Wireless network manager problems after installing WinGate 8

[m0nzderr]

Hello,
Recently I've installed the latest WinGate (8.1.0 ,28 February 2014 release) on my Samsung NP900N3B notebook under stock Win 7 x64.
It all seemed all right to me, until I tried to switch to another WiFi network. No matter which network I choose - the wireless network indicator (bottom right corner connection status icon)
freezes in a "connecting..." state (progress spinner froze).
After that, everything related to windows networking management freezes - connection status icon, control panel applets for network connections, etc. And, of course, wireless connection itself stops.
I can recover it only after rebooting.
I tried stopping WinGate engine before managing wireless connection - same results.

I only was able to manage my wireless connections normally only after trying to uninstall WinGate (which wasn't smooth as well: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=41158&p=38447&hilit=uninstall#p38447).

I noted, that:
1) Any attempt of disconnecting from wireless network freezes wireless manager, even when I "disable" wireless interface from inside WinGate manager
or just shutting down my access-point device.
2) If I keep wireless inteface disabled, after reboot I can normally re-establish connection by "enabling" it from inside WinGate manager
3) I tried it with "Enable Extended Network Driver" option on and off - same thing.
3) I also tried setting it to "Do not Load ENS Driver when system starts". In this case, after reboot, I could manage wireless networks but none these connections really worked -
wifi interface stayed with "limited access" status and blank IP address.

I'd appreciate any clues for finding solutions. Thanks

[adrien]

Hi

what it sounds like is that the WinGate Network driver may be interfering with the communication between the wireless driver and the software trying to manage it.

What sort of wireless adapter is it? We may need to see if we can replicate on the same or similar hardware.

If you're not using the features of WinGate that need the driver (NAT, Firewall, VPN), you could uncheck if from your wireless adapter.

Regards

Adrien

[m0nzderr]

Hi Adrien,

What sort of wireless adapter is it? We may need to see if we can replicate on the same or similar hardware.

It's on-board Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 chip, (VEN_8086&DEV 0091&SUBSYS_52018086&REV_34)
Intel driver v15.0.0.75, by 29/11/2011. I've just thought that there might be a newer driver over there by now, I'm going to to look for updates and give
you a feedback if it helped.

If you're not using the features of WinGate that need the driver (NAT, Firewall, VPN), you could uncheck if from your wireless adapter.

Actually, NAT is what it is all about - I'm planning to use WinGate an alternative to ICS, but with descent DNS, DHCP, etc.
I tried to uncheck wingate driver from adapter: just after pressing "OK" to apply changes the adapter properties window hanged ('not responding').
After reboot I was able to flawlessly manage my wireless connection, but, of course, without NAT working on it.

Anyway, thanks a lot for attention!

More as it happens,
Illya

[m0nzderr]

UPD:

What I tried this time:
- updated adapter driver to the latest version available from intel (2013)
- setup all supplied windows 7 x64 updates

None of it did help: still got the same probem - unable to do anything with ACTIVE wifi connection if WinGate driver is enabled.
Any modifiction of ACTIVE connection leads to frozen network indicator and frozen Start->Control Panel->Network widget (I'm unable even to list other network adapters - window is grayed, 'not responding').
Note, that if my connection is disabled, or driver is disabled, or just no network available at the boot time, I can enable driver and/or connect to any AP just fine.

[adrien]

Hi

thanks for the update.

We are going to need to try to replicate this problem, which means getting access to the same network hardware you are using.

Is there any other networking, firewall, or AV software installed on that computer? Many current AV products install components into the network stack as well which can interfere with WinGate.

Other things you could possibly try:

* disable all task off-loading in the network adapters advanced settings, such as:
- TCP checksum offloading
- IP checksum offloading
* disable large packet (jumbo) packets
* disable chimney offloading

Regards

Adrien