Windows 10, what to do if Wi-Fi doesn’t work

If your PC won't connect ala Wi-Fi at home, the problem can also be solved via Windows 10. Here's how to do it

Finding yourself out of the blue without an Internet connection can be a big problem if you're working, or a big annoyance if you're watching the latest episode of your favorite TV series or playing online games. Very often, however, the problem is more in the Wi-Fi connection than in the Internet connection itself.

In other words: our router talks perfectly with our Internet Service Provider, which provides us with the connection, but from the router to the devices there is some problem. Other times, however, it is the router itself that fails to manage the connection for causes that we need to find out. Fortunately, in Windows 10 we have several tools to focus on both types of problems and to solve them in a few minutes. If these tools don't work, however, it is possible that the connection problem stems precisely from the phone operator and we will be left with no other option than to call customer service to ask if there are problems with the network.

How to troubleshoot Wi-Fi card

If the problem lies in the wireless communication between our PC and the router, then we solve it easily via the "Find and fix problems with your network card" tool. Just look for it in the Start menu and run it: it will launch a troubleshooting wizard (we only have to indicate which network card to analyze, if we have more than one, or choose "All network cards"). If problems are found, a standard solution will be proposed, which in most cases works.

How to solve ISP connection problems

If the problem is not in the network card, then it's the router that can't connect to the Internet. Very often it's a problem with the TCP/IP network protocol, which we can solve from the command prompt by searching the Start menu for "cmd" and running the app as administrator. From the prompt we should run, in sequence, these three commands: "netsh int ip reset", "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew". In this way we'll unlock our IP address and use another one, which is usually enough to solve connection problems.

How to solve DHCP problems

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a Windows process that automatically assigns an IP address to a network device. Sometimes, however, it gets the assignment wrong and this does not allow us to connect to the Internet. To solve the problem we have to look for "View Network Connections" in the Start menu, select the network card we use to connect, right click and then "Properties". In the window that appears we must select "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP / IPv4)" and then "Properties", at this point we can choose whether to let the DHCP choose the IP address (and also the DNS, Domain Name System), or do it yourself. If the automatic configuration doesn't work the best choice is to call the customer service of our ISP and ask them for an alternative manual configuration.