WiFi but no Internet on laptop

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I got a call from my daughter at collge. Her laptop will connect to WiFi but has no internet connection. it was working a week ago at home with our WiFi at home but she now says that all WiFi anywhere (school, apartment, cafes) does the same thing…connected bu no internet connectivity.
This is obviously hard to diagnose from several hundred miles away but what things should we be looking for? I wanted her to make sure her home internet was set as a trusted home network, etc. What else should we look at?
Thanks. Feeling helpless from so far away.

Mike

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If third party firewall software is running, check that to make sure internet access is not blocked.

Joe

--Joe

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Go to Control Panel > Internet Options > Connections tab > Lan Settings button and make sure the box next to “use a proxy server….” is not checked. Some Malware will change this setting so if it is checked and clearing it fixes the problem, download and run a Malwarebytes full scan. (http://www.malwarebytes.org)

If Use a Proxy server is not checked, see if your daughter can contact the school tech support department for help.

Jerry

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If the laptop is more than a couple of years old you probably need to update the wireless drivers. I had exactly the same problem with one of my laptops and it was caused by a new router that defaulted to the newest “most secure” security settings. The older wireless drivers were not compatible with that setting. A wired connection to the router worked fine but the wireless connected but had no internet access.

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First I would try opening a command prompt and running “ipconfig” and “ping google.com” to confirm the “no internet” symptom – Usually when I see the “Connected to wireless, but can’t browse the internet” symptom the problem is browser or firewall related. If the ping shows router and internet connectivity, then look for firewall or browser issues. If no ip address being assigned by the router, or pinging fails, then the router may be at fault.

Good Luck.

John Brown
Halifax, NS

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You must learn if she is getting a valid IP address. With wireless, there is a radio portion and a networking portion. When connecting, the security side is on the radio portion. When it connects, it first satisfies the security (WiFi ACCESS Code and encryption) and then places the request to a DHCP server for an address. If either, she has a static IP setup in her Wireless configuration (IPV4 properties not set to “obtain automatically” on both address and DNS), or a DHCP server does not respond, she will get the “connected but limited access” message. If it is set to static IP, then it will only work on systems that use that same subnet, and then only if there is no other PC’s using that same static address. If no DHCP server responds, then the card will default to a 69.x.x.x address, which is always invalid. The last possibility is that there is a problem with proper DNS settings. It is possible to satisfy the security, get a valid IP, and then have a wrong value defined for DNS server which then prevents functionality of going to any address that is not in standard IP form (http://www.xxx.yyy.zzz). So with this knowledge:

First launch command prompt: (START-run – cmd), then at the command prompt, type “ipconfig /all” and press enter. This will return the current settings of the Networks. Scroll up and look at the Wireless IPV4 settings. If IP address starts with 69… then the laptop did not get a valid IP from a DHCP server and timed out to the default. – Try resetting the WIFI router or access point.

Second, also look at the DNS server settings just below the IP address in the IPV4 settings. Ensure they are set to proper addresses or the default gateway IP address (See Third step). This info is provided by your ISP.

Third, also look at the Default Gateway IP address in the IPV4 section: Note the address, then at the COMMAND prompt, type “Ping (Default Gateway Address you noted)” without the quotes or Parenthesis. Hit return and see if you get replies.. If yes, then you are connected with a valid address and have just verified that you are talking to the first router on your network. If no replies, then you probably don’t have a valid IP address, or are being blocked by a firewall – unless the router was set to not reply to pings.

Fourth, if you are getting valid replies, then try “ping 198.60.22.2”. This is a valid public IP address for an ISP DNS server in UTah. If you get replies from that address or any other valid public IP, then you are connected to the internet and there may be a problem with your browser, or malware etc. If not, then there is a failure upstream from your Default Gateway Router.

Fifth, if you are able to ping any public IP on the internet, next try pinging a normal address such as “www.google.com” or any other valid URL. If you get replies then your internet connectivity is fine, your DNS values are fine, therefore your network settings are fine, and the problem is in your browser or firewall. Look for malware or browser hijack, or perhaps corrupted browser settings or program files. If using Internet Explorer, try going to TOOLS – Internet Options – Advanced Tab, and press “RESTORE ADVANCED SETTINGS”, then APPLY. Followed by pressing the RESET button. Exit then relaunch. Any other browser like chrome or firefox, try reinstalling.

