Limited or No Connectivity

[hlewton]

I just recently had an E4200 Wireless-N Dual-Band Wi-Fi Router and a RE1000 Wireless-N Wi-Fi Range Extender/Bridge put into my home and to say I am disappointed is an understatement. After I read many reviews on both of these products I was sure they would increase the signal strength in my home from the wireless G I had been using. The signal strength seems to be about the same but my laptop doesn't seem to connect to my network all the time, as I believe it should.

First I should say that the signal strength is usually 4 bars out of 5, sometimes all 5 bars, and occasionally only 3 bars. So I believe that the strength is there which really is confusing me as to why I get the messages "Limited or No Connectivity," or occasionally it says it has connected to my "unsecured network." My network is secured. Even when I see the "Limited or No Connectivity" message I still see 4 and sometime 5 bars for the signal strength. Usually if I disable the network connection and then reconnect it reconnects fine. It does not give me these error messages 100% of the time. Sometimes it does connect as it should. Any ideas what is going on and any suggestions on how to correct these errors?

Thanks.

[StuartR]

"Limited or No Connctivity" usually means that your PC could not find a DHCP server, so it will have connected by using an IP Address that starts 169.

Next time this happens please open a command window, type the following commands and let us know what happens.
IPCONFIG
(look to see what IP address you have)

IPCONFIG /RENEW
(you need to wait a minute or so for your PC to try connecting to a DHCP server again)

[hlewton]

Thank you. I will do this as soon as I see that message again and report back.

[hlewton]

It finally did it again and after running IPCONFIG I got this:
Connection-specific DNS suffix………………:
Autoconfiguration IP address………………...:169.254.16.147
Subnet Mask…………………………………...:255.255.0.0
Default Gateway………………………………...:

I the ran IPCONFIG /RENEW and got this message

No operation can be performed on Local Area Network while it has its media disconnected.
An error occurred whit interface wireless network connection: Unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.

I then disabled the network connection, as I have had to do often and then reconnected with an excellent signal and ran IPCONFIG again getting:

Connection-specific DNS suffix………………:neo.rr.com
Autoconfiguration IP address………………...:192.168.1.145
Subnet Mask…………………………………...:255.255255.0
Default Gateway………………………………...:192.168.1.1

So does this help in determining what my problem is when I get that Limited or no connectivity message?

Thanks.

[hlewton]

It did it again and I did not run all the steps above but I did run a "repair" network connection. It seems to connect fine after the repair finished then as I was trying to post this I got the Limited or no connectivity message again and again had to run a repair. Hopefully I will be able to post this before it happens again.

[StuartR]

It sounds like you are losing your network connection. The message "No operation can be performed on Local Area Network while it has its media disconnected." means that the wireless connection has dropped.

I suspect there may be an issue with the Wi-Fi Range Extender/Bridge. Does everything work correctly if you disconnect this and move the laptop so it is near the router?

[hlewton]

I don't know what to say to answer that because when I have had to move the laptop closer to the router it has always worked but that doesn't seem like a good test because I do not always get that Limited or No Connectivity message. However, that does not mean it couldn't be the extender so I'll take it out of the system and see if I still get that message as often. I know I still get a signal where I use my laptop but I was trying to get a higher one with the extender, and to be honest it really didn't seem to provide that. Again, the odd thing, at least to me, is even when I get that Limited or No Connectivity message I have a very high wireless signal, either 4 or 5 bars out of a possible 5 bars maximum. Does that make any sense?

Anyway I'll go remove the extender now and see what happens.

Thanks for the help.

[StuartR]

...the odd thing, at least to me, is even when I get that Limited or No Connectivity message I have a very high wireless signal, either 4 or 5 bars out of a possible 5 bars maximum. Does that make any sense?...

I can think of two possible explanations for this.

1. There is some external interference which uses the same frequency as the WiFi signal, for example a microwave oven or a DECT phone. If this is the case then you can either move the interfering devices or use a different frequency (using 802.11a instead of 802.11b/g/n is one way to do this)
2. The transmitting device is faulty and is not generating the high wireless signal all the time. So that it appears to be a strong signal but the laptop is repeatedly disconnected.

