# WiFi started saying Limited Access all of a sudden



## kasajian (Aug 17, 2008)

I have the following situation. I'm running Dell Latitude D630 with Windows 7. Using built-in WiFi, at home connecting to Router from AT&T UVerse

Everything worked fine for months. Now I have the following situation. It finds the WiFi, and connects, but with only "limited access". The network status says:
Limited Access
IPv4 Connectivity: No network access
IPv6 Connectivity: No network access
Media State: Enabled

After doing the diagnostics, it said the following:
Problems found:
"Wireless Network Connection" doesn't have a valid IP configuration

Well, clearly it doesn't because the DHCP didn't assign it one, because, hey, it couldn't connect!

For giggles, I entered what I know to be the right IP address for this computer, along with the gateway and DNS settings, and sure enough, it works. So, for some reason, the DHCP isn't working.

I am not sure what I've done to the computer to cause this. It connects to other WiFi networks just fine (Starbucks, hotel and airport networks, work network)

Also, although I'm using DHCP, in the router, I've set up each computer in the network to be assigned a fixed address. So, the set up I have now will work fine, but I'm sure that if I go to another network, I'll have to switch back to DHCP client on the laptop.

Furthermore, the home network wifi works just fine when I use the MacBook. So that means, the router is fine and is able to assign it an address.

I *really* wish Windows 7 would give me more information as to what the problem is. I hate the way it just gives up and gives you very little data when something goes wrong.

Are there any diagnostics tools I can use to figure out why the computer isn't being assigned an IP address?


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## HenniganWilson (May 22, 2009)

Just to clarify does the router give out ip's to any machine?
Are you sure that the Mac book is getting a dynamic (random) ip everytime and that it isn't just using the last one? have you tried renewing the ip on the mac book to see if it finds a new one (don't ask me how )

I would suggest rebooting the router and changing the DHCP range on it, if it uses 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1 then change it to 192.168.x.1 (something like 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1) it may well be the router has forgot to release the ip's it has previously assigned to devices and hence has run out.


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## kasajian (Aug 17, 2008)

This was a user error. Apparently there was a power outage earlier and the router didn't reset properly. When I turned it off and on, all went back to normal.


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