Wireless Wi-Fi / Internet Connection Problem

Hi all,

I have a Linksys AE1000 wireless-N USB adapter. I've had it for about 4 years now and it's never given me any trouble.

Where I stay, I have access to the internet only via wireless Wi-Fi. I'm renting a room and the wireless router is in the landlords room.

During the last two weeks I've noticed that my connection, computer, or some other problem has come into play that does not allow me to browse the interwebz. I sometimes use AnchorFree Hotspot Shield to download torrents and other files as I seem to have had problems in the past with a normal connection.

I noticed the last time I used hotspot shield is when my problem started to occur. First, web pages weren't loading even though I was connected to the internet as indicated by my network status. Second, I made sure to check my internet options and disable any settings (enable proxy / VPN etc) that were changed while using hotspot shield. Third, after using many command line parameters to reset any windows internet configuration, flushing the cache, etc, I was still unable to browse the web.

I've disabled and enabled my adapter; unplugged and plugged it in; did any available windows updates; tried using a different browser; a different OS (dual boot); virus scan; whatever possible method available I have done to no avail. The only thing I get is "page is unavailable" after a site tries to load for several minutes. I can ping a web site but they just won't load. If I CAN manage to browse on my home connection, it lasts for a very short period of time, anywhere from 10 sec up to maybe a 1-2 minutes, then sites will no longer load.

Here's where it gets interesting. Because of this whole problem, I've enabled a mobile hotspot on my phone and can successfully connect / browse the web with my phones connection on my PC. It really baffles my mind as to why this works. I have noticed that my PC makes more noise as if it was doing some heavy work in the background if it's connected to the home Wi-Fi, compared to using a hotspot, it actually quiets down.

Does anyone have any possible idea as to what this may be? My full system specs are in my profile. I am in the market to upgrade to a newer system if it comes down to it; more on that later.

With the connection working when using the hotspot from the phone I'd suspect that the problem is with the landlords router.

If you can access the router using it's gateway IP then you can try resetting it using the firmware settings.

Hi Chev65, thanks for the reply. One thing I forgot to mention is that I can connect to the internet's home wi-fi using my tablet and smartphone, but its just my PC having an issue. All other PCs in the house have no problem. The landlord even rebooted the router and still a no-go for me.

I can't imagine why the same connection would work for the hotspot and not for the router.

Have you tried uninstalling the anchor free hotspot shield?

Have you tried reinstalling or updating the driver for the Linksys AE1000 ?

yes. i've booted to a completely separate OS (Ubuntu) and have the same issue. The internet connection is there, I just can't load any web pages. I'm at a loss of what to do.

evolution83 said:

yes. i've booted to a completely separate OS (Ubuntu) and have the same issue. The internet connection is there, I just can't load any web pages. I'm at a loss of what to do.

With the internet showing as connected but it won't load any pages that usually relates to either winsock or TCP/Ip being corrupted though I'm not sure how this could effect both Op systems at the same time.

Winsock entries tells Windows 7 how to access your network services. Additionally, your TCP/IP protocol can be corrupted. The TCP/IP protocol is a stack of 4 layers that includes several transport layers, but when this stack is corrupt you will constantly have connectivity issues.

To fix this run to following commands one at a time in an elevated command prompt.

Code:

netsh winsock reset catalog

(reset winsock entries)

Code:

netsh int ip reset reset.log hit

(reset TCP/IP stack)

still not working

You have written, that you can ping the web server. Can you try to put the ip address of a webpage to the browser instead of human readable name? May be it is DNS problem.

evolution83 said:

still not working

With the adaptor not connecting in both Windows and Lenox it's acting like a problem with the hardware.

chev65 said:

evolution83 said:

still not working

With the adaptor not connecting in both Windows and Lenox it's acting like a problem with the hardware.

well it connects, just not loading sites unless I'm using a hotspot. I'm not sure what the difference would be in why this works.

do you mean the USB adapter itself? I was thinking of testing out a new adapter and seeing if it works...