I've been helping a friend with tech issues and ran into a strange problem with her laptop. It's a Lenovo Ideapad, which has been functioning well for about six months, but now it connects to Wi-Fi at her home but shows 'Connected, no internet'. This issue started a couple of weeks ago, but other devices in her home like smartphones and a smart TV connect just fine. The laptop keeps getting a 169.xxx.x.x IP address, which I know indicates that it's not getting a proper IP address from the router. I've already tried restarting the modem, running ipconfig commands, and reinstalling the internal Wi-Fi adapter but nothing seems to work. The only solution I've found so far is using an old USB Wi-Fi adapter that I have as a workaround. I'm curious about why this is happening, especially since the laptop connects to other networks without any problems. Any ideas?
1 Answer
When your laptop gets a 169.x IP, it means it's not receiving an IP from the DHCP server, which is usually in your router. You might want to check if the DHCP service has been disabled on her device or if there are other devices on the network that might be interfering with the DHCP process. Each device should be getting unique IPs from the router to function properly.
Wouldn't the USB adapter also have the same issue if the DHCP was the problem? It seems odd that it works fine elsewhere.