Good Luck!

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I got a call from my daughter at college. Her laptop will connect to WiFi but has no internet connection. it was working a week ago at home with our WiFi at home but she now says that all WiFi anywhere (school, apartment, cafes) does the same thing…connected bu no internet connectivity.
This is obviously hard to diagnose from several hundred miles away but what things should we be looking for? I wanted her to make sure her home internet was set as a trusted home network, etc. What else should we look at?
Thanks. Feeling helpless from so far away.
Mike

Is the college wireless encrypted ? Does she have proper wireless key to login college network? Sometimes the laptop adapter may be assigned with static IP address and it fails with wireless network with different network address.
http://www.corenetworkz.com/2010/06/wireless-network-keep-connecting-and.html

Some Malware will change this setting so if it is checked and clearing it fixes the problem, download and run a Malwarebytes full scan. (http://www.malwarebytes.org)

Yea, it is must to check for malware infection. Certain malwares block computer from accessing Internet.

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Go to Control Panel > Internet Options > Connections tab > Lan Settings button and make sure the box next to “use a proxy server….” is not checked. Some Malware will change this setting so if it is checked and clearing it fixes the problem, download and run a Malwarebytes full scan. (http://www.malwarebytes.org)

If Use a Proxy server is not checked, see if your daughter can contact the school tech support department for help.

Jerry

This WORKED FOR ME!!! Thank You so much!!!! I spent hours trying to figure out how to fix this and came across your solution!!! 11/23/14

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Hi Mike,

Because you mentioned “trusted home network”, I’m assuming that the laptop is running Windows. Which version is it? Windows XP, Vista/7 and 8 have really different network configuration dialog boxes.

As other members have already recommended, checking whether or not the laptop is getting an IP address assignment is the first step. Home and college WiFi networks usually (hopefully) have some kind of wireless security enabled so it requires more work to set up a connection. Cafes and other retail outlets usually set up public hotspots with no authentication other than agreeing to the terms of use so connection problems are usually hardware/software related (e.g. not all WiFi devices are compatible with all WiFi access points, and vice versa.) Hardware issues aside, check the network trust settings to see if only your home network was trusted. Depending on the configuration, accessing the Internet from all other WiFi networks might be blocked.

One thing you might try is a remote desktop connection to make it easier to diagnose the WiFi problem. Chances are that the college has a lot of rooms with network data jacks that your daughter could temporarily use. Rather than deal with enabling remote desktop in Windows/Mac, use TeamViewer (teamviewer.com) to make a temporary connection. The service is free for private use and requires no registration and/or software installation (the software is a small standalone program). When you launch the program, you select whether you are the one sharing or connecting to a remote computer. For whoever is sharing, the program generates a random PIN. The connecting computer uses the PIN to authenticate and the person on the remote computer must still confirm the connection for extra security.

Chung

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How Windows determines if it has Internet access – Hint having IP connectivity to the internet is only part of it.

Open a command prompt and run NSLOOKUP dns.msftncsi.com
If it does not return “dns.msftncsi.com = 131.107.255.255” you have a problem.

In a browser open http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt
If you can open it good. Otherwise check firewall, DNS and scan for mal-ware

Check for registry key
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesNlaSvcParametersInternet” “EnableActiveProbing”

If present, delete it and reboot. Disabling this check will prevent the system from checking for an Internet connection.

Resource:
Appendix K: Network Connectivity Status Indicator and Resulting Internet Communication in Windows Vista
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766017(v=WS.10).aspx

It is valid for Windows 7 and Windows 8.

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If everything worked until a week ago, it’s possible that a Windows update (or some other update) has hosed something.

One thing she could try is to uninstall all Windows updates which were installed right before the problem started.

Make note of whatever is uninstalled, and uninstall them one at a time. If things start working, then you will know which one was the culprit.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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You’re welcome. Happy to hear the post was of some help.

Jerry

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Maybe this problem is caused by some safe defender applications. Try to lower the security degree.

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