Solved Laptop has lost wireless internet connection, cannot find network

Hello there,

Please bear with me as I'm new here and I'm honestly not super tech-savvy. I'm seeking help because my laptop seems to have spontaneously lost the ability to connect to (or even detect) my home network internet connection. (Details about the laptop and OS are towards the end of this post.) When I open Chrome, I get the error message, "Unable to connect to the internet." When I click on the usual icon that I'd use to locate my home network, I see, "Currently connected to: Unidentified network. No network access." My network does not show up. There is a link for "Open Network and Sharing Center." I attached a screen shot of what I see when I click on that link. Clicking on the "Connect to a network" option leads me right back to "Currently connected to: Unidentified network. No network access" with a link to open the Network and Sharing Center. I can't get the laptop to find my home network no matter which choice I try.

I got out my old HP laptop (which has wireless) for troubleshooting purposes. It immediately found my home network and accessed the internet without any problems. So I it would seem there are no issues with my modem and/or router. I suspect I've just done something dumb in the laptop settings. I once accidentally turned off all sound for internet websites and couldn't restore it until a friend came to troubleshoot, so this scenario does not seem unlikely.

Also, in case it provides any clues, I can tell you when the problem started. My laptop started grousing at me about an IP address conflict. I ignored it and kept closing the error box (I wasn't using it for internet when that happened). Then about a couple weeks ago, my desktop PC (i.e., my command central) told me it couldn't access the internet due to an IP address conflict. I depend on internet access for work and school, so in a panic, I disconnected the laptop from the internet hoping it would fix the problem. (How did I do that? I'm not sure I even recall. I think I just did some right-clicking on the "connected to the internet" icon at the bottom right and then chose "disconnect." But I might have done more than that. Maybe disabled wireless...?) That did not fix the problem, so I placed an emergency call to a tech-savvy friend who said I should unplug my router and then plug it back in. PRESTO, I had internet on my desktop PC again. But I've not had internet on my laptop since then.

Any hints or troubleshooting advice would be sincerely appreciated. I started to include the information from the introductory "Basic Requirements Before Posting your Networking Thread" post below, but then thought it best simply to post my question before getting out a flashlight to locate router and modem model numbers as I doubt there is anything wrong with either of them. However, should you need this information, I would be most happy to provide it. Thank you so much!

Danielle

Specs: I have an Acer Aspire V5-171-9620 laptop. Pretty much anything you'd want to know about the specs on it can be found at the link below (you can scroll down a bit for the specifics). The only difference is that I had Windows 8 taken off and replaced with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Amazon.com: Acer Aspire V5-171-9620 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver): Computers & Accessories

My service provider is Comcast (cable), my antivirus is Norton Security Suite, and I have ABP Popup Blocker installed. (This is where I sorta trailed off and decided simply to post my question before continuing.)

drudder said:

~~~
But I might have done more than that. Maybe disabled wireless...?)
~~~

Click to expand...

Welcome to the Seven Forums.

Press and hold the Fn key...
...then press F2.
...release both keys.

See if your wireless network shows when you mouse over the network icon by the clock.

I tried that. No dice. Thanks for the suggestion, though!!

Danielle

When you say "home network internet connection", do you mean your laptop can't connect to your home network, or to the internet? There is a difference.

If you can't connect to your home network, have you tried doing so by cable instead of wireless? That should tell you if it's the laptop, or just the wireless adapter that's the problem. (Always helps to know what's not wrong.)

Have you tried updating the driver for the wireless adapter?

Have you made any changes to the properties of the wireless adapter?

Oh, I'm sorry - maybe I don't know the right lingo here. I meant that my laptop can't connect to the internet. When I click "Connect to a network," typically it has an option for D-Red, which is the name of my home network (or whatever is the proper term for that). Typically it connected to D-Red automatically. Now it doesn't even see it. As I said, my other laptop saw D-Red and connected no problem.

I connected the laptop by cable and it was able to get online.

