Work laptop won’t connect to wifi

[Shona8]

My work laptop has stopped connecting to talk talk. I can connect all my other devices to the internet. I can connect my laptop to my mobile hotspot/any other wifi networks. It used to be able to connect. I work from home part time so I need my laptop to work. It is not a VPN issue (I do use a VPN for some aspects, but can’t even open a google page let alone start to connect to a VPN!).  How can this be fixed please? I can see it has happened to other people too, but was advised to start my own topic. 

[KeithFrench]

I assume that you still have an eero router? It is not necessarily the router at all, especially as other devices connect OK. 

Please can you confirm:-

• Are there any devices that connect OK that are in the same location as the laptop?
• With the devices that connect OK, which WiFi band are they connecting to - check the eero app?
• Does that laptop detect the eero's network name and just fail at the password entry?
• Does that laptop fail to detect the WiFi network name?
• Have you tried the laptop in the same room as the eero?
• Approximately how far away is the eero from the laptop normally?
• Is the laptop close to any other electronic equipment when it can't connect?
• Are there any large metal objects or tanks of water or mirrors between the eero and the laptop's normal position?

[Shona8]

Hi Keith. It’s a work laptop so I don’t have admin rights. Is there any other way around this. Because of the connection issue I am going into the office, so am trying to sort this out round my working hours - the IT team who have the admin rights cannot help me in the evenings/weekends. Are there any other suggestions as it is clearly an issue with talk talk which was working fine until last week. 

[KeithFrench]

Hi @Shona8 

A VPN will not stop the laptop from connecting to a WiFi network.

If this device is a Windows PC, please wait just over three hours since your last connection attempt failed and then can you launch a Command Prompt run as an administrator. Then issue the command below and press the Enter key:-

netsh wlan show wlanreport

It creates a report & saves it to the HTML file:-

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WlanReport\wlan-report-latest.html

In addition to the HTML file listed above, a CAB file, as well as an XML file, will be in the same folder. Please can you send me all three of these files? You won't be able to PM them to me, so attach them to your thread. As soon as I have them, I will delete them from your post.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

Which router are you using please? (make and model)

To use a wired connection, simply plug the Ethernet cable into your device. Then plug the other end into any of the yellow Ethernet ports on the back of your Super Router.

Thanks

Michelle

[Shona8]

All other devices connect just fine. What do you mean connect wired?

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

Ok, thanks. Is it only the laptop that won't connect? Do other devices connect and work ok? Does this also happen if you try to connect wired to the laptop?

Michelle

[Shona8]

THe error messages. I have reset the router multiple times. 

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

What happens when you try to connect the laptop, do you see any specific error messages? Have you tried rebooting the eero and then re-testing again?

Thanks

Michelle

[Shona8]

Hello, my work laptop once more won’t connect to my talk talk router. The last time it was because of an extender but we now only have eero routers. My work IT team think talk talk may be blocking the VPN (even though I haven’t turned on my VPN yet). Is there anything that can be done to resolve this? It is happening to other people at the same workplace who have talk talk internet so perhaps your have received other messages already. 

[KeithFrench]

Hi @Shona8 

I am going to delete all netsh & ipconfigs from your posts as these are in the public forum for all to see.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Thanks for your help @KeithFrench  🙂

Michelle

[KeithFrench]

Hi @Shona8 

That is good. The next stage is to try & sort the mess of your other routers/extenders. You should really just buy extra Eero units to get extended coverage, so as they form a mesh network.

However, if you want to go down the route of these other units, please can you tell me exactly how they are connecting to the Eero & roughly where they are within your property.

[Shona8]

Thanks Keith, that seems to have sorted it - must have been interfering somehow with the eero even though I wasn't connected to the extender. Fingers crossed that's the end of all the issues! THanks for your patience. 

Shona

[KeithFrench]

OK, those pages in the app are not telling me what I wanted to know, but as I said, I have never had an Eero, so do not know the app very well. Forget those for the time being.

Now the PC is using a totally different IP address, which I was not expecting at all, this is a private class B IP address, which has also been subnetted.

You mention that you have disconnected the middle router, which seems to suggest from your reply that you still have another router connected.

Who set this up & is there a reason for these configuration changes? Perhaps they have come from different networks in the past & have never had their configuration defaulted before being set up as they are, however that is?

Disconnect all routers with the exception of the Eero, plus any extenders/repeaters that you may have. Now try connecting to just the Eero & once again get me the output of the two commands. 

[Shona8]

Okay I have unplugged the middle router (this is a talk talk router and not the study extender we talked  about previously). 

I am sitting right next to the primary router and still can't connect.

i re ran the command prompts and have supplied the requested outputs.

[KeithFrench]

Yes, it could be down to the two routers, depending on how it is set up. First, disconnect the study one altogether & just try a connection near to the main TalkTalk router. If it does not work, then please get me a fresh set of the two command prompt commands.

You have an Eero 6 router I think, go into the app and go into Advanced & then please PM me a screenshot of the router's IP address & DHCP pages, I can't be any more precise as I do not have this router.

[Shona8]

Hi I'm afraid my understanding of computers is next to nothing so I'm not entirely sure how I would have done that. I changed talk talk from normal internet to fibre maybe about a year ago. Then an extra router was sent to me about 8 months ago becuase the signal wasn't strong enough, so we have 2 routers in the house on the first and second floor. Could that be impacting it?

[KeithFrench]

Why are you using this subnet mask:-

255.255.252.0

and not:-

255.255.255.0

The IP address you are using is a class c address requiring a minimum subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. To my knowledge no TalkTalk router supports supernetting.

[Shona8]

Diagnostics supplied.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @Shona8 

I have had a quick chance to have a look at this for you. From what I can see you are actually connecting OK to the router's WiFi, but you have not got any access to the internet for some reason.

Ignore your VPN for the moment, as I do not think that is the problem.

Please can you try again & before disconnecting the laptop from the router, please can you run a couple more commands from the command prompt (no need for administrative access this time) for me:-

netsh wlan show interface

ipconfig /all

Please copy & paste the output from these and send them to me in a PM to preserve your privacy. You can't attach files in a PM, hence why as soon as I got your zip file I removed it from your post.