Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 Right, I am very limited to Lap top/PC use, and the terminology . I have alwayts had a good broadband connection, with sky. using there router and wifi. But lately when I open ie10 and firefox it will not connect OR it will disconnect. If I use the fix this issue wizard ,it comes back as no issue found and is still connected! Yet the error message says something like " you need to log in to net work" and server is mentioned,i think? The think that gets me is ,when the fix wizard comes back saying,no fault,i go to wifi connections ,see that my sky is conneted, so I see the pub across the road is listed and this will work fine! so it can not be the network card thing in the laptop. I have disabled the network and the enabled and updated the latest driver,which it had already. Can anyone shed any light please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 Easy things first. Power down the router and reboot it if you haven't done so already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EarlyBird Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 In my limited experience seeing the local wi-fi connections available has nothing to do with your broadband. Yet it sounds like you are not connecting to the broadband server. When I had this problem it was the router that had failed it has green led indicators when working they are red if failed. Obviously your router is different to mine so this could be irrelevant. I contacted my bb supplier they confirmed it was the router and sent me a replacement. Hope this helps. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuban8 Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 Does another device work correctly? If you have a smartphone, does that work OK when connected to your WiFi? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 14, 2020 Author Share Posted July 14, 2020 Tried the "turn it off and on again" and "shake it" methods,no good. When browser stops working and the repair wizard finds no fault, my phone can get wifi and tv still gets wifi. I would say the Router is fine. I have been trying to erase the sky connection on the laptop and reinstall,like when the laptop was new but can not find a way to remove sky from the network connections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 Hi Gary Sounds like a problem with the wifi adapter or an ip address conflict. What version of windows are you using, I presume that you have tried turning the pc off and on again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 14, 2020 Author Share Posted July 14, 2020 Windows 8.1 with recent updates and tried the TIOAOA trick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 OK, sounds like your browser(s) can't lookup the ip address of the websites you want because it can't access the Domain Name Server (DNS). I have experienced this problem before too. Try this,if it doesn't work you may have to manually specify the DNS, I can explain after you try this. How to reset the DNS in Windows Using the Start Menu at the lower left corner of your screen: ... Enter CMD into the text box and then select the Command Prompt program. A new black window will appear. ... Type ipconfig /flushdns and press ENTER (please note: there is a space between ipconfig and /flushdns) Restart your computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 Open Control Panel and select Network and Sharing Centre. Alternatively you can right-click the network status icon on the system tray (bottom-right of the screen, near volume controls). Click Change adapter settings on the left pane. Right-click the Internet connection you want to change DNS servers for and select Properties. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP / IPv4) and click Properties. Click the button next to Use the following DNS server addresses: and enter the DNS server addresses of your choice. Click OK when you’re done. IP addresses of the Google DNS servers: For IPv4: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4. For IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and/or 2001:4860:4860::8844. This will manually set the DNS addresses to enable the browsers access. Edited By Shaun Walsh on 14/07/2020 13:29:11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 14, 2020 Author Share Posted July 14, 2020 Hi Shaun, thanks for taking the time with this detailed reply. I am going to do the first step and see if that improves things. if not I will try the second method. I flick between ie and firefox , using yahoo on both, will 1 DNS work on both using the second method? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 Posted by Gary Murphy 1 on 14/07/2020 13:58:39: Hi Shaun, thanks for taking the time with this detailed reply. I am going to do the first step and see if that improves things. if not I will try the second method. I flick between ie and firefox , using yahoo on both, will 1 DNS work on both using the second method? The instructions work on the wireless adapter settings so will be effective for any browser when done just the once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 15, 2020 Author Share Posted July 15, 2020 Shaun,do not know if you are still watching but another update. I did the the first method and all seemed good for a while but it happened again, browser "dropped" but all signs showed broadband was still connected. took the pc around to relatives house to get help with second method and it did the same thing there. does this shed any more light on the issue OR does this tally with issue I have had? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 If i have wifi weirdness i always uninstall and reinstall the wifi card driver. Go to control panel, hardware and sound, device manager. On windows 10 you can just search device manager, that should work with 8 as well. Anyway once you get device manager find 'network adaptors' and search for your wifi card. Its likely be realtek, broadcom, perhaps intel? anyway it should be reasonably obvious which one is the wifi. Once you find it, right click and hit 'uninstall device' and click ok to any warnings. Then, look for the 'scan for hardware changes' button at the top and click that. It will find the wifi card and reinstall its driver from scratch. You then input your network password and its off to the races...usually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJC Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 Couple of thoughts. Does it all work if you plug a cable into router, that will confirm if wifi issue or not. If all good it proves BB good etc and it is looking like a wifi issue. Do you know what model/supplier router you have Can you take a picture of router lights Who is your BB supplier Fibre or copper connection Sorry for so many thoughts/questions DJC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 Posted by Jon - Laser Engines on 15/07/2020 10:43:20: If i have wifi weirdness i always uninstall and reinstall the wifi card driver. Go to control panel, hardware