Vista asking for internet password when it shouldn't

frank_online · 17th May 2008

Hi!

I live in a student corridor, where we have internet in each room.

I personally have a mac, and most people here have either that or XP.

Connecting to the internet is simple. You plug in the network cable, and start googling away. No passwords or usernames needed.

Now my neighbor just bought a new laptop with Vista in it. We plug in the network cable, and gets prompted with a "enter username and password" window.

***?

No one else needs to enter that, why does Vista require it?

How do we bypass this? Is there a way?

Sorry if it's a noob question, but please help!

Thanks.

/ Frank

**mattman** · 17th May 2008

Check in Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Connections tab.

If he has set up an internet connection at home, it is probably trying to connect to that ISP's server (for say, the email account).

Does the password box have any indication of what is causing it to be generated? If you go to Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) and check the running processes, you may be able to see which program is causing it.

If you are stuck, get the institution's network administration to check it.

Matt

**bdesmond** · 19th May 2008

Grab Process Explorer from Sysinternals (free). When the authentication dialog pops up, leave it, and also launch Process Explorer. There is a little bullseye icon on the Process Explorer toolbar. Click and drag it to the authentication prompt. What is the name of the process that gets highlighted in the Process Explorer tree?

frank_online · 19th May 2008

Hi guys!

Thanks for the quick replies, but I think I've been a bit missleading.

With the other systems (mac, xp) you just need to plug in the internet cable and then your internet works. You don't need to do any configurations at all.

When you plug in the cable to vista, nothing happens. There's no automatic internet connection.

So, we go into "create internet connection", where there's three options: Wireless, PPPoE and a third one which I don't remember right now.

All three of them require a login, with a username and a password, which isn't needed at either mac or xp.

So, is there another way to connect? Why won't it "just work" like on the other systems? Why does vista decide that our internet service require login, which we don't have?

/ Frank

**Arie** · 19th May 2008

Plugging in a network cable with Vista shouldn't require anything else. Make sure the network adapter has its drivers installed & isn't disabled.