Connecting USB disables wireless wifi network!

[douwekasemier]

I'm having the same problem! It's terrible, I cannot connect my Live 1000 (which needs a map update) to my PC because when I do the network connection dies. Changing the network adapter mapping doesn't help at all. When I have the tomtom connected windows just says it cannot start the wireless connection tool anymore.

 

[canderson]

Is the wireless your own wi-fi system or are you connected from your carrier via wireless? Sounds like you've got a wireless carrier.

 

[Andy_P]

Check the CPU load of svchost.exe (the generic Windows host service for lots of things) using Task mManager or better still Sysinternals Process Explorer (now distributed by Microsoft themselves).

There will be several instances of it running and one of them is for The Wireless Zero Config and another is for the Network Service/DNS client.

Whenever I connect a recent model TomTom, the second one of those grabs about 98% of CPU time and takes about 30-40 seconds to settle down again.

I can't give any solutions to your problem, but that might give someone clever than I am a clue

 

[canderson]

@Andy
Wireless Zero Config is the cheesy out-of-the-box utility and underlying software that Microsoft supplies for WiFi connection control (first came with XP SP2 if I recall). I like the one Linksys provides better. I hear NetGear has their own, too. If you aren't WiFi connected on that box, there's really no reason for that service to be running.

Is the unit to which you're hooking your 'recent model TomTom' connected to the outside world over a personal or other WiFi connection?

The Network Service/DNS client - probably gets beat up a little as MyTT dumps all of the URLs on it that need to be resolved that are related to MyTT operation. Seems like every third piece of config information in a certain file has a URL for a certain place back in the NL. Not particularly surprising.

 

[Andy_P]

Personally, I don't have any problem with the Zero Config part... I was just trying to think what the OP's problem area might be.

But when the DNS server part is maxxing out it causes MyTomTom to get confused sometimes....
You plug the device in, MyTTT jumps into action and tries to connect to the servers, but gets delayed because the TT itself is hogging all the resources.

 

[canderson]

The whole MyTT bridging thing is quite a cluster. Comms to the NL server being passed to the device which itself is a server. All in turn over a USB / Ethernet bridge! There's no reason that there should be any DNS issue with the TomTom itself since the addresses are hard coded. But wow .. what a bunch of URLs involved on the Netherlands side of the equation. Take a look at the prefs.ini file in the cache folder, for example! 9 URLs right there... and that's just for starters.

 

[douwekasemier]

Is the wireless your own wi-fi system or are you connected from your carrier via wireless? Sounds like you've got a wireless carrier.

No im on a regular wifi network of my own. I use a decent router and an buildin intel 802.11n card. But it has nothing to do with the network since when i plug in tomtom it doesnt find ANY wifi network anymore. Its just totally dead but the adapter is fine. In the services tool in windows you can see that wireless zero just stops when you connect tomtom. You cannot start it and it doesnt give a reasonable error.

I think it might be fixable by using an intel tool to connect my wifi, but I dont want to. It will give me some issues when i use vpn a t theunivrrsity

 

[Andy_P]

I'm stumbling in the dark here, but on every laptop I've owned (not many and all old) the manufacturers have replaced the bog-standard Windows wireless zero app. with one of their own.
So maybe there are better alternatives out there?

 

[douwekasemier]

Changed a lot since Windows Vista. My Dell just uses the windows wireless zero app. When using a good intel card it's really the fastest to connect to a network because the intel drivers just work very good with it. I'm going to try the intel app tonight, because I'm at the university now and the intel app doesn't pair well with the VPN here.

 

[canderson]

@douwekasemier
OK - think I understand now. You are trying to use your WiFi connected notebook or desktop computer to connect your TomTom. I didn't pick that up clearly at first. That computer is evidently connected by your own wireless router to the internet somehow (via DSL or cable modem or whatever).

Further, what you are saying is that the WiFi on your notebook or desktop dies when you plug in your TomTom.

That seems to be happening because your computer is becoming confused about having two NICs running at once, one a WiFi NIC through the Intel card, and the other a virtual NIC (the USB/Ethernet bridge software for your TomTom).

