Some websites work on my laptop, but others fail over home Wi‑Fi
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MellowCedar47
My laptop connects to my home Wi‑Fi, but services such as Spotify, Roblox, and several websites either fail to load or work inconsistently. Other devices on the same network work normally, and the affected services work when I connect the laptop to my phone's hotspot. The connection has since become unstable, repeatedly disconnecting and reconnecting. Restarting the gateway and router did not fix it, and restarting the router seemed to make the laptop's problem worse. Could this be caused by DNS, a VPN, parental controls, or a Wi‑Fi driver issue?
Answers
Since the connection is now dropping and reconnecting, forget the saved home network on the laptop and connect to it again. Check whether the router has separate 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks, and test both if available. If the laptop still disconnects while other devices remain stable, reinstalling or rolling back the wireless adapter driver could be worth trying after checking the router and filtering settings.
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Try changing the laptop’s DNS server to a public one, such as Google DNS at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, or Cloudflare at 1.1.1.1. Then reconnect to Wi‑Fi and test again. Flushing the DNS cache may help too, but DNS alone would not usually explain repeated Wi‑Fi disconnections.
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This is unlikely to be a Wi‑Fi driver problem, especially since the laptop works through your phone’s hotspot. Check whether a VPN, proxy, security program, or parental-control filter is active, since those can block particular services. Also compare the exact error messages instead of only noting that a site does not work.
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CleverBirch62: Because the hotspot works while the home network does not, testing DNS is reasonable, but also check the router’s filtering settings and restart the network adapter on the laptop.