Can't connect to the internet in my dorm… what can I do?

Tech Support Forum
1

I’ve tried everything I could find on YouTube. I’ve restarted my laptop, reinstalled the network driver, changed my DNS to Google’s, and even did a soft reboot. But I still can’t get wifi to work. I recently moved into a new dorm, and while my phone connects perfectly fine, my laptop won’t. It says I’m connected to the local wifi, but there’s no internet access. The control panel also shows ‘no internet access’. Can anyone help me figure this out?

2

I’m connected to the local network, but it says ‘no internet connection’.

3

This seems like a problem with the dorm’s network, and it might be best to ask the people managing it. Just a heads up, ‘wifi’ is the wireless connection to the local network (like a router or access point), and ‘internet’ is what the router connects to for access to the outside world. So, you are actually connected to wifi, but the issue is with the internet connection. It sounds like the local network setup might be causing the issue. The network admin will probably know more about how it’s configured. Try telling them, ‘My laptop is connected to but I have no internet access’ and they should be able to help you faster than we can guess.

4

@Bryce
I live in a dorm run by an old lady renting out rooms. Should I contact the wifi’s management instead?

5

DebugDynamo said:
@Bryce
I live in a dorm run by an old lady renting out rooms. Should I contact the wifi’s management instead?

Who is paying for the internet and set up the wifi in the building? Do they have the admin password to change things like the wifi password? If the person running the building doesn’t really know the technical side of things, you might need to talk to the company that provides the internet. It’s likely that they set up the network and might have more insight into what’s going on. If everything’s run by someone with no technical knowledge, fixing this will be harder, since you’d need to get access to the router or the admin password to investigate and fix the issue yourself.

6

This might help if it’s a signal issue. Go to ‘Device Manager’, find your wifi adapter under ‘Network Adapters’, and go to its properties. From there, try changing your wireless mode to 2.4GHz (something like 802.11 b/g/n). Make sure ‘VHT 2.4GHz’ is enabled, then try discovering the network again.