My husband's PC connects to our home Wi‑Fi, but the connection barely works or drops almost immediately. Every other device in the house works normally, and the PC works when connected to a phone hotspot. We've restarted the router and computer, disconnected and reconnected to the correct network, reset the PC's network settings, and checked that the device isn't paused. We're planning to test it with an Ethernet cable as well. He suspects the PC may not be getting a DHCP address, but we're not sure how to verify that. In Command Prompt, he tried entering an address like 10.10.10.10, though we may have misunderstood what he was testing. What should we check next?
3 Answers
The exact error message would help a lot. On the PC, open Settings > Network & internet > Wi‑Fi > the connected network and check whether IPv4 is set to obtain an IP address and DNS automatically. Compare the IP address, default gateway, and DNS values with a device that works. If the PC has an address beginning with 169.254, it failed to receive one from DHCP.
The Wi‑Fi signal may be weak or unreliable where the PC is located, especially with an ISP-provided router. Testing Ethernet is a good next step: if Ethernet works, the issue is probably signal strength, interference, the PC’s wireless adapter, or its driver rather than the internet service itself.
Pinging 10.10.10.10 is not a useful general internet test. A better test is to run ipconfig and look for the PC’s IPv4 address, default gateway, and DNS servers. Then ping the default gateway first, followed by 1.1.1.1. If the gateway fails, the problem is between the PC and router; if the gateway works but 1.1.1.1 fails, the problem is beyond the local Wi‑Fi connection.
That makes sense. We weren’t sure what address he was supposed to test, so we’ll check the gateway shown by ipconfig instead.
Only the PC is affected, and I’ll ask him to check those settings and write down the exact error instead of guessing at what the command was doing.