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I have been having some strange problems trying to connect my laptop to the internet. I have had the same wireless setup for about a year, usually with no problems. I have Roadrunner cable internet with a Netgear WGR614v6 router. Recently, I began losing the connection very occasionally, sometimes it would reconnect, other times I'd have to power down the router and modem and then it would reconnect. Now, within the last few days, the laptop has refused to connect wirelessly at all. It sees that the network is there, gets a great signal, but refuses to connect. At first it would get to the point of looking for a IP address, which it would try for a a while and then quit. Now, it doesn't even it to the point of looking for an IP address, it just tries to connect for a while and then quits. Also, a few days ago I was able to hook it up to the router via the cable (which is usually used for our desktop computer) and it would connect to the internet. Now, it says there is limited or no connectivity using the cable, but here's the really weird part, even though it says there is limited or no connectivity, the internet will actually work using the cable, for about 5 minutes, then it won't work after that. If I unplug the cable and reconnect, it will again work for a few minutes (while showing limited or no connectivity) and then quit again! I ran the Roadrunner supplied virus scan, 2 anti-spywares and a registry scan, they deleted some cookies, cleaned up the registry and said I had no viruses, but had no effect on the internet problems. I ran hijack this and didn't see anything that jumped out (at least to my untrained eye). This is extremely annoying, I have wasted a lot of time on this! Any help is much appreciated!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by msfreddo

Dani AI

Generated

Good troubleshooting by and a solid confirmation from — updating the wireless NIC driver is a common and correct first fix. Below is a compact, prioritized checklist and the reasoning behind each step to track down both the wireless failure and the strange wired behavior (“Limited or no connectivity” while the web works briefly).

Start with quick isolation tests (run these from an elevated command prompt):

ipconfig /all
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ping 127.0.0.1
ping <router_ip>
ping 8.8.8.8
nslookup google.com
netsh winsock reset

What those tests tell you: loopback confirms the TCP/IP stack, gateway ping checks local link/DHCP, pinging an external IP isolates DNS, and netsh winsock reset fixes socket-layer corruption from bad installs or malware.

Physical and router checks (common causes of intermittent wired success):

  • Swap Ethernet cable and try a different router/switch port to rule out a bad jack or cable.
  • Check link lights and force the NIC speed/duplex to a fixed value if you suspect auto-negotiation problems.
  • Inspect DHCP settings on the router: lease duration, address pool size, MAC filtering, or duplicate static assignments.
  • Reboot and, if needed, temporarily factory-reset the router and update its firmware (bugs in embedded DHCP servers cause periodic failures).

Software/driver checks:

  • Reinstall or roll back NIC drivers; don’t rely solely on registry cleaners.
  • Disable third-party firewalls/security suites temporarily to rule out aggressive filtering.
  • For wireless, check power-management settings that may put the card to sleep.

If problems persist after these steps, test another OS (boot a live Linux USB) or a USB Ethernet/Wi‑Fi adapter to isolate a failing NIC. These steps prioritize data: confirm where IP/DHCP breaks, then replace or reconfigure the failing component.

Member Avatar for BT5150

I'll answer my own post! I updated the driver for the wireless card and that fixed the problem, at least as far as the wireless is concerned, which solves my problem.

Member Avatar for msfreddo

Updating the driver is what I would have suggested, good information!

Mike.

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