Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

Rockin_cs · 2009-05-22 13:34

After installing Vista SP2 on x64 and x86 machines I noticed that on reboot the systems do not have a connection to the internet. The local lan is available. If I run an IPconfig on the machines the "gateway" is missing. I can add this infformation and it will work, but upon reboot it disappears. Also I can click on any of the profiles and it will work. I uninstalled the program and then deleted the install directory set the NIC and all was good. I then re-installed NetSetMan and configured. All was well until reboot. Once rebooted gateway is missing. Just click on the profile and it works.

Going to try it on my notebook today and see if that also has the same issue. May be my systems but seems to be a small bug with SP2???

NetSetMan Support · 2009-05-22 14:40

As far as I know the final version of SP2 for Vista hasn't been released yet. Imho using a Beta version of a service pack in a productive environment is not a good idea.

Did you use NetSetMan before SP2? Did it work then?

Have you tried setting the gateway manually (without NetSetMan) and then rebooting? Does the gateway disappear then, too?

One important note: Installing and uninstalling NetSetMan doesn't change any system files. Only files in the program folder and optionally shortcuts in the start menu are created. Therefore installing, uninstalling or reinstalling NetSetMan won't ever make difference.

Rockin_cs · 2009-05-22 14:47

Hi Ilja:
SP2 was released to Microsoft Partners and MSDN and is full RTM. General public will get in a few days I would assume.

Yes I used Netsetman before the SP; Yes it works fine if I uninstall netsetman and then set the NIC manually and reboot. The gateway does not disappear. Re-install and then configure and reboot and it disappears.

I can provide you SP2 if you would like.

Thanks
Rob

NetSetMan Support · 2009-05-22 15:18

I did a quick research and found this:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For … 550695ee3d

Seems like other people having this problem, too. Even by setting it manually. So maybe some general bug in SP2?
Kind if frustrating to deal with bugs, that come up with an update that should fix other bugs bug leave the working parts as they are...

Please send me an email concerning the download possibility for the SP2. I'll try to reproduce the problem and find a solution or a workaround.

NetSetMan Support · 2009-05-23 01:00

OK, I installed SP2 on a VM and ran some tests.

At the beginning I didn't even install NSM. I just set up some settings manually and rebooted. And guest what: The GW disappeared. I tried several different settings (different ranges, different amounts of addresses, etc.) - each time all the GW addresses vanished after a reboot.

I tried the same with NSM. As expected the same problem occured.

I found several topics concerning exactly this problem:
1. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For … 550695ee3d
2. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For … fc73b85883
3. http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/windows … ished.html
...
People wrote there, that this problem didn't occur in the RC! I have no idea how such a big flaw could happen between a RC and the final version. However, I assume, after the official release there will be some big moaning... Maybe Microsoft will come up with an update for that.
Until then: I think, I found a way how to solve this manually.

Solution for Vista SP2 gateway bug:
1. Open the registry with regedit.exe
2. Go to the path: HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Tcpip/Parameters/Interfaces/
3. Here you'll need to select the CLSID of your networkadapter where you change the settings. You'll probably recognize it by looking at the value IPAddress that will have the IP of this adapter.
4. Open the value "DefaultGateway" by doubleclicking it. You will see a list of all the gateways that disappeared! (maybe in your case it will be only one, in my case there were due to lots of testing several addresses) Very likely, the first line will be empty. I'm not sure, how this little flaw can make such a big problem. However, if you manually remove this first empty line, click OK and reboot your system everything should be working fine again.

After doing this, everything seemed normal to me. I could change the GW manually and by NSM. After a reboot everything was still there. Of course it needs to be verified in a long-term use if it fixes it forever or if the problem comes back at some point.

Rockin_cs · 2009-05-28 14:25

I just finished testing your workaround/fix and it worked!! Leave it to MS to have something nutty like that happen. Removing the "blank" line in the gateway corrected the issue. On reboot it works as it should!. Thanks again for taking a look at the issue. Good work!

observer · 2009-12-09 17:01

It worked for me on Server 2008. In my case there was no DefaultGateway key in the interface. I believe this solves a lot of posts in various MS operating systems with the same problem.

Not sure the cause, but the solution is simple.

