Laptop Wi-Fi Connectivity Problem

[4ginnc]

Not really a Sprint related topic, but it is networking...

 

I've got a Lenovo W510 laptop for work and can connect to wi-fi everywhere I go except for one location.  Our County has 3 libraries and I have no problems at 2 of them but at the 3rd, which just happens to be closest to our kids school and where I go with them sometimes, I just cannot connect with my laptop.

 

Our other laptops connect fine, my phone connects fine, our tablets connect fine but for whatever reason my laptop and this library's wi-fi just seem to hate each other.  Last time I went, I asked them to reboot the router (which they did) and I rebooted my laptop all without success.  The librarians aren't very tech savvy, so beyond resetting the router they weren't much help.

 

I've made sure I have the latest drivers, bios, etc.  Tried disabling 802.11n, setting a specific channel, etc.  Nothing made a difference.  There's really nothing in the event logs or in the Intel wireless event viewer that seems to give me any clues.  Not sure what router they have, but when I went I put in the router IP on my phone's browser it came up with a SonicWall login page.  My laptop has an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 AGN adapter.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions to try next time I'm over there?  No clue at this point why it's only at the one location and with only this one machine.

 

Thanks.

[mozamcrew]

Not really a Sprint related topic, but it is networking...

 

I've got a Lenovo W510 laptop for work and can connect to wi-fi everywhere I go except for one location.  Our County has 3 libraries and I have no problems at 2 of them but at the 3rd, which just happens to be closest to our kids school and where I go with them sometimes, I just cannot connect with my laptop.

 

Our other laptops connect fine, my phone connects fine, our tablets connect fine but for whatever reason my laptop and this library's wi-fi just seem to hate each other.  Last time I went, I asked them to reboot the router (which they did) and I rebooted my laptop all without success.  The librarians aren't very tech savvy, so beyond resetting the router they weren't much help.

 

I assume you are able to see the SSID of the library wireless? Does the wireless actually not connect, or do you simply not have internet access after you connect to the wifi? Also, is the access point open, or using some kind of authentication like WPA2/WPA/WEP? I'd bet the wireless access point is actually separate hardware from the router.

[JossMan]

Going to assume the library has a secure network, correct?  If so do you know what type of security they are using for the WiFi (TKIP, AES, etc)?  How old is the computer, reason I am asking is because some WiFi capable devices will not work on certain types of encryption security, it will recognize the SSID that is being broadcast but will not ever connect.  I have had this problem before and as soon as I changed the type of security it started to connect.  

[4ginnc]

I assume you are able to see the SSID of the library wireless? Does the wireless actually not connect, or do you simply not have internet access after you connect to the wifi? Also, is the access point open, or using some kind of authentication like WPA2/WPA/WEP? I'd bet the wireless access point is actually separate hardware from the router.

 

Yes, I'm able to see the SSID of the library but I just can't connect.  I was able to connect once a few months ago after a couple of reboots but not since.  It's an open access point, no security.  And you may be right about the separate hardware.  I saw Linksys antennas sticking out of the roof but the router login said SonicWall.  The librarian said she "rebooted the wireless",but I don't know exactly which piece she meant when she said that and she probably didn't either.  

[4ginnc]

Going to assume the library has a secure network, correct?  If so do you know what type of security they are using for the WiFi (TKIP, AES, etc)?  How old is the computer, reason I am asking is because some WiFi capable devices will not work on certain types of encryption security, it will recognize the SSID that is being broadcast but will not ever connect.  I have had this problem before and as soon as I changed the type of security it started to connect.  

 

No security on the network.  The computer is about 2 years old, running Windows 7.  One of my home routers is using WEP and the other is using WPA2-PSK and I connect using WPA-Enterprise at the office so I know my laptop can handle those types of security.  This is an open network though.

 

The other Thinkpad we have is even older and it has no problems connecting.

[mozamcrew]

You said you aren't getting any error messages when you try to connect to the network?

[JDD]

Not really a Sprint related topic, but it is networking...

 

I've got a Lenovo W510 laptop for work and can connect to wi-fi everywhere I go except for one location.  Our County has 3 libraries and I have no problems at 2 of them but at the 3rd, which just happens to be closest to our kids school and where I go with them sometimes, I just cannot connect with my laptop.

 

Our other laptops connect fine, my phone connects fine, our tablets connect fine but for whatever reason my laptop and this library's wi-fi just seem to hate each other.  Last time I went, I asked them to reboot the router (which they did) and I rebooted my laptop all without success.  The librarians aren't very tech savvy, so beyond resetting the router they weren't much help.

 

I've made sure I have the latest drivers, bios, etc.  Tried disabling 802.11n, setting a specific channel, etc.  Nothing made a difference.  There's really nothing in the event logs or in the Intel wireless event viewer that seems to give me any clues.  Not sure what router they have, but when I went I put in the router IP on my phone's browser it came up with a SonicWall login page.  My laptop has an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 AGN adapter.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions to try next time I'm over there?  No clue at this point why it's only at the one location and with only this one machine.

 

Thanks.

Just a basic question and you might have already done this. Did you go under manage wireless networks and remove it from the list and try re-establishing a connection to it? At some point the firewall may have got locked down and won't let the connection happen.

[lazydog]

Could be a bad profile for the wireless network. You could try removing the profile, and then reconnecting to the network

http://www.7tutorials.com/fix-troublesome-wireless-connections-removing-their-profile

 

If that doesn't fix it, I would try booting to another OS, to figure out if the problem is Windows. You can download a version of linux like Ubuntu, and run it directly from a cd or usb drive without affecting your windows install. If it works while in linux, then we know it's a windows problem, and can keep troubleshooting that.

