Notebook wifi works at home but not at hotspots

Hi all,

I'm a long time lurker here, but this is my first post. I have an Acer notebook (4720G, T9300, 9600MGT, 3Gb, Intel 3945BG wifi card). I am running Windows 7 Pro 64bit, fully up to date and all my hardware has the latest available drivers. I have my AVG antivirus disabled and only running Windows 7 inbuilt firewall.

Anyway, my home wif modem router works fine, both of my laptops always connect automatically without any problems. But, if I take my notebook to a wifi hotspot (at least any I have tried so far), I can't get access to the net. I can connect ok, and the wifi status says connected, but also says "no internet access". If I boot from my old XP SP3 hard drive, it works perfectly anywhere, so I know for sure my hardware is good. Attached is a screencap of the Xirrus wifi inspector.

I basically know very little about networks, and hoping someone could assist with this. I already read many posts about wifi problems and searched google etc, but couldn't find anyone with a problem like this.

Thanks,
Regards, Rob

indexwheel said:

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I can connect ok, and the wifi status says connected, but also says "no internet access".
~~~

Can you ping once you are connected to these Hotspot Wireless Access Points? See this post.

Please upload the results of an IPCONFIG/ALL while connected to a Hotspot. See this post.

Thanks very much, it may take me a few days before I can get out to a hotspot and do the ipconfig test as I am not very mobile.

Regards, Rob

Ok, I have come to the hotspot I would like to use, and connected to the wifi here. I ran the Xirrus inspector, and also did the ipconfig/all thing and the results are attached below, a screencap and attached txt file. (I did these tests in Win7 x64, and now am running from my old XP drive to get access so I can post here. All hardware is working fine in XP).

Thanks in advance for any help with this problem.

Thanks for the IPCONFIG txt file.

You are not getting an IP address that you can use.

Please copy this text to a text file:

Code:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset all
netsh int ip reset all
shutdown -r -t 1

Save the text file and then rename that file something like test.bat
Right click on that test.bat file and select run as administrator.
Your computer will reboot.

Reconnect to the HotSpot and see if you get an IP that does not start with 169.

Thanks UsernameIssues. I tried that without any success. After running the batch file and rebooting, I still get the "not connected to internet" message and running ipconfig still shows no IP address. So I edited the batch file and removed the shutdown line to see what happens and got the following error message: "An error occured while releasing interface Wireless Network Connection: An address has not yet been associated with the network endpoint." and also "No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection while it has its media disconnected."

So, not sure what to do now. I won't be able to return to a hotspot for a couple of days now (mobility issues), but if you have any other ideas I can try, I would be very happy.

Thanks again,
Regards, Rob

Thanks for trying those steps and for the feedback.

In your screenshot in post #5, there appears to be two other open networks. Does this issue happen with them? I know that you said that you had tried more than one hotspot in the past, I'm just wondering about those two since they seem to be two different brands of wireless access points.

You mentioned that "ipconfig still shows no IP address". Did it show a 169 autoconfiguration IP address?

Even though you're "connected" to the Internet through your wireless connection out at Starbucks, you still need to perform the Network setup wizard, to define that just-connected network as home, work, or public.

Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center

Then click on the "connect to a network" and follow the wizard. Presumably your Starbucks network is "public" in order to keep security high.

You should now be able to get to the Internet out in the world at WiFi hotspots.

Frustration continues to mount! Usernameissues: I get no ip address at all, not even a 169 type. Dsperber: I tried to connect by the method you've suggested but no luck either. When I click connect to a new access point, a window opens up and says it may take 90 sec to populate the list. But nothing ever shows up even after 5 minutes. All the while, the network shows connected to the hotspot and no internet access available. I tried some other options available on the netwok setup, none of them worked either. I can't try any of the other available hotspot signals, as I don't have a username or password for them. So mass confusion reigns supreme here!

Regards, Rob