my laptop is doing my head in

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

It keeps thinking it's not connected to the internet, even though it is, or maybe it thinks the internet isn't there. Sometimes my home page turns up fine, sometimes it doesn't. So I go into chrome, check the settings, untick the "use a proxy server for your lan" and try again. Sometimes that works. Sometimes that box ticks itself again and when pages don't load, I untick it again. Sometimes that works. If it doesn't work, I open the network and sharing centre, go to troubleshoot, and troubleshoot the network adapter. Sometimes that works. Sometimes I have to close and reopen the browser (I usually have Firefox and chrome open). Sometimes I have to restart the laptop. Sometimes I do all of that and nothing works and then it spontaneously works again, maybe for an hour, maybe for 20 seconds.

My tablet, kindle and phone remain connected through all of this without a problem. The WiFi icon on the laptop screen shows the laptop is connected throughout. Trying an ethernet cable connection instead of wifi makes no difference.

It is making me cross.

[Kim]

Sounds like a nasty case of Windows.

The proxy server setting thing sounds particularly odd though.  Have you got some sort of adblocker that works as a proxy that might be enabling it?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I do have an adblocker in Firefox but I have no idea how it works.

[Kim]

Don't see why that would affect Chrome, though, so probably isn't that.

[JenM]

I have been having exactly the same problems over the last few weeks and, for the time being, seemed to have solved my problems. I have a Dell laptop and discovered that, via their online service checking was that there were updates to downloads and drivers that were sitting there waiting to be uploaded.

Hope this helps.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I did try to check for updates the other day but it denied the existence of the internet. I'll try again.

[Ben T]

Mine does that but I know sort of why, it's because I'm using Fiddler all the time and when you close it it doesn't put the proxy settings  (specifically config script) back to what they were, them seemingly needing to be different on the VPN doesn't help either. You don't use Fiddler do you?

Try clicking "automatically detect settings" and close the browser and start it again. Chrome seems to suffer more than IE unfortunately as well.

[Gattopardo]

what lappy and operating system.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Mine does that but I know sort of why, it's because I'm using Fiddler all the time and when you close it it doesn't put the proxy settings  (specifically config script) back to what they were, them seemingly needing to be different on the VPN doesn't help either. You don't use Fiddler do you?

Try clicking "automatically detect settings" and close the browser and start it again. Chrome seems to suffer more than IE unfortunately as well.

Never heard of fiddler!

[bobb]

Never heard of fiddler!

I can install it for you, if you like 

[Ham]

I think it is because you are trying to use a proxy tidy haired thought leader instead of the real thing. Either that or you have got Ian, and he's useless at IT.

There's summat interesting in what you said: you've tried an ethernet cable and it makes no difference. That sounds VERY suspicious, what you need to do is try an ethernet cable and disable Wifi, to force its use. Often a laptop has a function key for this - Fn + F3? anyhow,  if you disable wifi and connect on a cbale and it is still a problem, it indicated one sort of a problem, if it goes away, it's WiFi related. (Possibly an open WiFi signal that goes nowhere?)

[David Martin]

I had this. There is a setting, deep in the jungle of control panels, that puts the wireless adapter to sleep if you haven't used it for a few nanoseconds. You then drop off the net and swear a lot.  Probably somewhere under Power Mismanagement, or Planet Killing, or Hard-luckware settings.

Setting this to "Don't be so stupid, keep me online" seems to turn the air a little less blue in my household.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I've gone into advanced in the power plan bit, and the network adapter bits were all set to maximum performance.

[hulver]

It's possible you might have some sort of virus, which is buggering about with your internet settings in an attempt to trap your traffic and insert their own ads.

Or it could be something odd.

Depending what version of windows you have, there is a way to change the global windows settings for proxy server use (which firefox / chrome might be checking)

If you're in Windows 10, go to settings and type "Proxy" in the search box in the top left. Make sure that the settings look like the ones in this picture (Everything off)



If you're on Windows 7 then the internet settings is the one you want (in control panel somewhere, you should be able to search for "Internet")





If it's not that, then you need to investigate if you do have something dodgy which is hijacking your settings.