and sound, device manager. On windows 10 you can just search device manager, that should work with 8 as well. Anyway once you get device manager find 'network adaptors' and search for your wifi card. Its likely be realtek, broadcom, perhaps intel? anyway it should be reasonably obvious which one is the wifi. Once you find it, right click and hit 'uninstall device' and click ok to any warnings. Then, look for the 'scan for hardware changes' button at the top and click that. It will find the wifi card and reinstall its driver from scratch. You then input your network password and its off to the races...usually. This makes sense as a next step, if it works, great, if not it might be worth chosing a restore point and rolling back the computer to a point before this all started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 15, 2020 Author Share Posted July 15, 2020 Its just got worse guys! Uninstalled the adapter ,don't remember the exact name but it was the only one that would of been wifi/network. It went from device manager,had 4 adapters listed prior,now 3. Used the find new hadware function BUT will not find it again! I got a screen to manually setup broadband. put in the sky password etc BUT did not work. I know have 6 win pop things listed in device manager that was not there before and can not uninstall. to get a connection its asking for a Ethernet cable which I am using now. Unrelated, I thought sod it,i will do clean install and lose my stuff, put the know-how usb in the laptop and that don't work,aaahhhhhhh. I also have no restore points,i am really no pc guy. How can I get the original wifi adapeter work again or install? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdLazerus Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 So Gary After rebooting everything, things you can do yourself to find the problem as per DJC try using a cable if you can , this will tell you if you have a hardware WiFi problem , try restore point as per Shaun W, otherwise you can back up your data and restore the whole drive to factory settings. If you brought it into my shop after imaging the drive this is the process I would go through to sort the problem because you may have system corruption a virus or malware. It is unlikely but It is possible that it may be a hardware problem and a simple job of reseating the memory and processor, but unless this is done by some one who knows what there doing in an antistatic environment it can cause more problems and I would surmise is beyond this discussion. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 Posted by Gary Murphy 1 on 15/07/2020 14:53:32: Its just got worse guys! Uninstalled the adapter ,don't remember the exact name but it was the only one that would of been wifi/network. It went from device manager,had 4 adapters listed prior,now 3. Used the find new hadware function BUT will not find it again! I got a screen to manually setup broadband. put in the sky password etc BUT did not work. I know have 6 win pop things listed in device manager that was not there before and can not uninstall. to get a connection its asking for a Ethernet cable which I am using now. Unrelated, I thought sod it,i will do clean install and lose my stuff, put the know-how usb in the laptop and that don't work,aaahhhhhhh. I also have no restore points,i am really no pc guy. How can I get the original wifi adapeter work again or install? Did you right click on "Network Adapters" in "Device Manager" and then left click on "Scan for Hardware Changes"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 Don't do a clean install yet, all is not lost, but if you do you may have to go into the BIOS and change the boot order so that USB is at the top of the list and the computer boots from the USB stick in preference to the hard drive. This should then take you through the process of returning the computer to as built condition, there may even be an option to retain your personal files, photos etc but you should back them up anyway before you do this just in case. Regarding restore points, have you checked to see if Windows has created any when doing updates, you may not have created a restore point but windows may have. Using restore will wind back your computer to a time before the problem but should leave your personal files intact. Edited By Shaun Walsh on 15/07/2020 15:49:23 Edited By Shaun Walsh on 15/07/2020 15:52:34 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 It should detect the network card after hitting the button or rebooting the system. Reboots are not as reliable which is why i click the search button. If you have a photo of the device manager page showing the netword adaptors we might be able to spot something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 15, 2020 Author Share Posted July 15, 2020 When I stared under network adapters I had 4 listings,now I have 3, I think it was ac 3160 wifi ??? This one will not be found,right click network adapters and then click the hardware change icon,it says no issues or anything found,or to that effect. I have plugged a Ethernet cable in and got a connection, the iicon shows this as Ethernet,the other one as Bluetooth,which as always been disabled and still is. one is missing the wifi icon, these are in the network cponnections page. Looking on line it said if probs finding a adapter to clear old files which I did,still does not find the adapter. downloaded a intel programme that looks for drivers that are old or missing,that said no probs. I have loads on entries in the device manager noe under adapetrs, win ,pop and wan, these can not be uninstalled only disabled,these might of come from me trying to manually get a connection. I have done a new install using this usb before and it worked ok,nothing going right at moment,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 15, 2020 Author Share Posted July 15, 2020 right, I have got wifi back, the adapter now shows in device manager. this was by shear luck. I tried to uninstall all the new items in adapters,these pop,wan things,these will not uninstall ,like the wifi adapter did!!! above these many new items I have 3 adpters listed,was 4. I clicked on each one and used the scan for changes button. on one of these the wifi adapter came back! so I am now back to I was, do not know if this as uninstalled and back again clean,i will see if the connection still drops. I do have many more adapters listed that will not uninstall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 That's good news, if it keeps working don't change anything and create a restore point in case it happens again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 If you disabled it before uninstalling it that might explain why it was hidden. In any case, if its working then leave well enough alone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Murphy 1 Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 Thanks for all the help guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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