Laptop surfing OK (albeit slow) despite wifi saying its unavailable

Hi there,

I have just changed my router ( to a TP-Link TD-W9980 ADSL2+/VDSL2 router).
Talktalk is my ISP, and I had to swap out their rubbish Huawei router.

I have an issue on my work laptop which is running via my work VPN

Strangely a minute or so after I connect to my work VPN the Wifi icon in the taskbar comes up with an exclamation mark and I get "No Internet" in my 'Network and Sharing Centre' panel.
Despite this showing no Internet - I can surf and use the internet. Odd.

I get this if I connect to either 5Mhz or 2.4MHz bands on the router.
I have tried resetting the adapter, rebooting laptop etc.
I have rebooted the router.
In case this was a DNS issue I have changed the router to use the google Nameservers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4).
The laptop is set to get DNS from the router - as it always has. - according to the networks details panel - it is picking up the google DNS settings from the router OK.
So I can surf OK, but its not that quick.

Why is this working like this?

Cheers

Stagger

I would guess that your VPN software/configuration is effectively disabling direct use of the local interface and putting everything through the VLAN tunnel, including web browsing hence the relative slowness. This is quite normal for increased security; it stops local LAN traffic and VPN traffic from mixing, basically.

stagger231 said:

Strangely a minute or so after I connect to my work VPN the Wifi icon in the taskbar comes up with an exclamation mark and I get "No Internet" in my 'Network and Sharing Centre' panel.
Despite this showing no Internet - I can surf and use the internet. Odd.

Maybe the VPN is preventing the computer from connecting to the servers that Microsoft uses to determine "online status". It is not a big deal.

Windows 7 Network Awareness: How Windows knows it has an internet connection « Super User Blog

Thanks Gents,
I'm not mega concerned - as it runs.
However, when I say slow I mean slow for that VPN connection vs me using my prev fibre router (which had other different wifi issues). I know that the VPN connection will be slow vs a direct connection anyway.
So I only get this strange anomaly and relative slowness with this new TP-Link router, not previous ones. Put it this way - on this VPN connection the new Fibre/VDSL router connection is probably slower than my previous ADSL2/Copper connection.

Maybe the best mode of operation for your work VPN is blocked by default by the TP-Link router. You might want to talk to your tech support at work. They should know what settings to look for in the TP-Link router. They probably won't know the exact way to get to the settings, but they should be able to tell you what to look for.