Internet Connection Problems

Are you receiving warnings that you are not connected to the internet?  Or that you don’t have a valid IP address? Are you are currently using a Windows 10 computer and are you seeing either of these symbols in the bottom corner of your screen?  If so then you are not connected to the internet and you will not be able to read this.    This problem has been going around for a few days, and I have had a number of calls and texts about the problem.  The problem is your computer is not getting an IP address from your router or DHCP server.  In short when you connect to a network there is a server that hands out addresses on the network.  Your computer is not getting one for some reason.  I have seen comments that it is due to a Microsoft update that went bad or was bad when they pushed it out.  None of that really matters.  All you really want is to get online.  So the good news is there is a simple fix for this.  Hopefully if this was a bad Microsoft update it will be fixed soon and the problem will be behind us.

The Fix

Right click on the start button and you will get the pictured menu.  Then select the Command Prompt.  At the command prompt you will type the following commands followed by pressing enter.  Don’t worry about what scrolls across the window.  It’s just the command being processed.

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

After you have run these two commands you simply can close the command prompt window.  Then open your browser and see if you can get to a web site.  Your icon in the lower right should also lose the little yellow caution symbol.  You should be up and running.  If you lose connection again simply repeat these steps.  If this doesn’t solve your connection problem then you are suffering from something else that will take further investigation.  Feel free to grab this image and share if needed to get someone connected.