Thanks.

kebeq · 2009-12-14 21:17

I have Vista Business 64bit SP1, and after installing SP2 I got the same problem.
Thanks for posting the solution, it worked (with the exception that I had to create the 'DefaultGateway').
I'm just astonished that after half a year later, MS still hasn't fixed the SP2.

rustyburrito · 2013-02-09 03:10

Ilja Herlein wrote:

OK, I installed SP2 on a VM and ran some tests.
At the beginning I didn't even install NSM. I just set up some settings manually and rebooted. And guest what: The GW disappeared. I tried several different settings (different ranges, different amounts of addresses, etc.) - each time all the GW addresses vanished after a reboot.
I tried the same with NSM. As expected the same problem occured.
I found several topics concerning exactly this problem:
1. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For … 550695ee3d
2. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For … fc73b85883
3. http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/windows … ished.html
...
People wrote there, that this problem didn't occur in the RC! I have no idea how such a big flaw could happen between a RC and the final version. However, I assume, after the official release there will be some big moaning... Maybe Microsoft will come up with an update for that.
Until then: I think, I found a way how to solve this manually.
Solution for Vista SP2 gateway bug:
1. Open the registry with regedit.exe
2. Go to the path: HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Tcpip/Parameters/Interfaces/
3. Here you'll need to select the CLSID of your networkadapter where you change the settings. You'll probably recognize it by looking at the value IPAddress that will have the IP of this adapter.
4. Open the value "DefaultGateway" by doubleclicking it. You will see a list of all the gateways that disappeared! (maybe in your case it will be only one, in my case there were due to lots of testing several addresses) Very likely, the first line will be empty. I'm not sure, how this little flaw can make such a big problem. However, if you manually remove this first empty line, click OK and reboot your system everything should be working fine again.
After doing this, everything seemed normal to me. I could change the GW manually and by NSM. After a reboot everything was still there. Of course it needs to be verified in a long-term use if it fixes it forever or if the problem comes back at some point.

Congratulations and thank you so much, because this solution worked perfectly for my vista 32 bit station, (that had the exact same problem).
Noticed the problem with gateway disapearing after reboot and was driving me crazy!
You are a genius!

NetSetMan Support · 2013-02-09 11:01

I'm glad the solution is useful even 3 years later. wink

dmitche3 · 2014-01-31 19:00

Thanks. This saved me $$$ and time. When I went to edit the defaultgateway field it was clear what the problem was.
Not only was my current default gateway in a 'list ' of IP addresses, the first entry was a blank! I cleared out the old entries
and no more network problems.

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate and had no problems for 3 years when I tried to install an Asus RT68U router. sad It installed some crap IPCV6 NDIS software that I believe caused the problem. sad

I believe that this can happen to ANY version of Windows seeing that the default gateway is a list and not a single value.

For people that don't know HKLM is shorthand for Hkey_local_Machine.

The part of this post that I'm referring to is:

Ilja Herlein wrote:

Solution for Vista SP2 gateway bug:
1. Open the registry with regedit.exe
2. Go to the path: HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Tcpip/Parameters/Interfaces/
3. Here you'll need to select the CLSID of your networkadapter where you change the settings. You'll probably recognize it by looking at the value IPAddress that will have the IP of this adapter.
4. Open the value "DefaultGateway" by doubleclicking it. You will see a list of all the gateways that disappeared! (maybe in your case it will be only one, in my case there were due to lots of testing several addresses) Very likely, the first line will be empty. I'm not sure, how this little flaw can make such a big problem. However, if you manually remove this first empty line, click OK and reboot your system everything should be working fine again.
After doing this, everything seemed normal to me. I could change the GW manually and by NSM. After a reboot everything was still there. Of course it needs to be verified in a long-term use if it fixes it forever or if the problem comes back at some point.

NetSetMan Support · 2014-01-31 23:22

Thanks for sharing your experience on that topic!
I guess the reason why this issue affected so many people was because that mysterious empty line was included in the official SP2 release of Vista.
But it's definitely interesting to know that according to your observation if this empty line is added manually or by some software the malfunction's still present.

NetSetMan Support

#1 2009-05-22 13:34

Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#2 2009-05-22 14:40

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#3 2009-05-22 14:47

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#4 2009-05-22 15:18

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#5 2009-05-23 01:00

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#6 2009-05-28 14:25

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#7 2009-12-09 17:01

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#8 2009-12-14 21:17

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#9 2013-02-09 03:10

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#10 2013-02-09 11:01

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#11 2014-01-31 19:00

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2

#12 2014-01-31 23:22

Re: Possible bug after installation of Vista SP2