 

If the problem is with your wireless hardware, you could grab a mini usb wifi adapter like this one for $10: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WN725N-Wireless-Adapter-Miniature/dp/B008IFXQFU/

(or you could open up your laptop and put in a replacement mini-pcie card)

[CAREND]

i know my local library's wireless is protected and you can only access it after signing in on the website.  is this a possibility?

[koiulpoi]

FORMAT AND RESTORE

 

S-sorry about that. Years in IT have made me jittery, and prone to outbursts...

[MacinJosh]

FORMAT AND RESTORE

 

S-sorry about that. Years in IT have made me jittery, and prone to outbursts...

Even without years in IT I get jittery about technology. :/

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

[4ginnc]

Just a basic question and you might have already done this. Did you go under manage wireless networks and remove it from the list and try re-establishing a connection to it? At some point the firewall may have got locked down and won't let the connection happen.

 

Yes, I tried that a couple of times but no go.

[4ginnc]

You said you aren't getting any error messages when you try to connect to the network?

 

Well, I get a message from Windows saying a problem was encountered trying to connect to the network and then I tried the troubleshooting steps from there.  It tells me there is a problem with the wireless router but it doesn't tell me what.

 

 

i know my local library's wireless is protected and you can only access it after signing in on the website.  is this a possibility?

 

Not at this library.  And my phone and our other computers connect with no problems.  Can't get the wireless to connect at all.

 

Could be a bad profile for the wireless network. You could try removing the profile, and then reconnecting to the network

http://www.7tutorials.com/fix-troublesome-wireless-connections-removing-their-profile

 

If that doesn't fix it, I would try booting to another OS, to figure out if the problem is Windows. You can download a version of linux like Ubuntu, and run it directly from a cd or usb drive without affecting your windows install. If it works while in linux, then we know it's a windows problem, and can keep troubleshooting that.

 

If the problem is with your wireless hardware, you could grab a mini usb wifi adapter like this one for $10: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WN725N-Wireless-Adapter-Miniature/dp/B008IFXQFU/

(or you could open up your laptop and put in a replacement mini-pcie card)

 

I've deleted the profile and then rescanned for the SSID but still with no luck.  Booting to Linux on a USB drive is a good idea.  I had one already a while ago but don't know where it is anymore.   Will need to find an empty one and rebuild it.  Maybe later this week I can get this done and retry it.

 

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

[JDD]

Yes, I tried that a couple of times but no go.

 

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

 

 

Try this, but you need to run it from home or somewhere that the PC does connect to the internet. This will reset the TCP stacks. After a virus attack it is common that they mess with the TCP/IP configurations and cause issues like you are describing. All you need to do is download the fixit tool and let it run. Don't worry about the step of manually doing it.

[digiblur]

Sounds like the problem I have at the gym sometimes. Its an open network with the little 24 hour sign on portal.  I noticed one day it wouldn't connect my phone at all.  The next day it was fine.  The day after that same thing.  So I tried something else.  I noticed they were using a 192.168.33.x  range for IPs with the 192.168.33.1 being the gateway.  So I forced my IP to .2 and boom it connected.  It confirmed what I thought, they left the default setting of 50 or 100 or whatever it is on the DHCP with a 24 hour lease.  So once it filled up the 100 it wouldn't give out anymore IPs until they started falling off. 

[4ginnc]

Sounds like the problem I have at the gym sometimes. Its an open network with the little 24 hour sign on portal.  I noticed one day it wouldn't connect my phone at all.  The next day it was fine.  The day after that same thing.  So I tried something else.  I noticed they were using a 192.168.33.x  range for IPs with the 192.168.33.1 being the gateway.  So I forced my IP to .2 and boom it connected.  It confirmed what I thought, they left the default setting of 50 or 100 or whatever it is on the DHCP with a 24 hour lease.  So once it filled up the 100 it wouldn't give out anymore IPs until they started falling off. 

 

I had this happen when I took the kids to one of those indoor playground places one time. I couldn't connect so they reset the wireless router and it was fine.  The person at the front desk said they had to reset it a couple times a day.  Once I got connected I brought up the router's IP and was able to login since they kept the default id/password.  The DHCP lease was 24 hours which was terrible in their case since they had a new influx of customers every couple of hours, so I told them they should lower the DHCP lease and think about putting a real password on their router.  

[Mondays In Flames]

I can't really offer any advice that hasn't already been postulated here. BUT I do know that there are tons and tons of threads about Lenovo and their finicky wireless cards.

 

I can say from having the U310 that the wifi was horrible, but with the Yoga the wifi is amazing. So i just chalk it up to bad wireless configurations from Lenovo.

 

 

-Luis

[4ginnc]

I can't really offer any advice that hasn't already been postulated here. BUT I do know that there are tons and tons of threads about Lenovo and their finicky wireless cards.

 

I can say from having the U310 that the wifi was horrible, but with the Yoga the wifi is amazing. So i just chalk it up to bad wireless configurations from Lenovo.

 

 

-Luis

 

Yeah, I've tried searching some through the Lenovo forums but there's just too much stuff and so much unrelated it's hard to narrow it down.  I'm wondering if a new PCI-E card might be a better option.

 

EDIT (hit post too early):   Although, having to buy a new card for just this one location that I might use once every couple weeks just seems like a waste of money.  

[ddimit]

Yeah, I've tried searching some through the Lenovo forums but there's just too much stuff and so much unrelated it's hard to narrow it down.  I'm wondering if a new PCI-E card might be a better option.

 

EDIT (hit post too early):   Although, having to buy a new card for just this one location that I might use once every couple weeks just seems like a waste of money.  

Do you know someone with a USB Wifi adapter you can borrow to narrow down if its the internal WIFI on the PC or the AP in the Library? once in a great while you get 2 that just wont connect to each other.