When the TomTom (a server, in fact) gets hooked up, 'activating' the virtual NIC, are saying that you can no longer see the Intel NIC as a device, or that it simply ceases to function (you lose connection to the outside world). The former would be pretty strange. The latter might be explained in the same way as was the case for a LOT of Mac users. If your machine is attempting to use the virtual NIC for net communications, that's obviously not going to work!

We can start from there if you think I've got it right so far.

 

[canderson]

BTW - we don't really recommend trying to run any largish files over WiFi when working with the MyTomTom interface. At least I don't. Have had too many stalled or corrupted transfers. I'm back to hardwired connections for that kind of thing again.

 

[douwekasemier]

I think you got it very right! The strange thing is that I don't expect the whole wireless zero service to die when this happens, because changing the preferred network interface order doesn't help when I cannot connect to a wireless network at all.

A silly thing with my laptop is that my ethernet port is physically dead. I never use it, but It would've been very handy to test right now. The wifi connection is really good though, because I'm 1 meter from the router at my desk.

Thank you!

By the way, I will update my tomtom at my office tomorrow so not being able to do that at home shouldn't be more then an inconvenience that I'd like to get rid off.

 

[canderson]

What was happening to other users was that their TomTom virtual NIC was being detected as wireless instead of wired. Well, let's just say that two virtual NICs were being discovered by Windoze. There was some suspicion at the time that Windows had assumed the presence of two wireless NICs, and the more recently created one (due to plugging in the unit) would halt the original (real) WiFi version.

One user found the problem was resolved by installing a newer version of the MyTomTom software. Whether it was the newer version or the act of installing that resolved that one is anyone's guess. The latest can be found here: https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/mytomtom/getstarted/

I would be curious to know whether or not your TomTom is showing up as a wireless NIC or a more conventional sort. Just to be safe...

In your "Network Connections", does the TomTom show up as a "Local Area Connection" or as a "Wireless Network Connection" when your WiFi connection dies? If your WiFi "NIC" dies, check the properties of any "Wireless Network Connection" that you see, and in particular, check the "Connect using" field. Might be a clue in your reply.

 

[txgrl]

Hello,

I have a similar problem as the topic starter.

My mother has a laptop with windows XP. She has a TomTom Via 125.
She connect to the internet wireless via a Belkin Router.

When she connected the TomTom to any USB port all wireless connections would be disconnected immediately. The TomTom would show up as a LAN device.

After many attempts to sort this out and without any help from the support desk I took the laptop and TomTom home with me for a week. I also have a Belkin Router with the same properties and wireless options installed. Even the SSID is the same.

I worked on the computer for a few days. Installed everything properly again. Removed the hardware and reinstalled the TomTom etc. etc.
Finally (yes!) everything was working. I was very happy about this.

Then she took the laptop home with her. Connected to the internet. Inserted the TomTom and...... alle connections are gone again.

I am desperate! Who can help me!

It's a TomTom Via 125. She has windows XP. No firewall. Port 4000 is open in the router.

Thanks!

 

[dhn]

Supermod canderson lives in a timezone where it is currently just after 6 am local time. I'm sure when he wakes up, he'll log in and see this thread. He may give some suggestions. Check back in a couple of hours.

 

[canderson]

FWIW, it is correct that the TomTom shows up as a LAN device (like a NIC card). It's actually functioning as a little micro-server.

Next - is that Belkin router hardwire connected to a cable or DSL modem, or ???

Next - what else is connected to that Belkin wireless router, either by wire or by WiFi?

I'll confess to being clueless about this disconnect business. While I fully understand what is being reported by several users, I have been using the MyTomTom software with my GO1535 on my little Asus netbook (WinXP SP3) via a WiFi connection without issue since July of this year. I'm beginning to think that if we are to make any progress on this at all, it might be necessary to evaluate each environment in a fair bit of detail. Hard to know just where to start, though.

Discounting the Mac users for a moment (similar symptom, but uniquely Mac cause), we've seen complaints by XP, Vista and Win7 users, haven't we?

