limited access wireless network

[les1989]

hi, I've been having problem with my internet, i usually use a desktop connected using an ethernet cable, but this has stopped working recently. I believe this to be a hardware failure but not sure of this. My pc is quite old so I've decided I will replace it. Until I have done this I would still like access to the internet so have bought a wireless usb connecting (netgear n600 802.11n dual band adapter).

I installed the software from the disk as instructions said, connected to my router. Once it has connected a window opens to say the connection was unsucessful. I'am connected to the router but "limited access", so no internet connection. I thought this might have been a conflict with my router as reading a couple of reviews online for the product i saw a few complaining of this.

A friend from work has also now lent me another similar device made by add-on. I installed all drivers for this also and same problem occured.

I have tryed quite a few fixes that I have seen recomended online for this, but have been unsuccessful. I have tryed restarting both the pc and router, I have also tried disabling the ethernet port to see if this was the problem. I have also system restored to a point before all 3 problems began and this also hasn't worked. I have unstilled and reinstalled the software (also uninstalled before installing other)

Have tried the windows diagnostic tool but this also seems to just run in a loop with no solution.

Could the problem with the ethernet also be the cause of this problem?

The internet connection is fine (i can connect on my phone) and housemates desktop is connecting fine (connected through ethernet).

If anyone could help that would be great.

thanks

charlie

 

[JayCee993]

Is this a personal line that you have or is it a serviced connection?
For example is this a line that you pay for yourselves or do you pay a company to supply your building with internet,
Check that your anti virus software isn't blocking the connection as it may be seen as an unsafe network.
Sometimes if the connection is provided by someone else connecting directly will be fine but wireless will have restrictions to stop people connecting to the network without permission and sending spam emails etc.

Jason

 

[les1989]

thanks for replying.

Its a personal line. We pay the bill ourselves. I'm in UK and with BT using a homehub 3.

I dont have any anti virus software on the pc (which sounds dumb i know), except for windows defender. I'm also 99% sure its not the firewall. but will double check this. I'm pretty sure I have the lowest settings on the windows firewall.

It just seems like the pc doesn't want to go online. Either with the wireless device or ethernet. The ethernet does appear to be connected as a yellow light comes on when i plug it into the motherboard slot. But it is just not acknowledged. and the installation for the drivers are successful with the usb connectors and I'm able to see the other networks around me. The netgear device connects using a button on the device and my router and the addon using the security key and both connect to router but on the network diagram in network and settings just has no connection to the internet. I could system restore, but im reluctant to do this as if it doesn't fix the problem leaves me with no media on my pc at all. and I have restored it to the 17th of october which was 4 days before initial ethernet problem occured.

When initial problem occured, I accidently disconnected the hdmi from the pc and couldn't get my screen to reappear (which happens sometimes but never a major issue), I held power button to shut down and upon restart internet no longer worked. I initially thought i had damaged the connection on the motherboard when i disconnected hdmi, but i have a seperate graphics card so don't see how it could have damaged it. This may sound stupid but could damage to the ethernet port stop my motherboard from being able go on the internet? Or would the USB connections internet be completely unrelated? I have also tried to use my phone connected via usb as a connection but this also isn't acknowledged although i can see it in device manager as a network device.

I have also tried uninstalling the ethernet driver in my device manager and restarting so it reinstalls. Also tried this and only installed the usb device software. Also disabling all network devices I can see except the specific one im trying to connect with at the time.

I'm not great with computers (as im sure you've noticed) but have tried everything that I can think of to connect to the internet in different ways and seems more like something is blocking it than anything actually being broken.

Could some of my connection settings have been edited by the forced restart? Or is it more likely to be hardware related?

Any insight you could give me on this would be greatly appreciated as I'm very confused as to what is happening.

 

[JayCee993]

Okay this is a strange one,
Of course making sure that the ethernet cable is working with another machine, making sure that the USB adapter device is plugged into a USB 2.0 as it could not be 3.0 compatible. There are many different things that could be causing the issue but sometimes its just the simple things that end up solving the problem.
If the machine was working before and a restart has then disabled the connection to the internet I'm going to point it at a driver, Right click My Computer or This PC whichever operating system you are on and then go to Manage.
Look in device manager, just check that all the Network Controllers are installed, if the motherboard has 2 Ethernet connections make sure that you either have both drivers installed of make sure that the ethernet is plugged into the one with the driver.
It's just a process of elimination and by just going through everything possible is the only way that you will find the issue.
Make sure that the Router doesn't have WPS enabled, being a BT hub i know they have a WPS button on them, to disable this just restart it.
If you only have Windows Defender this shouldn't be the issue blocking you from the internet but only having that on your PC could be the cause for something getting in and stopping you from connecting.

Jason

 

[les1989]

Thanks for getting back again.

Im using windows 7 home premium 64 bit. the network adaptor is the realtek pcie gbe family controller for the ethernet. I only have a micro atx motherboard, so only has 1 ethernet port. I unistalled the driver and restarted again and saw that it reinstalled the driver when i restarted and it said it was sucessful. It did have a tick box asking if i wanted to delete the files when i went to uninstall. Should I have deleted it? I figured as i don't have a connection on that pc it might be wise not to?

With the USB. I can only see it in the network adaptor list when its plugged in. If it was only usb 2.0 and the device is 3.0 would it still appear? and just not function correctly? The second device I have is the ADD-NWU271 Wireless LAN USB, this is the one im trying at the moment. The other is the netgear n600 802.11n dual band adapter.

Sounds like your leaning towards a system restore. Would it be better to use a windows disk for this? The pc I have was originally a HP imedia s3810, but added a graphics card and new ram and its in a different case. so a factory reset would be to original drivers. would this be a problem?

I have restarted the router and it does have a wps button. Is that all i need to do to turn it off? Or should I go into the settings for the router? I'm not sure if this is at all related as I dont really understand networks. But we do have port forwarding set up on the router for certain games. Could the number we have set up be an issue in any way? I know that we had issues both being in the same game online with a certain game but set up the port forwarding which was the recomended solution and it fixed the problem right away.

As I said the computer is quite old, and has been used for things beyond what it probably should have been used for. Is this a way a computer can fail? I'd assume if it was over heating or having problems with the games that the graphics card or cpu would fail, not the internet. Or does it have to be driver related?

Thanks for the help I really do appreciate it.

charlie

 

[JayCee993]

Normally when installing Realtek drivers it will normally just override the drivers and won't cause any issues regarding previous drivers that could have been installed and again shouldn't be an issue in regards to connecting to the internet.
If the device is USB 2.0 it will work in a USB 3.0 as they are backwards compatible but sometimes with USB devices it can cause issues but if you are able to view the wireless list then the device is working as it should be.
A system restore after changing parts could cause some issues but just adding a graphics card and RAM wont cause an issue when restoring.
WPS is just to allow connection through without having to enter the password, it also disables wireless connection untill the specific device that was trying to connect has connected before it will re enable wireless, restarting the router pretty just tells the router to enable wireless connections back through.
Any hardware issues with the computer like overheating shouldn't cause the computer not to connect to the internet, and this machine not connecting to the internet but other devices will completely eliminates any problem with the internet itself, if you did restore the PC and it didn't resolve the issue the only other thing that you would be able to do is to completely re install the operating system but that's a long process itself and should be the last thing that you resort to.
I'm going to point this to some hardware as the software is actually detecting the 2 devices its just not allowing you to actually get any further than an internal network.

Jason

 

[les1989]

ok have done the factory reset and it has fixed the problem, so must have downloaded something at some point, that caused it.

as you said earlier the simplest solution can often be the best.

Thanks so much for your help with this.