Laptop internet connection issues?

[Jagz]

Alright, so a couple of days ago my computer suddenly stopped connecting to the internet - but it still connects to my Steam client chat? But my browser doesn't work, and I can't connect to the steam store either.

I know that the issue is with my laptop because my brother's PC and my phone connect to our internet/router just fine. My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite. (I'm assuming satellite is part of the title but I'm not coupletely sure)

What should I do? And if you need any more I formarion let me know.

 

[Steltek]

First, is the wireless adapter turned on in your laptop? Most models of laptops have a way (either through a physical button, switch, or Fn key combo) to turn off the wireless adapter when not needed to save power. So, you need to check to see if you have accidentally turned off the wireless adapter.

If it is turned on, next thing I'd suggest is rebooting the modem followed by rebooting the router. If that doesn't solve the issue, on your computer launch an elevated command prompt. Run the command ipconfig /release , followed by ipconfig /renew to renew the IP connection.

Have you run a recent malware scan? Also, what antivirus do you run and have you run a virus scan as well?

 

[Drummerdude]

malware can definitely cause this problem. You can do a few things. to get you back online, go to control panel>internet options>advanced>reset>select check mark box>apply. Also, open command prompt as admin, type in " netsh winsock reset " without the quotes, hit enter, let it do it's thing, then restart your computer. this'll almost always get you back online, so you can run virus scans, etc.

 

[VeroK]

Based on my recent experience, just b/c your laptop's wifi doesn't work it doesn't mean it your laptop's fault: I spent 4 hrs w/IT support last week troubleshooting my laptop's wifi (all other decives at home connected ok) to no avail. Eventually, I restored the router to factory settings, rebooted the router & cable modem, and the laptop worked just fine. Sometimes the connection between 1 decive & the router via the wifi gets wonky.

 

[Jagz]

First, is the wireless adapter turned on in your laptop? Most models of laptops have a way (either through a physical button, switch, or Fn key combo) to turn off the wireless adapter when not needed to save power. So, you need to check to see if you have accidentally turned off the wireless adapter.

If it is turned on, next thing I'd suggest is rebooting the modem followed by rebooting the router. If that doesn't solve the issue, on your computer launch an elevated command prompt. Run the command ipconfig /release , followed by ipconfig /renew to renew the IP connection.

Have you run a recent malware scan? Also, what antivirus do you run and have you run a virus scan as well?

The wireless adapter is definitely on. I rebooted the modem and router, as well as attempting the elevated commands. I ran a malware scan(quick and full) with Malwarebytes and did a virus scan with Spybots. Nothing turned up other than some tracking cookies.

Is there anything else I can try before assuming that my wireless adapter has quit on me?

 

[Legios]

Best thing you can try is plug it in via cat5 cable and see if the problem persists. If it does its a deeper rooted problem. If you are able to function normally then you know it is your wifi portion.

 

[Drummerdude]

The wireless adapter is definitely on. I rebooted the modem and router, as well as attempting the elevated commands. I ran a malware scan(quick and full) with Malwarebytes and did a virus scan with Spybots. Nothing turned up other than some tracking cookies.

Is there anything else I can try before assuming that my wireless adapter has quit on me?

did you try everything I recommended?

 

[VeroK]

As I mentioned, you may want to try resseting the router to factory settings.
in my case only one single laptop was unable to connect to the wifi for the longest time. When another device (much later) started having problems, I reset the router to factory settings (with the pin in the back, etc) and that magically solved all the wifi issues. Is a bit of a pain because then you have to rename the network, modify the parental controls, guest networks, etc, but if it works is worth it. I wouldn't have guessed the router was the root cause b/c all other devices worked, but low and behold, it worked.

 

[Jagz]

Sorry! Yes, I tried the other suggestions(including drummerdude's). Resetting to factory settings didn't seem to do much to my laptop. It still won't connect to anything but Steam chat.

Also, I'm not sure what a cat5 cable is but I did try connecting my router directly to my laptop. Still nothing.

 

[Smoove910]

I'm not familiar with Steam Chat, but doesn't your laptop need internet access to connect to Steam chat??? If so, you have internet access. I'm wondering if something is booting up with your PC that is stealing your bandwidth? Does anything look out of the norm if you do an MSCONFIG and look at your startup programs? Can you ping your own IP address? Can you ping your router? Can you ping Google's DNS servers? (8.8.8.8)

 

[Jagz]

I'm not familiar with Steam Chat, but doesn't your laptop need internet access to connect to Steam chat??? If so, you have internet access. I'm wondering if something is booting up with your PC that is stealing your bandwidth? Does anything look out of the norm if you do an MSCONFIG and look at your startup programs? Can you ping your own IP address? Can you ping your router? Can you ping Google's DNS servers? (8.8.8.8)

Steam does require internet, which is why I'm so confused about all of this. I could successfully ping all of those, including an extra google server(8.8.4.4.)

