laptop only accepts home WiFi

[Amethyst]

We're on vacation (U.S.) , and brought phone, elderly Kindle, and laptop, a 2015 Lenovo ThinkPad.

Everywhere we've stopped, the laptop refuses to connect to WiFi. It was happy with our home WiFi when we left.

Is this a sign of a bad WiFi card? Is there anything to be done about it? Was hoping to get a lot of writing done on vacation

Thanks,

Amethyst

 

[Jerry1]

You could get one of these and see if that’s the problem without spending too much money.

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...VloTICh0eAAoFEAQYAiABEgIZaPD_BwE,gclsrc:aw.ds

 

[Jerry1]

Do the other networks show up on your computer? That would suggest that the card is working or how else would the other networks get detected.

Can your phone work as a hotspot? That would isolate a network that you could test to see if the computer is working.

 

[Amethyst]

The only network that shows up is the home one, when we are home. On vacation, the laptop says "WiFi not connected." I put the phone in hotspot mode without results.

 

[Scrapr]

Is there a security setting for "trusted networks only"?

Doesn't show your phone hotspot?

 

[Amethyst]

Apparently not.

Is there a security setting for "trusted networks only"?

Doesn't show your phone hotspot?

 

[Scrapr]

Old Indian Trick

restart your computer

 

[Sunset]

my laptop has a button to turn wifi on/off, are you sure your wifi is even on ?

What OS is it ?

 

[COcheesehead]

There’s a box checked somewhere that shouldn’t be checked. Look at all your WiFi settings again.

 

[target2019]

The only network that shows up is the home one, when we are home. On vacation, the laptop says "WiFi not connected." I put the phone in hotspot mode without results.

There is a Windows setting to detect new networks.

"If your computer can connect to the previous WiFi networks automatically, but there are no network names showing on the network list, then this could be an issue with the network discovery. To check if this is the case, open the Control Panel, go to Network and Internet, click Network Sharing Center, and click Advanced sharing settings, then check if the Network discovery is on. If it's not, select Turn on network discovery, then click Save changes."

 

[nwsteve]

Did you inadvertently turn on airplane mode?

 

[SecondCor521]

Probably not the problem, but:

My Dell laptop has a firmware issue where it needs to be rebooted in order to connect to a different network. So, as someone else suggested, try rebooting.

The same laptop seems to refuse to connect to the wifi network when a Windows update is pending. Apply any pending Windows update and try again.

You shouldn't need to do it, but if you go in and tell your computer to "forget" your home network, that might help.

 

[Amethyst]

Even we Irish know that one, lol

Old Indian Trick

restart your computer

 

[Amethyst]

Nope.

Did you inadvertently turn on airplane mode?

 

[Amethyst]

Without a connection, how can you apply updates?

Probably not the problem, but:

My Dell laptop has a firmware issue where it needs to be rebooted in order to connect to a different network. So, as someone else suggested, try rebooting.

The same laptop seems to refuse to connect to the wifi network when a Windows update is pending. Apply any pending Windows update and try again.

You shouldn't need to do it, but if you go in and tell your computer to "forget" your home network, that might help.

 

[Bestwifeever]

If you’re in a hotel, your room might have ethernet wiring to plug into your laptop, so you might becable to get updates that way.

 

[Amethyst]

Network discovery is turned on.

Probably not the problem, but:

My Dell laptop has a firmware issue where it needs to be rebooted in order to connect to a different network. So, as someone else suggested, try rebooting.

The same laptop seems to refuse to connect to the wifi network when a Windows update is pending. Apply any pending Windows update and try again.

You shouldn't need to do it, but if you go in and tell your computer to "forget" your home network, that might help.

 

[Cobra9777]

A friend from the UK was visiting recently. She had the same problem and asked me to take a look. I tried everything I could think of but nothing worked. It just seemed like the WiFi device was not functioning at all. So I went to control panel, then device manager, found the WiFi network device, uninstalled it, rebooted, then went back and reinstalled. Worked fine after that. Although she told me the problem returned a few months later and she decided to get a new machine.

 

[Amethyst]

Friends;

The laptop is now connected to local WiFi!

It's hard to say which of your troubleshoots did the trick. I think a combo of SecondCor51 and target2019, plus a bit more persistence (as advised by CoCheesehead).

anyway, thanks! What a relief to have a proper keyboard. I get tendinitis in my right palm/thumb if I use the phone "keyboard" too much.

Amethyst

 

[HFWR]

Short between the keyboard and the floor... [emoji6]

 

[Lakewood90712]

A little off topic, I would not use a public WIFI on a laptop without using a VPN , for security reasons. When I must go online, I tether my laptop to the phone and use 4G., as I am too computer illiterate to set up a VPN.

 

[Amethyst]

Is that the same as PEBKAC? Haven't heard that one before.

Short between the keyboard and the floor... [emoji6]

 

[target2019]

PLBKAC, lol.
No one knows what happens in a Windows computer when you click on various settings. Sometimes toggling a setting does the trick, after a reboot.

 

[SecondCor521]

Without a connection, how can you apply updates?

I'm no Windows expert, but I think what happens is that when I am connected to the network, Windows downloads updates in the background.

Then next time I go to connect to the network, Windows notices and refuses to let me connect at that point until I apply the updates.

I reboot and apply the Windows updates and then I am always able to reconnect to the network.

I do not know whether the above behavior is an intended feature of Windows update, or if my particular computer is a bit goofy in that regard.

(It's a Dell laptop that is about 4 years old and I nearly always connect over WiFi.)

 

[donheff]

I recently helped a guy with a Lenovo that had the reverse problem. His laptop would connect to his home network but would not get an Internet connection after returning from overseas where it had worked fine. The Internet was working fine on his home network (I tested with my phone). After trying everything I could think of I reset it to a restore point from just before the trip and voila. I probably could have achieved similar results by uninstalling the network card as suggested here.