[SOLVED] Laptop having trouble with public networks

Hobo_On_Welfare

Reputable
Jan 4, 2017
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Every so often I get stationed away from home and live on base. I have a laptop that I usually bring with me however it is having issues with the public wifi that the base has. I thought this was a problem with the wifi on the base but it is also happening with the wifi in the hotel im staying at as well. I would connect to the public wifi and every so often it would just stop working. It would not longer be able to connect to the DNS server. To fix this I would just disconnect and reconnect to the wifi. This would temporarily fix the connection for about 10 minutes or so until it would stop working again and I would have to disconnect and reconnect. For context my phone or my xbox has no issue at all with the wifi. I have updated my wireless adapter drivers and i've made sure that windows firewall isnt blocking certain connections with public networks. Not of that has helped so im not sure why my laptop is acting like this.
 
Solution
This doesn't really make any sense. How can the pc possibly know that some network called "MYHOUSE" or something is really anything different than some connection you get form a hotel or a coffee shop. Even though these are so called "public" networks most are still encrypted and also use the same private IP blocks used by your home network.

You are going to have to do some more careful testing to see what is really dropping. Do you lose the connection to the wifi radio or are you just losing the IP or maybe the DNS.

The IPCONFIG /all may give you a clue. You want to run this enough so you can tell what it looks like when it is working correctly and what would be different if anything when it is broken. Obvioulsy if it...
Jan 11, 2021
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Every so often I get stationed away from home and live on base. I have a laptop that I usually bring with me however it is having issues with the public wifi that the base has. I thought this was a problem with the wifi on the base but it is also happening with the wifi in the hotel im staying at as well. I would connect to the public wifi and every so often it would just stop working. It would not longer be able to connect to the DNS server. To fix this I would just disconnect and reconnect to the wifi. This would temporarily fix the connection for about 10 minutes or so until it would stop working again and I would have to disconnect and reconnect. For context my phone or my xbox has no issue at all with the wifi. I have updated my wireless adapter drivers and i've made sure that windows firewall isnt blocking certain connections with public networks. Not of that has helped so im not sure why my laptop is acting like this on any website.
Thanks
 

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
What model is the laptop and it still under warranty?

If not, I would disable the internal adapter and try a USB wireless adapter as it sounds like yours may be failing. The other choice would be to replace the existing adapter if you are comfortable working on laptops, as it is an easy process.
 

Hobo_On_Welfare

Reputable
Jan 4, 2017
44
0
4,530
What model is the laptop and it still under warranty?

If not, I would disable the internal adapter and try a USB wireless adapter as it sounds like yours may be failing. The other choice would be to replace the existing adapter if you are comfortable working on laptops, as it is an easy process.
That is what I originally thought however, when im at home and its connected to my private network, it works fine
 
This doesn't really make any sense. How can the pc possibly know that some network called "MYHOUSE" or something is really anything different than some connection you get form a hotel or a coffee shop. Even though these are so called "public" networks most are still encrypted and also use the same private IP blocks used by your home network.

You are going to have to do some more careful testing to see what is really dropping. Do you lose the connection to the wifi radio or are you just losing the IP or maybe the DNS.

The IPCONFIG /all may give you a clue. You want to run this enough so you can tell what it looks like when it is working correctly and what would be different if anything when it is broken. Obvioulsy if it says "disconnected" you are getting some kind of more hardware related issue but it is not real common. The event monitor in windows might give you a clue if you are lucky.
 
Solution
No, the wifi cuts out when it is plugged in and when it is on battery, I use both

If the connections you use need some sort of logon to work, contact whoever administers the WiFi and have them check your system on the connections. I have issues with very slow connections at hotels, or disconnecting often, after talking to the support they changed things on their end and systems worked well for a day after that. Then had to have them reset whatever they did. I think they had to add my MAC address to a whitelist to get through the capture portal. This had happened several times, and was fixed by the support pretty well each time.