 

[Smoove910]

So if you can ping your own IP address, your wifi card is fine. If you can ping your router, you have communication between the two... and if you can ping Google's DNS server, your router can get out, and packets are making it back to you. So basically you can rule out your Wifi being the culprit.

I'd start looking at the browser... which do you use? If you use IE, have you tried to install Google Chrome (I prefer it over all others).

 

[Jagz]

So if you can ping your own IP address, your wifi card is fine. If you can ping your router, you have communication between the two... and if you can ping Google's DNS server, your router can get out, and packets are making it back to you. So basically you can rule out your Wifi being the culprit.

I'd start looking at the browser... which do you use? If you use IE, have you tried to install Google Chrome (I prefer it over all others).

I haven't bothered uninstalling IE but I use Mozilla Firefox. I do have Google Chrome as well. None of them will connect to the internet.

 

[Steltek]

Try hooking the modem directly to the laptop via Ethernet cable, bypassing the router.

 

[VeroK]

I didn't know that was Kosher! doesn't the router modulate the signal or modifies berfore it enters the PC. Good trick!

 

[Smoove910]

Try hooking the modem directly to the laptop via Ethernet cable, bypassing the router.

What difference is that going to make... he can already communicate with Google's DNS servers. The issue is with the browser, not the connectivity of the computer to the router.

 

[Smoove910]

Try this

1) Click on Start --> In search box, type cmd --> Then "CMD" will be displayed in

the search --> Now right-click on "CMD" ---> Select "Run as administrator".

2) Now enter this command

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

Press "Enter".

3) Reboot your computer

 

[Smoove910]

I forgot to ask, can you ping www.google.com? If you can ping 8.8.8.8, but not www.google.com, you have an issue with your DNS settings. Report back on your findings

 

[Jagz]

I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but I don't think I can ping google. (I tried ping www.google.com as well as google.com and neither worked.)

The commands didn't seem to change anything.

 

[Smoove910]

That's good news... what DNS does is it resolves IP address to site name. Essentially, if you can ping with an ip (8.8.8.8) and be successful, but cannot ping the same location (www.google.com), then DNS is not resolving www.google.com to the equivilant ip address. (If that makes sense). You can either flush your DNS or manually enter a DNS server. I outlined both below.


Try this 1st: (I believe you have Win 8?)

Ensure that you're on the Windows 8 Start Screen.
Simply type cmd and the Windows search bar will appear on the right hand side with search results.
Right click on Command Prompt and click Run as administrator.
Type in the command ipconfig /flushdns


If that doesn't work, try this... it's for Win7, however Windows 8 will be slightly different, but you need to get to the same area.

Open your 'Network and Sharing Center' (Control Panel>Network and Internet>Network and Sharing Center)
Go to 'Change Adapter Settings'
Right Click on your adapter, then click on 'properties'
Highlight IPV4 and click on 'properties'

Under your DNS settings, is it set to obtain automatically? If not, set it to obtain automatically. If it is currently set to obtain automatically, click the radial button to 'Use the following DNS server address' and enter 8.8.8.8 (Google's DNS)

Click 'ok', and see if you have internet.

 

[VeroK]

That's good news... what DNS does is it resolves IP address to site name.

Is there a thread here or a place somewhere where I can find out what each of the cryptic settings for the DNS adapters mean?

 

[gbeirn]

What Anti-Virus/Internet Security do you have on the computer? My guess is removing Norton/McAfee/etc. using their removal tool will fix the problem.

 

[Jagz]

I checked out my control panel first and unistalled Norton(which I thought I had already removed). Nothing.

I run windows 7. Since it was already set to obtain automatically, I set it up to use 8.8.8.8 instead. Even after restarting it didn't seem to change anything.

Here's something I noticed but don't know if it's relevant:
When I first start up my laptop the icon made of raising bars in the corner says "NETGEAR21: no internet access" with "unidentified network: no internet access"

It's not until I start Steam up that it says "internet access" beneath NETGEAR21.

 

[gbeirn]

Try the removal tool here: ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

Sometimes the uninstaller doesn't actually correctly remove everything.

 

[Smoove910]

I've also been reading that Norton could be a root cause. Here's another link to their uninstall tool in case gbeirn's doesn't work for some reason.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20080710133834EN_EndUserProfile_en_us