There are only two reasons for a machine to have two NIC cards - which is how it appears to a PC when you plug in a MyTomTom based device. One is to provide access to two networks to the machine, and the other is to create a bridge between two networks. What we do NOT want is the latter. Any communication between the two 'networks' in this case should be handled exclusively by the MyTomTom software.

So I suppose one place to start is the NIC configuration to be absolutely sure that the PC doesn't think we're in 'bridge' mode.

Right click "My Network Places" and select "Properties"
Plug in the TomTom (and watch the WiFi LAN icon develop a red X, I assume)
Your TomTom LAN icon will appear as "Local Connection x" (some number)
Right click the TomTom's LAN "Local Area Connection x" icon
ATTEMPT to select "Bridge Connections" (but if it allows, don't do it!)
You should get an error during that attempt!

Again, right click on the LAN icon for your TomTom
Select "Status"
Select the "Support" tab
What do you see there for the IP Address and Subnet Mask fields?
It should be reporting back 169.254.255.2 and 255.255.255.252
Click on the "Close" button


Now, let's look at the specifics of the WiFi connection (even though dead)
Please right click on the WiFi LAN icon
Select "Properties"
Above, you will see "Connect using..:" box with a "Configure" button to the right
Click on the "Configure" button
Click on the "Advanced" tab
Slide down to the "Radio On/Off" item. What "Value" appears in the upper right? Should be "On"
Click the "Cancel" button

Right click on the WiFi LAN icon again
Select "Repair"
What happens? If possible, get some help writing down the messages. If you don't get them all in the first attempt, hit the "Close" button, and repeat the steps in this paragraph again.

 

[txgrl]

The laptop is connected wireless with Belkin.

Belkin is connected with utp cable to a cable modem.

There are no other devices except for a wireless printer which is powered off.

At my mothers home the wireless disconnects completely and doesn't recognize any network even after disconnecting tomtom.

At my home (before I fixed it, or thought so at least) it didn't disconnect with ac red cross but simply gives a network error when trying to browse the internet.

I cannot test anything this week since we dont live close.

What annoys me the most: it worked at my house even after multiple reboots.
And now it doesn't.

 

[canderson]

OK - well, if you get the chance to answer the above questions, that would at least give me a baseline. However, I have come to suspect that the difference is in the application being used to make the connection to the network. Under XP (SP2 with hotfix or SP3), you will have a choice of the native Windows Wi-Fi application and UI (aka "Wireless Zero") or whatever application/UI MAY have accompanied your computer or Wi-Fi dongle.

What I should probably be doing here is requesting from each user with this problem information about how the Wi-Fi connection is being managed, and should probably keep it simple by requesting this first of XP users only.

So...

Are you using the native Windows application to manage the connection? If so, you will be using the simple little systray icon that looks like a computer monitor and keyboard? with three semicircles to the right.

Or are you using an application provided with the computer or external Wi-Fi device what was supplied by the manufacturer of the computer/device? It will be a different icon and quite a different user interface. If so, can you identify the manufacturer when you bring up the user interface, and perhaps even the version number of that application?

 

[- et -]

No disconnect here

I'll confess to being clueless about this disconnect business. While I fully understand what is being reported by several users, I have been using the MyTomTom software with my GO1535 on my little Asus netbook (WinXP SP3) via a WiFi connection without issue since July of this year. I'm beginning to think that if we are to make any progress on this at all, it might be necessary to evaluate each environment in a fair bit of detail. Hard to know just where to start, though.

In case it is of any help, I've also been successfully running MyTomTom with a GO1535 and a WiFi connection since this past summer. The computer is an ACER netbook, running Windows 7. I am not at home, and cannot check the details of the WiFi adapter and the Windows settings at this moment, but can do so later if it would be of assistance.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

 

[canderson]

Tom - since most people are successful, might not help all that much to check the NIC details, but I really would be interested to know whose app/UI (and version, if you have one) you are using to control your WiFi connections. Might help me weed out some possibilities.