New Win10 laptop won’t connect to internet via wifi
October 4, 2016 10:26 AM Subscribe
When I click on my wifi network name in the network popup window, it says “can’t connect to this network” or it lets me type in my password and then says “can’t connect to this network”. This is a new Acer Aspire laptop.
My wifi router is elderly but it works fine with my iPad mini and until recently, with my old Win 7 laptop. I started having trouble connecting with the old laptop after I changed the name (but not the password!) of the router and dicked around with the channels to see if I could get a better/faster connection. Now the old laptop’s wifi sometimes works; I usually just use an ethernet cable.
The router is a Verizon Actiontec, probably 7 years old. I have reset it at least five times today to get back to the default settings.
During the new laptop set up, I turned off quite a few things: Cortana, Wifi Sense, Connect to suggested hot spots, Connect to networks shared by contacts, etc but those shouldn’t affect my router.
I CAN connect to the password-free bar down the street. And I can also connect with an ethernet cable.
I have:
-Disabled and re-enabled the adapter.
-Uninstalled, restarted, and reinstalled the network adapter (Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377)
-Checked for network adapter driver updates (it is up to date)
-Downloaded the latest [sic] wireless driver from the Acer website. It was actually an older version than the orig one that was on the laptop. (no change; reinstalled orig driver)
-Checked to see if there was an update for the router (no)
-Disabled IPv6 network protocol (no change; re-enabled)
-Turned Firewall off (no change)
-Make sure adapter and router are using the same security type (WEP)
-"Add a connection manually" (no change)
-“Forget” the wireless connection: I’ve deleted the profile and tried to set up a new network (router never showed up).
-Change the wireless network mode. This is the only one that seemed to have potential. The instructions showed the Wireless Mode value as variations of 802.11 (802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11b/g etc). My laptop shows the value without the 802 so the list was 01-11b, 02-11g, 03-11b/g/n, etc. The default on my laptop was 12-11a/b/g/n/ac. My router is set to 802.11b/g/n so I switched the laptop to 05-11b/g/n. (no change; changed laptop back to default)
-Command prompts: ipconfig release, renew, flushdns… netsh winsock reset, ip reset… Yeah, nothing changed.
In between all this, I’ve unplugged the router and modem and restarted the computer and reset the router a dozen times.
With the ethernet connected, I’ve run the Troubleshooter and yes! there is a problem! and it is not fixed! It says reset the router. (no change)
Router settings:
Channel: Automatic
SSID Broadcast: Enabled
MAC Authentication: Disabled
Wireless Mode: Compatibility Mode 802.11b/g/n
Again in Command prompt, I created a wlan report and plugged the report’s html into the Microsoft website which actually is rather helpful in analyzing it.
The summary of the report is Success: 2 (the neighborhood bar) and Failures: 142.
(The majority of) Disconnect reasons: The specific network is not available; “WLAN AutoConfig service failed to connect to a wireless network”
So that’s where it stands now. I can connect with the ethernet cable so it’s not a huge problem at home *but* I use this laptop primarily when I travel and I know that the wifi routers I encounter are MUCH older/crappier than mine. So I don’t want to get halfway around the world to find out that my wifi is useless.
All the above was achieved with much googling. I have only the barest knowledge of the cyber. Any ideas?
My wifi router is elderly but it works fine with my iPad mini and until recently, with my old Win 7 laptop. I started having trouble connecting with the old laptop after I changed the name (but not the password!) of the router and dicked around with the channels to see if I could get a better/faster connection. Now the old laptop’s wifi sometimes works; I usually just use an ethernet cable.
The router is a Verizon Actiontec, probably 7 years old. I have reset it at least five times today to get back to the default settings.
During the new laptop set up, I turned off quite a few things: Cortana, Wifi Sense, Connect to suggested hot spots, Connect to networks shared by contacts, etc but those shouldn’t affect my router.
I CAN connect to the password-free bar down the street. And I can also connect with an ethernet cable.
I have:
-Disabled and re-enabled the adapter.
