Connecting to the Internet with a cable is in many ways better than the wireless one provided by Wi-Fi, but we all have to agree that it can be extremely limited unless you spend all of your time in front of your personal computer, which is constantly in the same location.
Wireless connection via Wi-Fi is the preferred type of connection for most users, especially considering that almost all mobile devices connect to the network precisely thanks to Wi-Fi technologies. However, what to do if you find yourself in a situation where the Internet connection seems to work as it should, but for some reason you cannot connect to the Wi-Fi network?
This is the question we will try to answer in this article. All of the following methods will be described in as much detail as possible, so you should have absolutely no problems when performing them. The examples given were considered on the Windows 10 operating system.
There is Internet, but Wi-Fi does not work: how to fix
Check your router
The most obvious reason for the lack of Wi-Fi distribution is a malfunctioning router. The easiest way to check is to try connecting to a wireless network using different devices. If you cannot do this, then there is definitely something wrong with the router. Try the following steps:
- Restart your router. To do this, disconnect it from the power supply for fifteen to twenty seconds, and then reconnect it. Try connecting to the wireless Wi-Fi again.
- Check if Wi-Fi sharing is enabled in your router settings. Perhaps something went wrong in the settings, as a result of which the distribution of Wi-Fi was stopped.
- Completely reset the router’s Wi-Fi settings, the so-called hard reset, and then re-configure it in the manner you want.
- If you are confident, you can try updating the router firmware to a newer version. At times, older firmware versions can be extremely unstable, so upgrading to a newer version is a perfectly reasonable step.
Applying the troubleshooter
Ok, if you realized that only your computer is not able to connect to the wireless Wi-Fi network distributed through the router, then something is obviously wrong with your system. The very first step in trying to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity issues is to apply the network troubleshooter that’s built into your operating system.
Click on Start and go to Your System Settings. In Settings, you need to find and navigate to the section called Update & Security. In this section, go to the “Troubleshooting” tab. In this tab you will find a list of various troubleshooting tools for certain elements of the Windows 10 system. Click on the “Internet Connections” option, and then click on the “Run the troubleshooter” button.
Next, you just need to monitor the operation of the tool and perform the actions that it will offer you. Once you’re done using the tool, try connecting your computer to a wireless Wi-Fi network again. Unfortunately, these troubleshooters rarely work, but we still recommend that you try one of them to troubleshoot network connectivity issues.
Reset and update IP and DNS
You may not be able to connect to Wi-Fi properly due to the fact that you have some kind of problem with the IP and DNS settings. There are several commands with which you can easily reset and update these settings. Right-click (or Windows + X) and select Command Prompt (Admin).
Having opened the system console in front of you, you will need to enter several commands into it:
- ipconfig / release
- ipconfig / renew
- ipconfig / flushdns
Close Command Prompt and restart your computer. However, it is not necessary to restart it, but after performing such actions to the system console, it is always recommended to restart the PC in order to fix the changes made. Once you log in again, try connecting to a Wi-Fi network. You may have been able to resolve the issue.
Resetting Winsock and IP Protocol Stacks
Another solution to your problem might be the process of resetting WinSock and TCP / IP protocol stacks. This can be done using the same Command Line. If you forgot how to open it, then go back to the previous solution and read it. Opening the Command Prompt again, enter the following commands into it:
- netsh winsock reset catalog
- netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log
- netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log
Once you’re done entering the above commands, close Command Prompt and restart your computer. This time, you really need to reboot. Try to connect to Wi-Fi now.
Reinstalling the Wi-Fi adapter driver
If you still cannot connect to a wireless network, then we can assume that your Wi-Fi adapter is not working correctly at the moment, as a result of which a problem arose. Most likely, the driver for the Wi-Fi adapter is to blame. You can try reinstalling this driver. To do this, you need to follow these steps:
- right-click on Start and select “Device Manager”.
- find the “Network adapters” section in the list;
- open it and find your Wi-Fi adapter in it;
- double-click on it with the left mouse button to open its properties;
- go to the “Details” tab;
- using the drop-down menu, select the item “Equipment ID” and copy the first line from the list to the clipboard;
- type in the copied data into the search engine and download the driver for the Wi-Fi adapter to your computer;
- go back to the list of network devices and right-click on your Wi-Fi adapter;
- select “Remove device” and confirm your intentions;
- after uninstalling the driver, reinstall it using the previously downloaded installer.
Try to reconnect to the Wi-Fi network using the adapter. In most cases, this problem is caused by an incorrectly working driver for the Wi-Fi adapter, so you probably already managed to solve the problem.