Changing Network Device Priorities In Vista

My Windows Vista laptop has a strong desire to always connect to the wireless network, even when I'm connected-by-wire at the office.   This is due to the fact that most Windows laptops are setup to use the wireless connection first if there is a wireless signal available.   While I was always able to quickly find this setting in Windows/XP, on Windows Vista it is hidden away in a "advanced menu".   For some reason I always forget how to find it, thus this blog post serves as my own memory kit. How To Change Network Priorities In Vista Go to your mange networks settings. I like to get there by right-clicking the network icon in the systray & selecting "manage networks". You can also go to the start menu, control panel, network connections Hold down the ALT key, release then click "Advanced Settings..." within a  ...

Windows XP – Resolving Aquiring Network Address Problems

After spending nearly a week on & off removing a virus from a notebook computer, we are down to one last task... getting the network services back online.   Here are some notes about how to get around this problem and the ever-present "acquiring network address" that never is acquired. Resetting Windows Network Stacks To reset the Windows/XP TCP/IP stack use this command from the command shell: netsh int ip reset reset.log To reset the Windows/XP Socket layer, use this command from the command shell: netsh winsock reset catalog Check For Rootkits Turns out the virus installed a rootkit.  These are special files hidden by the operating system that change how the base OS works.  That makes them hard to detect & remove with normal spyware.  TDSS rootkit by Kapersky Labs helps fix that: Download install and run TDSS rootkit removing tool - get it here: http://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils/tdsskiller.zip In our case the file c:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\isapnp.sys was compromised.  You ...