My laptop connects to my home Wi‑Fi, but services such as Spotify, Roblox, and several websites either fail to load or stop working. The same network works normally on my phone and other devices. When I connect the laptop through my phone's hotspot, everything works, so the issue seems specific to the laptop's connection with my home network. After restarting the gateway and router, the laptop's connection became unstable and now disconnects and reconnects repeatedly. Could this be caused by DNS, a VPN, parental controls, or a Wi‑Fi driver problem?
3 Answers
This is unlikely to be a Wi‑Fi driver issue, especially since the laptop works through your phone’s hotspot. Check whether a VPN, proxy, security suite, or parental-control filter is active on the laptop or home network. Some services also block traffic routed through certain VPNs or filtering systems. Since the connection is now dropping, forget the home network, reconnect to it, and check the adapter’s power-management settings as well.
The most useful next step is to identify the exact error: does the browser show a DNS error, timeout, certificate warning, or connection reset? Also check whether every device loses internet at the same time. If only the laptop is affected, remove and reinstall the wireless adapter in Device Manager, install the latest driver from the laptop manufacturer, and disable the option that lets Windows turn off the adapter to save power.
Try changing the laptop’s DNS servers manually to a reliable public service, such as Google DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1). Then restart the computer and test again. You can also run `ipconfig /flushdns` from an administrator Command Prompt. DNS could explain websites failing, but it would not normally cause the Wi‑Fi connection itself to disconnect repeatedly.
The home network still works on my other devices, while the laptop’s connection fluctuates and reconnects. I’ll check the adapter settings and the exact error message before reinstalling the driver.