[hlewton]

Thank you. My microwave is hardly ever in use but I will have to check to see what my wireless phones are. If I were to change the frequency of the router to 802.11a would that affect anything else that I need to be aware of like security, password, or anything else?

[StuartR]

802.11b and 802.11g protocols work at 2.4GHz only, and 802.11a works at 5GHz only. I have just looked at a few reviews and it seems that 802.11n can work at both, so I have now learned something new today.

The E4200 V2 supports 802.11n at both 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, and it can work with both at the same time. You would need to change the wireless adapter card in your laptop for one that supports the 5GHz frequency to work with this though.

If you really want to know what is going on with your network, and what other devices are providing interference, you would need a device like this and that is probably too expensive for domestic use.

[hlewton]

Yes that is a bit expensive and I probably would not understand it anyway.

I think I can now say that it is not the extender that is causing the problem because it just happened again and I have removed the extender from the system. What bothers me a lot is my old wireless G router, even thought at times it had a weak signal, never gave me this Limited or No Connectivity message except very rarely nowhere near as often as this new router does.

It appears me phone is one of those that causes problems but if I am understand you correctly I shouldn't try changing the router settings because my laptop is so old that I'd bet I could not get a new adapter card for it.

I still do not understand why running a repair always seems to fix it so that I can connect but that IPCONFIG /RENEW would not.

[StuartR]

...I still do not understand why running a repair always seems to fix it so that I can connect but that IPCONFIG /RENEW would not.

When you run a repair it will do a complete reset of the network card, and re-establish the wireless network connection. When you do IPCONFIG/RENEW it simply attempts to find a DHCP server, using the existing network connection.

[hlewton]

Thank you for the explanation.

[StuartR]

Thank you for the explanation.

Sadly it doesn't seem to have suggested a solution to your problem.

[jonwallace]

I suppose it's possible the problem is in the wireless adaptor in the laptop. I had to swap out an Intel adaptor in my wife's old laptop, for just this reason.

[hlewton]

On the Internet I found the steps below and they were presented as a solution for the same problem I have after my computer wakes up from the sleep mode. However, the below steps are for Windows 7 so since I have Windows XP I tried following them as best I could. I got to step seven below and do not see anything that says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." If I uncheck the box that says “Use default value” there is a bar setting that goes from “Lowest” to “Highest” I have experimented with both settings and it seems that when I wake up my laptop it still has to search for a network connection which I believe means the computer is still turning off the wireless adapter to save power. Does anyone have any suggestion how in Windows XP I can have the computer go to sleep and not the wireless adapter?


Step 1: Click on Start and go to Control Panel. In the Control Panel, Click on Small Icons to VIEW.

Step 2: Find Network and Sharing Center and open it.

Step 3: On the left side, you will see an option that says "Change adapter settings". Open it

Step 4: You will two connections there, local and wireless. Right Click on WIRELESS one and select properties.

Step 5: Now Click on CONFIGURE.

Step 6: You will see 5 tabs, click on the last one that says "power management"

Step 7: Now simply UNCHECK the first box that says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

Thats it, you are done. NOW you can do whatever you want, put it to sleep, stand by, hibernate ... and yea you wont have a problem anymore :)

I bet this will fix your problem so you are WELCOMEThanks

[StuartR]

See How to disable power management for a network adapter when you deploy Windows XP

[hlewton]

Thank you. I will give it a try.

[hlewton]

Well maybe I am expecting something that just isn't realistic. I turned off allowing the computer to turn off power to the adapter and checked it out using the Registry method which verified I had indeed stopped the computer from turning off power to the adapter. I then put the computer to sleep and when I woke it back up it still checked for a network before making the connection. So my question is if the network adapter does not have its power turned off shouldn't it remain connected and not have to search for the wireless network when the computer is brought out of the sleep mode? That is the way I understood those steps I posted above.

[jonwallace]

I think that setting actually means "Don't let my computer decide that I'm not using my network adaptor". I think if you hibernate or sleep (is that a verb?) your laptop, then the network card will be turned off to save battery power.