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shawn857

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Wireless fun --> ""It is not possible to disable the connection at this time. The connection may be using one or more protocols that do not support Plug and Play, or it may have been initiated..."

Hi, I have a cable modem connection with 3 computers hardwired to the cablemodem. All worked fine until I tried to fool around the other day with an old DLink router to try and get a wireless connection going, I'm no expert and I was having a hard time getting it working. Gave up last night, and today I tried moving some ethernet cable connections around and then attempted to see if my main (wired) laptop could get on the wireless network, so I went to CONTROL PANEL | NETWORK CONNECTIONS on my laptop, and DISabled my normal, wired "Lcal Area Connection" icon, and the ENabled my "Wireless Network COnnection" icon. It still couldn't detect the DLink wireless router, so I thought "well, enough fooling with that Dlink router, I just can't get it going", and tried to put my Network Connections back to my normal hard-wired state. So I right-clicked on the "Wireless Network Connection" icon and selected DISable, but this came up:

"It is not possible to disable the connection at this time. The connection may be using one or more protocols that do not support Plug and Play, or it may have been initiated by another user or the system account".

I was able to ENABLE this easlity just 30 seconds ago, but now I can't DISABLE it. So now I'm stuck with no internet connection at all - I can't disable te Wireless connection in order to return back to my normal hard-wired Local Area Connection.

My laptop is running XP Pro SP3 and there is only one user account on this laptop (just me, always Administrator). Can you  help please? It's never done this before - I've always been able to connect successfully to wireless networks when I'm away at hotels, etc. it's just since I started to fool around trying to connect this darn old DLink router... I don't know what I could have did. I *did* do some router configuration using the DLink setup pages that come up on my browser by going to http://192.168.0.1. Maybe something needs to be "undone" there??

Thanks
   Shawn
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CompProbSolv
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I'm not sure why you're getting that message but you shouldn't need to disable wireless to get the wired connection working.
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Dan Grossman

Have you tried restarting your computer?
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ASKER

Thanks guys.

CompProbSolv - yep, my wired connection just won't work while the wireless connection is enabled. In my lower-right systemtray it shows the wireless icon with an X on it. And when I simultaneously enable my wired connection, it won't display the usual icon of two little computers trying to establish a connection. Just nothing.

Dan Grossman - I'm afraid to restart it! I just left everything as is... I fear restarting it will change some default settings and dig me a deeper hole than I'm already in!

Thanks
   Shawn
Try this:
  • Click Start and select Run, type cmd and click OK.
  • Type net stop cryptsvc and press the Enter key.
  • Type ren %systemroot%\System32\Catroot2 oldcatroot2 and press the Enter key.
  • Restart the computer.
  • Open again command prompt and Type net start cryptsvc and press the Enter key.
OK Masnrock... but I really fear restarting the computer for fear it might not even boot back up (paranoid, I guess). Do you think it will be okay? It won't make matters worse?

Thanks
   Shawn
Shawn, before your posting had you made any other changes? I honestly do not believe that things will get any worse. I understand your worries, but inaction isn't going to help either. And we are all here to help you get to resolution.
Masnrock - just looking in my Windows\System32 folder and there is actually no file named "Catroot2"...

I didn't execute any of your suggested commands yet.

Thanks
   Shawn
No sir, I had not made any other changes.  Only this - after looking at a site that said to reset something in Network Adapters in the "Device Manager", I did go there and look at it, clicked on the Properties of "Intel PRO Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection". There in the ADVANCED tab, it had a button that says "Wireless On", I clicked the drop down window next to it that shows there's a check mark in Wireless On, and none in Wireless Off. I did put it to Wireless Off, but then it said I would need to do a retstart to make the change, so I put it back to Wireless On, and clicked Cancel to get out of that window. I did not do the restart. It is currently still retaining the setting of "Wireless On". I don't know if I should change this or not... what do you think?

Thanks
   Shawn
Two other methods that come to mind...
1) Reset Winsock and TCP/IP stack
2) Uninstall, reboot system, then reinstall the drivers for your network cards

Does your laptop have a switch or button to turn off the wireless card?
1) Reset Winsock and TCP/IP stack

>> OK. How do I do this?

2) Uninstall, reboot system, then reinstall the drivers for your network cards

>> That would be in the Device Manager? I don't have my original XP CD for this laptop... it was bought 2nd hand.

Does your laptop have a switch or button to turn off the wireless card?

>> No sir, it's builtin wireless. It's a Thinkpad T43 (older laptop). What about that stuff I mentioned under DEVIICE MANAGER | NETWORK ADAPTERS? Would it be worthwhile trying to set it to "Wireless Off" there?

Thanks
   Shawn
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masnrock
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Yes, there's an i386 folder. Also, yes it does have "Access Connections". I didn'tt know what that was, but I clicked on "Access IBM" and serached in there and found a setup wizrd for "Access Connections". I didn't do anything yet.

I'm not sure what to do now.

Thanks
   Shawn

P.S: There IS a "Catroot" FOLDER (not a file) off my System32 folder. Is this what you meant?
it looks like resetting the router is the simplest way out
Nobus - resetting my main cablemodem/router... or the DLink wireless router? I don't even want to bother anymore trying to get that Dlink to work, it's not important.... I've unplugged it and put it away and connected/plugged everything back as before. I just want to get my old hard-wired ethernet connection working again.

Thanks
   Shawn
Needed sleep. Alright, so don't bother with Access Connections since it's not already set up. It is a program you could use to create network profiles in different locations and also set things like turning off the wireless card if the Ethernet card is connected.

Have you tried Fn+F5 to see if the wireless card will turn off? If that doesn't work, try the method you found in the Device Manager (Normally you should never have to do this).

The reason why I ask about the i386 folder is when Windows is looking for files to install/uninstall something, you can point to this folder if you don't have the CD.
if you  don't use the d-link, there's no reason to reset it - that should be clear
so reset YOUR ROUTER; you probably messed up it's settings
the last possibility i see is that it went bad (or a cable) -  but it's too early to conclude that
Did you install anything on the laptop any time recently?
Thanks guys.

Masnrock - have't tried Fn+F5 nor Device Manager yet. The only thing I installed lately was "Advanced SystemCare 10" a couple of weeks ago. It actually really helped to clean up and speed up the laptop and things have been running perfectly since then, up till I decided to fool with that wireless router.

Nobus - I have the Dlink router completely unplugged and put away, no more fiddling with that. I just now reset my main cablemodem/router... but it hasn't seemed to make any difference.


Guys, googling around a bit I read how issuing the "ipconfig /all" command can yield some useful info. Well, I did this on my laptop and all it returns is:

"Windows IP Configuration"

.. and nothing else. I do the same command on another of my wired computers (ie. this one) and it displays all the details that you would expect it to - Physical address, DHCP enabled, etc etc etc. But on the laptop that I'm having the problem on... nothing at all. Does that offer any added insight?
  I won't do anything else till I hear back from you.

Thanks
   Shawn
I'd really lean towards resetting Winsock and TCP/IP stack.
SUCCESS!!!! Resetting TCPIP and Winsock and rebooting worked perfectly! I am right back to my wired conection, and the Wireless connection icon in Network Connection properly shows "Disabled". All is well... thank you!

Cheers
   Shawn
Shawn, you're quite welcome. Glad you're up and running again.