I downloaded and installed the program from the link in your message. I was skeptical that any drivers would be outdated as I purchased this laptop brand new 4 months ago, but it says the following are outdated:
Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller 1E03 (Very Old)
USB Input Device (Ancient)
USB Input Device (Ancient)
Intel(R) Management Engine Interface (halfway between Very Old and Ancient)
Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet (Ancient)
WSD Print Device (Ancient)
SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller (Ancient)
Qualcomm Atheros AR 5BWB222 Wireless Network Adapter (Ancient)
Generic Bluetooth Adapter (Ancient)
USB Mass Storage Device (Ancient)
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 (Very Old)
Intel(R) Display Audio (Very Old)

Clicking on any of these prompted me to purchase a program, so I stopped there. Do any of these sound like promising leads? Re: "Have you made any changes to the properties of the wireless adapter?" - Not that I know of. I'd pretty much have to do that intentionally, right? It was working fine two weeks ago, now it isn't. :huh:

Thanks again!
Danielle

Oh and hey PBzeer - I just looked back at my reply to you, and lo and behold, the word "drivers" in my reply was a link leading to the aforementioned program that I downloaded and ran. I definitely did not insert that link in my reply to you. I guess this website just randomly inserts links where it sees fit...?

drudder said:

Oh and hey PBzeer - I just looked back at my reply to you, and lo and behold, the word "drivers" in my reply was a link leading to the aforementioned program that I downloaded and ran. I definitely did not insert that link in my reply to you. I guess this website just randomly inserts links where it sees fit...?

Click to expand...

I would suggest uninstalling whatever you just installed.

Did the word "drivers" cause a small popup window when you placed your mouse over it?

Something like this:

Thanks for the tip - I just uninstalled the program. It was Uniblue DriverScanner. The link doesn't cause a popup when I hover my cursor over it. It simply turns the arrow icon into a hand icon. Jeesh but the internet can be nefarious....

Speaking of the internet, any other ideas for getting my laptop back onto the internet? As I said, I'm pretty sure it's a setting somewhere, but danged if I can find it.

Thanks!!

Uniblue is a horrible company. They have broken so many computers with their crapware.

Honestly, we could keep making suggestions (after all, that is what we are here for) but since you have the laptop online via LAN cable, you might want to ask your "tech-savvy friend" to use TeamViewer to remotely control your computer. That friend might fix the issue in a matter of seconds.

If that is not an option - then please post a screenshot of what this window looks like for you:



It would be best (but not required) if you would use Microsoft's Snipping Tool to save the screenshot image as a file - then attach it to your next post. Here is some info on using that tool: How to Use the Snipping Tool in Vista That Vista info is good for W7 too.

From what I can see here the Virtual Box is causing the Unidentified Network problem.

Try removing the Virtual box from the equation.

GOT IT! After a bazillion Google searches (and uninstalling Virtual Box, which wasn't related but thanks), I finally got frustrated and contacted Acer via live chat. Wireless was turned off. Turning it on required a combination of Fn + F3. Presto, internet. And now that I look at it, the F3 key has a little wireless symbol on it. Facepalm.

Thanks everyone, I really do appreciate your help and effort. Sometimes I wonder how people ever survived before there were online help forums.

chev65 said:

From what I can see here the Virtual Box is causing the Unidentified Network problem.

Try removing the Virtual box from the equation.

Click to expand...

I see that now. I could not recall where I had seen Vbox in a screenshot. Sorry for the PM.

drudder said:

GOT IT! After a bazillion Google searches (and uninstalling Virtual Box, which wasn't related but thanks), I finally got frustrated and contacted Acer via live chat. Wireless was turned off. Turning it on required a combination of Fn + F3. Presto, internet. And now that I look at it, the F3 key has a little wireless symbol on it. Facepalm.

Thanks everyone, I really do appreciate your help and effort. Sometimes I wonder how people ever survived before there were online help forums.

Click to expand...

I searched for a picture of the keyboard that was large enough for me to see the keys... but I found nothing.

Several forum posts mentioned Fn+F3 and being for Bluetooth and Fn+F2 ans being for Wi-Fi. Perhaps things changed over time. I should have suggested that you look at each function key using a flashlight and a magnifying glass


Glad that it is working for you.

Yes the Virtual box was the only problem I saw there sitting right between the internet and your network, they can cause problems along with other VPN's like Hamachi etc.

But hey turning on the wireless might help as well lol, who knows what key combo's these specific vendors use to turn wireless on with.

I had similiar issue with my hp laptop running on windows 7. also it started showing cannot connect to a window service. realised the root propblem was this error. then did this. went to acessories, chose command promt, ran as administrator and then typed netsh windock reset and then restarted. solved my problem

corrected for you
netsh winsock reset