Unexpected Connection Issue

[ArtShapiro]

The patient is an IBM Thinkpad, dual-boot 8.1 and 7. Normally it runs 8.1.

I took it to a coffee shop this weekend, and the 8.1 side refused to connect to the shop's wi-fi. I got the "taking longer than expected" report, and eventually it decided it couldn't connect.

OK, that happens once in a while. I rebooted 8.1, confident that this would fix things, and the same thing happened.

I rebooted to the Windows 7 partition, and immediately connected to the coffee shop's service.

I went back to 8.1, and once again couldn't connect.

So I looked at available wireless networks, hoping to find an unsecured one, and sure enough the adjoining deli happened to have wi-fi. The 8.1 machine immediately connected to it.

So, can anyone tell me why my poor Thinkpad has seemingly developed a hatred for the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for Windows 8.1 only???

Art

 

[avos]

Was the coffee shop's Wifi password protected? And was it a named something your laptop has connected to before? I have seen windows machines that had stored credentials for a SSID using one type of authentication. Such as WPA1. Not prompt that the password was wrong if it was trying to connect to an access point with the same name using WPA2. Or going from TKIP to AES.

Try right clicking the name and selecting "Forget this network" if available.

Sadly the other answer would be "wireless drivers can be fickle". I've had terrible luck with some of the Lenovo Edge series and cheaper thinkpads. Mostly with connecting to business grade Access points (I'm looking at you Sonicwall) But have yet to find something a T series running windows 8.1 wouldn't connect to. That said if yours is an IBM thinkpad and not a Lenovo it is getting up there in years and very well might be a driver issue.

 

[ArtShapiro]

Was the coffee shop's Wifi password protected? ... But have yet to find something a T series running windows 8.1 wouldn't connect to.

This was my R61; that's essentially a T in slightly-heavier packaging, and has routinely connected to a different Coffee Bean's wi-fi. This happened to be one I don't go to especially often.

It's not a password-protected site; it's one of those where they intercept the first connection attempt, pop up a particular "welcome" screen, and ask you to check the "agree to these terms" box before giving you free access.

Next time I'm at this particular shop, I can certainly bring one of my T60p Thinkpads to see if the behavior is consistent. I have ones that run Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.

Art