Wifi connection interrupted every few seconds

Randysea · 25 Mar 2023

I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon 7th Gen laptop. Four years old. Windows 10 Pro 22H2. The problem started a month or so ago. Lenovo advanced hardware diagnostics shows no problems with wifi. It does say:
Network adapter Wi-Fi driver information:
Description . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560 160MHz
Your computer appears to be correctly configured, but the device or resource (DNS server) is not responding
Detected
Contact your network administrator or Internet service provider (ISP)
Completed
Windows can't communicate with the device or resource (DNS server). The computer or service you are trying to reach might be temporarily unavailable.

This did not help Lenovo tech support figure out the problem.

There are two symbols in the Taskbar for the wifi connection. One looks like a globe, the other has concentric quarter circles radiating out from a point at the lower right.

With the globe showing, if I click on it and see my wifi connection, it says "no internet, secured". With the quarter circles showing, it says "connected, secured". Same messages with my VPN on or off.

With the globe icon showing, a very few programs will say there's no internet. But I'm still connected to the internet whichever symbol is showing. I can do emails, watch videos, etc. This has been reported in Lenovo online forums, with no cause or solution found.

With the globe icon showing, I can run Windows Update to check for available updates. But it won't then download my selected updates. If I plug in the ethernet, the download will start.s If the concentric circle (Internet, Secured) icon is showing, the download will proceed.

For a while, I had a temporary workaround. I could go to the hardware manager, uninstall the wifi adapter, and then let it be re-discovered and installed.

I had gotten used to the oddity until a couple of weeks ago. What is happening now is instead of have long periods (hour or more) with one of the two wifi symbols showing, now sometimes they switch back often every few seconds. This breaks many connections. Downloads will pause; Google searches will turn up 404 errors. Some sites will just disconnect when the wifi switches over.

My wife's Dell shows no similar problem. She can do long Zooms over wifi. I have trouble with Zooms. Our iPhones work fine from wifi. My older Panasonic Toughbook has no problem with wifi. It always shows the concentric quarter circles icon of the Internet Access, Secured. The wifi is a Deco mesh system. My Lenovo works fine if I make an ethernet connection to any of the Deco wifi routers.

Lenovo Premier tech support says it sounds like an OS problem. I should back up all my programs and reinstall Windows from scratch. I am not going to do that. Eventually, I'll probably have to upgrade to Windows 11. Maybe that will fix the problem. But I'm not ready to do that, either.

Any suggestions?

PiKo · 25 Mar 2023

Just a try: disable IPv6

User2468 · 25 Mar 2023

The "globe" shows up if Windows can't ping a server. Namely an Akamai server run by Microsoft. So if Windows can't ping that server Windows "assumes" you have no Internet connection and displays that globe icon.

I see the globe icon all the time and that's because I'm blocking certain telemetry IPs on the network.

Having said that, check any firewall or anti-virus product you have installed. In the years I've been on tech forums, I've seen anti-virus software can mess around with the TCP/IP stack. And it can be a permanent mess up, too.

No, the answer is NOT Windows 11. That's like nuking a town because one house as termites or something.

Paul Black · 25 Mar 2023

Hello @Randysea,

This may or may NOT help, but I have a problem sometimes connecting to my Chromecast via Wi-Fi. What I did was setup a .bat file with these two lines in. After I have run it [ about two seconds ], the Wi-Fi- is back to normal.

If you wanted to give it a go, Copy & Paste the following commands into a CMD Prompt and press Enter.

Code:


@echo off
set "Connection=Wi-Fi"
netsh interface set interface "%Connection%" disabled
netsh interface set interface "%Connection%" enabled
pause >nul & Exit

Change set "Connection=Wi-Fi" to the actual Adapter Name.

Just a thought !

I hope this helps.

Try3 · 25 Mar 2023

I assume your Bios & hardware drivers are up to date.

Does the problem exist for another user account on your computer?

If it does then I suggest
SFC - TenForumsTutorials
followed by, if necessary,
Repair Install - TenForumsTutorials {note that, despite its name, this is a repair procedure not an installation}

If the problem survives that then I would wonder if there was an intermittent hardware problem.
Get a copy of the Service manual for your model to guide you then re-seat your WiFi adapter i.e. pull it out then put it back.

