getting wifi signal but no internet - please help

Lartyconshayo

Lartyconshayo

Lartyconshayo

Soldato
Joined
5 Dec 2010
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3,318
Location
deep space nine
Ok folks.

Arrived in Poland and bro in law tells me that his younger brother took it upon himself to install avira anti virus on his win 8 laptop. Since he did that only the laptop could connect to the internet through the router. No other devices. So they uninstalled avira and now not even the laptop connects . All devices , my S2 included , are getting a strong signal on wifi.

To try and solve the problem they have been playing with the security settings of the network and tried leaving it open and unsecured. To no avail.

So to further muddy the waters the laptop is only in Polish unless you know how to switch. It to English w/out a win disc or connection. And the router has no brand name on it. Simply says wlan router.

My brother in law is pretty adamant that avira changed something and he doesn't know what . Please help .
 
Hi, I don't see why antivirus software on a laptop should affect other devices connecting to a wireless router.

I guess you have tried rebooting the router.

Can you work out if it's the connection between laptop/S2 and the router, or the connection between the router and the internet, that is the problem? You get a strong signal but does it say "connected"? If so it doesn't sound like a wifi problem. Does the router have any lights on the front to indicate whether it is synced (ADSL?)/connected to the outside world? If you could use a wired connection to the router then it would prove whether it was a wifi problem or not.

Also, when you say "playing with the security settings of the network", do you mean the laptop's settings? If these don't match those set in the router then you won't be able to connect.
 
he is now getting error 651. cooling this is rather worrying . The router has lights etc and when I try and connect I basically sit at obtaining iphone address. He has tried cable and no change . It used to be secured with password. Now they changed it.
 
If your phone used to connect successfully to the router, and now neither laptop or phone can connect, then it suggests the problem is the router or it's connection to the internet. Changing settings on the laptop is only likely to confuse things or make things worse to fix. From a quick search, error 651 suggests that something's "up" with the laptop's tcp/ip stack or settings.

Have you power cycled the router? If you watch the LEDs I'd expect the power one to come on straight away, followed by others as it synchronises with the exchange (assuming it's ADSL). Do the LEDs come on as expected?

When you say "used to be secured with password", do you mean network connection settings have been changed on the laptop? To really change the wifi security would involve logging in to the router's config/admin web pages, and if you can't connect to the router then I don't see how you'd have managed that.
 
There is a hard reset button but it's been pressed and no joy. The lights come on in order power wan wlan. My s2 just keeps going from obtaining ip address to saved. But never connects.

The network settings have been changed on the laptop . Not sure if the router homepage has been changed though .

Edit: having a look at history it appears that they have been visiting page 192.168.1.254
 
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If 192.168.1.254 is the LAN IP address of the router (which sounds plausible) then a possible sequence of events might have been:
- router loses internet connection for whatever reason
- in attempt to fix the problem, laptop user changes router wifi settings via 192.168.1.254 (which may be what has stopped phones from connecting to the wifi network)
- laptop user then changes the laptop's network settings (which may be stopping the laptop from connecting back to the router to fix/undo things).

It's really difficult to diagnose this sort of thing remotely, but I would connect the laptop to the router with a network cable and get the two connected so that you can log back in to the router and see what's going on. There will almost certainly be a status page which will show whether the router is connected to the internet or not.

You should then be able to check/set the wifi network name (SSID), security settings and password. If you have changed the security type and/or password you may have to tell your phone to 'forget' the network and enter settings again as otherwise it might try to use the wrong encryption and password.
 
What type of internet is it?

If it's ADSL and not the manufacturer's router, then doing a hard reset will remove the ADSL dial up settings and you won't be able to connect until you add these back into the router.
 
Is it the ISP supplied router? If not and you don't know the connection details, then you're screwed.
 
If the internet connection/router and laptop was working fine prior to the installation of Avira AV and the only thing that has changed is the installation of Avira AV, then it has to be Avira that is causing the issue not the router. Unless he's changed the router settings too.

What about a CAT5 connection to the router does that work and get you internet access. Depending on the router you should be able to check if you have a connection to the ISP and also you may be able to ping google from the router itself. If you can ping then the router is fine and the laptop needs attention.

If its the laptop you should search TechNet for a solution, if no joy try a rollback/system restore and if all else fails the nuke button and reinstall the OS.

Can you connect to the internet via smartphone or another device?
 
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^Avira on one machine shouldn't affect phones etc.

Proabably an ISP issue / someone has removed the login details.
 
I am having an issue connecting to internet on my smart phone as well. I keep getting the obtaining IP address and saved and then it tries switching to another network. I honestly think it is a "DNS" or "DHCP" issue because DHCP automatically assigns and configures IP addresses to evrery device that enters the network and uses it.

I am not at home though; it is in my college (I am having the issue). Although I didn't have any problem last week; It may be/it is obviousy something connected inline with DHCP.
 
Well thanks for the help guys . It's. Got limited connectivity when plugged in via cable which is actually same as wifi. Just doesn't go on net. Can't access the router settings though . Tech support. Coming tomorrow . We'll just have to leave it to them
 
Drop to a cmd prompt when on wifi and type in: ipconfig /all

And post a picture on here.
If it's connected, but showing no internet then realistically it can only be 3 things:

DHCP isn't working, but your machine is defaulting to a 169 subnet as opposed to a DHCP assigned address, I assume the laptop NIC is properly configured? I.e. either DHCP or hard coded settings?

Firewall issue, have you tried disabling it?

Bad DNS/Gateway - trying changing your DNS to the google public system which is 8.8.8.8 and gateway which will be your routers IP.
 
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