[Snakehips]

I get this quite often. I use a variety of browsers.
When it happens I go in to Internet Explorer (I know, crapamundo) but it obligingly offers to run network diagnostics for me. After a minute or so it finds no fault and things work again.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I get this quite often. I use a variety of browsers.
When it happens I go in to Internet Explorer (I know, crapamundo) but it obligingly offers to run network diagnostics for me. After a minute or so it finds no fault and things work again.

Yeah, the trouble is after it's found no fault or fixed what it thinks was wrong, it happens again. Maybe it's the goddess's way of telling me to go for a swim.

Pretty sure it's not virusy cos I have paid-for AVG.

[Kim]

There's a Rule According To Kim about never attributing to malware what can adequately be explained by Microsoft^[1] incompetence.  It's served me well over the years.

I have a special hatred for this idea of deciding whether a given LAN provides internet connectivity by attempting to reach some server or other, and flagging up problems or failing over to an alternative if it doesn't.  It's one of those ideas that's simple, elegant and wrong.  In my experience it causes more problems than it solves.



_{[1] Other incompetent software makers are available.}

[Mr Larrington]

Yeah, the trouble is after it's found no fault or fixed what it thinks was wrong, it happens again. Maybe it's the goddess's way of telling me to go for a swim.

Or possibly Finestre's way of telling you your laptop needs to go for a swim.  In the Firth of Forth.

[Cunobelin]

Yeah, the trouble is after it's found no fault or fixed what it thinks was wrong, it happens again. Maybe it's the goddess's way of telling me to go for a swim.

Or possibly Finestre's way of telling you your laptop needs to go for a swim.  In the Firth of Forth.

Close the Windows first...... otherwise water might get in

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

It's possible you might have some sort of virus, which is buggering about with your internet settings in an attempt to trap your traffic and insert their own ads.


If you're on Windows 7 then the internet settings is the one you want (in control panel somewhere, you should be able to search for "Internet")





If it's not that, then you need to investigate if you do have something dodgy which is hijacking your settings.

Yeah I keep doing that, but it turns the proxy on all by itself and then I have to untick it again. But sometimes that's not enough.

[ian]

Yeah, the trouble is after it's found no fault or fixed what it thinks was wrong, it happens again. Maybe it's the goddess's way of telling me to go for a swim.

Or possibly Finestre's way of telling you your laptop needs to go for a swim.  In the Firth of Forth.

Finestre lives in Hell (well, Dress Down Friday, the best bit), so that would be the Styx. Since they started regenerating Styxside, it's got a lot nicer. Obviously there's still all the screaming souls, but that's local colour for you (some of the new residents have complained to the council about the all night agonized wailing). It's a bit edgier than Lower Clandestine, where I have a flat, but I'm getting older now.

[Gattopardo]

Wonders if something has been changed in the registry?

[hulver]

Yeah I keep doing that, but it turns the proxy on all by itself and then I have to untick it again. But sometimes that's not enough.

Ah, I thought it was just Firefox/Chrome that was enabling it for itself, and thought it might have been picking up the setting from there.

The only other thing that springs to mind is some sort of "helpful" management program installed by your laptop manufacturer. That might be taking over your settings. You don't say what brand of laptop it is, but pretty much all of them install their own flavour of network management that can end up fighting with the windows settings and just buggering things up. It's usually best to uninstall them, but sometimes that can cause problems as well.

[frankly frankie]

It keeps thinking it's not connected to the internet, even though it is, or maybe it thinks the internet isn't there.

I recently replaced my ageing DECT landline phone when the charging cradle packed up - the replacement model (same manufacturer, different model) knocked out the WiFi.  Re-locating the phone a metre further away from the router has made the WiFi usable, but not quite as stable as it was previously, and I do now intermittently get 'no internet' warnings on the laptop.

[Afasoas]

There a few possible causes for the behaviour you are describing - and for once I don't think Windows is one of them.
I think it's either an installed nasty, a Chrome plug-in or one of AVGs privacy/security features getting in the way.
Or it could be that the ISP supplied modem is attempting to utilise or a rogue software/device abuse the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol - and although my knowledge around that is limited, I'd expect to affect your other devices.

Is this a problem specifically when using Chrome or does it manifest when you are using Firefox too?

If it is Chrome specific, I would try disabling all of your Chrome plug-ins and see if it still occurs. If it does, try temporarily disabling AVG (there should be an option to do this on the context menu you get when right-clicking the AVG taskbar icon)