumes it should use the same ip it was using before you suspended it..

 

cont...

Once you suspend windows (vm) it never knows that the host slept or transfered to a new network. When you resume it continues from the point you hit suspend with the old network IP.

Because of the way the guest is bridged to the host windows always thinks a cable is connected and will not try a renew on the IP until the lease expires or you manually refresh it.

 

Network loss after suspend and then resume of VM

It seems to me that since the host detects it's in a new place automatically, the guest could perhaps be informed of this and adjust itself.

But I now have the problem that if I remain at a single location, and then simply suspend the VM and then resume the VM, the network bridge stops working until I manually re-set the DHCP connection. That defect should not happen since the DHCP address hasn't changed since the suspend.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I did not have this problem this weekend but since my office experiments earlier today, any suspension seems to disable the network until a manual reset.

Seems like a bug to me.

Follow-up:

I just again did a couple more suspend and then resumes, staying in range of a single wireless access point. The first time, I did not loose the network but the second time I did. Rather then an ipconfig sequence that I used previously, I used the Parallels Tools interface to switch from the enhanced network interface to the standard one. After the swap, I still did not have network access, Then after I re-enabled the tools-provided network interface and the network was working again.

Something is not quite right, at least when bridging to the en1 interface.

 

I think thismight be due to firmware problem on MacBook Pro wireless card. MBP's failure to switch wireless connection is being discussed on other boards such as Apple Discuss boards. My MBP can't automatically switch WEP wireless whether VM is running or not.