-Uninstalled, restarted, and reinstalled the network adapter (Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377)
-Checked for network adapter driver updates (it is up to date)
-Downloaded the latest [sic] wireless driver from the Acer website. It was actually an older version than the orig one that was on the laptop. (no change; reinstalled orig driver)
-Checked to see if there was an update for the router (no)
-Disabled IPv6 network protocol (no change; re-enabled)
-Turned Firewall off (no change)
-Make sure adapter and router are using the same security type (WEP)
-"Add a connection manually" (no change)
-“Forget” the wireless connection: I’ve deleted the profile and tried to set up a new network (router never showed up).
-Change the wireless network mode. This is the only one that seemed to have potential. The instructions showed the Wireless Mode value as variations of 802.11 (802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11b/g etc). My laptop shows the value without the 802 so the list was 01-11b, 02-11g, 03-11b/g/n, etc. The default on my laptop was 12-11a/b/g/n/ac. My router is set to 802.11b/g/n so I switched the laptop to 05-11b/g/n. (no change; changed laptop back to default)
-Command prompts: ipconfig release, renew, flushdns… netsh winsock reset, ip reset… Yeah, nothing changed.
In between all this, I’ve unplugged the router and modem and restarted the computer and reset the router a dozen times.
With the ethernet connected, I’ve run the Troubleshooter and yes! there is a problem! and it is not fixed! It says reset the router. (no change)
Router settings:
Channel: Automatic
SSID Broadcast: Enabled
MAC Authentication: Disabled
Wireless Mode: Compatibility Mode 802.11b/g/n
Again in Command prompt, I created a wlan report and plugged the report’s html into the Microsoft website which actually is rather helpful in analyzing it.
The summary of the report is Success: 2 (the neighborhood bar) and Failures: 142.
(The majority of) Disconnect reasons: The specific network is not available; “WLAN AutoConfig service failed to connect to a wireless network”
So that’s where it stands now. I can connect with the ethernet cable so it’s not a huge problem at home *but* I use this laptop primarily when I travel and I know that the wifi routers I encounter are MUCH older/crappier than mine. So I don’t want to get halfway around the world to find out that my wifi is useless.
All the above was achieved with much googling. I have only the barest knowledge of the cyber. Any ideas?
There is a key that turns off wifi - everything else can be right, but if that thing is off, nothing will happen. Look for a symbol like the Eiffel Tower in double parentheses. On my computer it's on the PrtScr button. On another laptop it was a separate button at the top of the keyboard.
posted by OurOwnMrK at 5:58 PM on October 5, 2016
posted by OurOwnMrK at 5:58 PM on October 5, 2016
Response by poster: Thank you OOMrK, I've always wondered where the mysterious wifi button was but in my case, it was on.
cnc: I found the Events Log:
Reason Code: 163851 Event log message: The specific network is not available # def name: WLAN_REASON_CODE_NETWORK_NOT_AVAILABLE
It worked fine at the coffee shop today so it's something to do with this router..
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:06 AM on October 6, 2016
cnc: I found the Events Log:
SystemAnd using the link you provided, it says:
- Provider
[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-WLAN-AutoConfig
[ Guid] {9580D7DD-0379-4658-9870-D5BE7D52D6DE}
EventID 8002
Version 0
Level 2
Task 24010
Opcode 191
Keywords 0x8000000040000600
- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2016-10-06T04:42:39.760712400Z
EventRecordID 17
Correlation
- Execution
[ ProcessID] 804
[ ThreadID] 7936
Channel Microsoft-Windows-WLAN-AutoConfig/Operational
Computer B-------
- Security
[ UserID] S-1-5-18
- EventData
InterfaceGuid {90164E10-7938-4F96-BDDF-C5769EF8567D}
InterfaceDescription Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 Wireless Network Adapter
ConnectionMode Connection to a secure network without a profile
ProfileName T---------
SSID T--------
BSSType Infrastructure
FailureReason The specific network is not available.
ReasonCode 163851
ConnectionId 0x5
RSSI 255
Reason Code: 163851 Event log message: The specific network is not available # def name: WLAN_REASON_CODE_NETWORK_NOT_AVAILABLE
It worked fine at the coffee shop today so it's something to do with this router..
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:06 AM on October 6, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc735927(v=ws.10).aspx
I'll try to check back in on this question later. Good luck!
posted by cnc at 8:31 AM on October 5, 2016