Best of luck,
Denis

Try3 · 25 Mar 2023

Paul Black said:

If you wanted to give it a go, Copy & Paste the following commands into a CMD Prompt and press Enter.

Your variable is undefined.

DisableEnableWiFiCard.bat

Code:

:: The WiFi must be turned on first

prompt $g
Set /a Found=0
set FindString=Name
Set UseExpresssion=netsh wlan show interfaces 

for /F "tokens=*" %%X IN ('%UseExpresssion%  ^|   find /i "%FindString%"') do Call :Interfaces "%%X"
GoTo EndGetWiFi

:Interfaces
Set ThisLine=%~1
Set AdapterName=%ThisLine:*: =%
GoTo :EOF

:EndGetWiFi

:: Do the disabling-enabling
netsh interface set interface "%AdapterName%" disabled
netsh interface set interface "%AdapterName%" enabled
::Pause to check outcome

All the best,
Denis

Paul Black · 25 Mar 2023

Thanks Denis,

I am NOT properly awake yet, I took my tablets late.

I changed my above post.

I would also add : to your line [ My OCD kicking in there ].

Code:


GoTo :EndGetWiFi

RickC · 25 Mar 2023

Randysea said:

I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon 7th Gen laptop. Four years old. Windows 10 Pro 22H2.

I have one as well, but it's a year older.

Randysea said:

The problem started a month or so ago. Lenovo advanced hardware diagnostics shows no problems with wifi. It does say:
Network adapter Wi-Fi driver information:
Description . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560 160MHz
Your computer appears to be correctly configured, but the device or resource (DNS server) is not responding
Detected
Contact your network administrator or Internet service provider (ISP)
Completed
Windows can't communicate with the device or resource (DNS server). The computer or service you are trying to reach might be temporarily unavailable.

This did not help Lenovo tech support figure out the problem.

Randysea said:

There are two symbols in the Taskbar for the wifi connection. One looks like a globe, the other has concentric quarter circles radiating out from a point at the lower right.

The 'concentric quarter circles radiating out from a point on the right' is the standard Windows symbol for Wi-Fi. The globe is used to show the internet itself but only appears if there's a problem.

Randysea said:

Any suggestions?

The most likely explanation is that part of Windows' built-in internet connectivity test hasn't completed... the error message suggests that resolving a named internet address to an IP address has not been successful.

I suggest you try this:

1. Right-click on Start and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin).

2. When the PowerShell console appears, copy/paste the following command into it then press RETURN/ENTER:

Code:

Test-NetConnection -InformationLevel "Detailed"

3. This will closely duplicate the OS' built-in internet connection test by trying to reach a remote Microsoft endpoint by name (to test DNS) and resolve the name to an IP address to test DNS; then it will 'ping' the same endpoint and measure the time it takes for the reply to get back to your X1.

Here's what my X1 shows:

Wifi connection interrupted every few seconds-test_connection_detailed.png

And an IP lookup shows:

Wifi connection interrupted every few seconds-ms_endpoint.png

If any part of the OS' built-in internet connectivity test fails then it shows the globe in addition to the Wi-Fi (or ethernet) icon.

If the test fails, try these two commands in the PowerShell console one after the other:

Code:

ping internetbeacon.msedge.net

ping 13.107.4.52

Post back with the results of these tests. It's a good idea to test the connection a few times, especially when you've mentioned the issue gets worse after about an hour.

Hope this helps...

Try3 · 25 Mar 2023

Paul Black said:

I would also add : to your line [ My OCD kicking in there ].

Paul,

You would be wrong to do so.
Examine the changed program flow that your change would cause.

Denis

Try3 · 25 Mar 2023

RickC said:

This will closely duplicate the OS' built-in internet connection test

Rick,

If it's any help, the test is whether or not it can find
http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txt
in response to a DNS request & an HTTP query.
Network Connection Status Icon - MSLearn

This can be emulated using

Code:

$ErrorActionPreference = 'silentlycontinue'
$WWWTest = Invoke-WebRequest http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txt 
If ($WWWTest -match 'Microsoft Connect Test') {$WWWConnection = $true} Else {$WWWConnection = $false}
$WWWConnection

which has an output variable $WWWConnection [True, False]
WWWConnectionTest.ps1

Denis