I've got a perplexing issue with my Lenovo Legion laptop running Windows 11. After being offline while traveling for two weeks, my laptop connects to WiFi but won't access the internet. I'm unsure if this is a result of possible hardware damage from travel or if there's something outdated in my system.
Here's what I've tried so far:
- I can ping an IP address when using my mobile data hotspot, but not on my house WiFi.
- I can't ping any domain names. Nslookup works fine on any WiFi, but I can't ping IP addresses from my house network.
- I can ping my local router without issues.
- Bluetooth connection on my phone seems to be problematic too.
- In safe mode with networking, my WiFi adapter was disabled and I couldn't turn it back on.
- I've run Windows Defender and found no malware.
- After resetting, my laptop indicates it's connected to WiFi, but it takes time to acknowledge there's no internet access—although pings still don't work during this period.
I've reset network settings, uninstalled and reinstalled the network adapter with the latest drivers, booted in safe mode, flushed DNS, reset TCP/IP settings, and manually set DNS addresses. I also cannot access an ethernet cable while traveling to check that connection. Tethering via USB gives me a 'loading' symbol before it eventually tries to reconnect to WiFi. Any ideas on what the problem might be?
3 Answers
The fact that nslookup works but pings don’t suggests that DNS is working fine, but traffic is not routing as it should. It could be a corrupt Winsock catalog or a firewall rule blocking connections. Try removing all your Wi-Fi profiles using the command 'netsh wlan delete profile name=*', then reboot and reconnect to your WiFi. Sometimes Windows holds on to problematic configurations like it’s an ex it can't let go of.
Have you thought about temporarily disabling your firewall to see if that helps? It's just a thought; I get how frustrating this can be.
This happened to me once, and it turned out to be a messed up system clock. Just check that your date and time are set correctly (timedate.cpl), as this can sometimes cause network issues, especially with secure connections.
I checked, and my system time was off due to switching time zones. I updated it manually, but it still hasn’t resolved the issue.
Yeah, that might not be the root cause, but it’s worth ensuring everything’s in sync as much as possible.
Honestly, if you're having this much trouble with Windows, consider switching to Linux Mint. It’s user-friendly and often resolves these sorts of weird networking issues more smoothly.
I ran that command and rebooted, but I'm still experiencing the same issues. It's strange that my mobile hotspot allows for pings, yet my home WiFi doesn't.