Menu
- Windows 8 No Wireless Networks Customer Service
- Windows 8 No Manage Wireless Networks
- No Preferred Wireless Networks Windows 8
Star trek eva suit. There will be times, if it didn’t happen already, when your computer will connect to the wireless network, but it won’t connect to the internet, and you’ll see a “Limited Connectivity” message in the wireless network settings in your PC or Surface tablet.
The message can happen because of technical glitches, you have changed the security key in the router, or driver or configuration problems. Follow these instructions to resolve Limited Connectivity or Limited Access error in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1:
How to fix Wi-Fi Limited Connectivity issue on Windows 8.1
Reset the Windows TCP/IP stack
- Use the Windows key + X keyboard shortcut to bring up the Power User menu and choose Command Prompt (Admin).
- Type the following command:
- Restart your Windows 8 PC and check if you can successfully connect to the wireless network.
If the method mentioned above did not solve the problem try deleting the wireless profile in question and connect again. It could be that something went wrong with the wireless security key (WEP or WPA 2) in the router or in your computer and you need to refresh.
Reset Wi-Fi network on Windows 8
- Open the Settings menu using the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut and click the Network icon.
- From the Wi-Fi section right-click and select Forget this network to delete the wireless profile that is causing the problem.
- From the Network settings, turn off and on again the wireless adapter, and connect to the same network again.
Reset Wi-Fi network on Windows 8.1
As it turns out in the new version of the operating system, Microsoft has removed the menu to delete wireless profiles. As such, we can still do the same thing, but we’ll be using the Command Prompt.
Note: These steps should also work in Windows 7, Vista, and XP.
- Use the Windows key +X keyboard shortcut to bring up the Power User menu and choose Command Prompt (Admin).
- Enter the following command and press Enter:
- Try to reconnect to your network and the problem should be resolved.
Reset WinSock on Windows
If none of the above worked you can open once again the Windows Command Prompt and reset the WinSock, which is the Windows network software. Also, using this command, you’ll need to restart your PC:
Quick Tips:Windows 8 No Wireless Networks Customer Service
- Make sure Windows is using the latest wireless drivers. To get the latest network adapter drivers, check your PC maker website.
- In my experience additional software to control a wireless adapter can cause conflicts. So one piece of advice, only install the driver and let Windows take control WLAN adapter.
Update: If after trying all of the above solutions, you still having Limited Connectivity problems, changing the following network settings could also help.
Note: Apparently the following changes works best for Surface RT devices. However, you can try this solution on any Windows 8.1 PC, including Surface Pro.
Windows 8 No Manage Wireless Networks
- Open the Command Prompt as administrator.
- Enter the following commands (one at a time) press Enter and OK on each one:
- Enter following command to verify all the previous settings are disabled:
- Restart your device and see try to connect to your network.
In case none of these fixes resolve the issue, I created another guide that deals fixing Wi-Fi problems in Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1.
Forgetting WiFi networks in Windows 7 was a cinch. Just click Start, type “manage wireless” then start adding, removing, and ordering network profiles…
But how do you forget a WiFi network in Windows 8?
“Oh that’s easy” you say with a knowing grin on your face. “Just go to Settings, Windows Key + i, click the Wireless icon, right click the network and choose Forget This Network, easy”
That’s what I thought too; unfortunately, this option only appears if the network is in range. If the network isn’t in range then you can’t right click it to forget it because it doesn’t show up!
In order to completely delete an out of range wireless profile you actually have to pop open the command line interface and type a few arcane commands.
- Go to the traditional Windows Desktop
- Press Windows Key + x and then press c to open a command prompt.
First, we need to view all the WiFi profiles; enter the below command:
I don’t want StRegisGuestRooms on my computer so I typed:
Case doesn’t matter, that’s why I typed the WiFi network in lowercase – but quotes DO matter. Without those it won’t work.
To reorder the WiFi networks so one has the highest priority, for example to make the network named 10110111 your preferred wireless network, first get the interface name by typing:
I’ve highlighted the interface name in yellow below. My interface name is simply called Wi-Fi
Now we’re going to set the wireless profile named 10110111 to be first; your wireless profile will undoubtedly be called something different, I just named my 10110111 to look cool.
Priority=1 means that Windows will use this Wi-Fi network first; it becomes your goto Wi-Fi network. All the others are subordinate to this one.
On a side note, you can view the stored password in plaintext for any wireless profile, in my case 10110111, by typing the below command:
This is a lot – I know.
No Preferred Wireless Networks Windows 8
To be honest I was aghast when I discovered Microsoft botched something so simple. This is a huge security risk because it’s a possible attack vector for hackers.
The problem is that Windows automatically connects to WiFi networks that are in range. This is a prudent move most of the time but if you’re connected to a public WiFi hotspot it’s not safe to have the computer reconnect without your permission.
There are bad people out there who setup rogue access points hoping unsuspecting users will connect just to get a free network connection. But these users don’t know their communications streams, every keystroke in some cases, is being monitored by someone with malicious intent.
For example, let’s say you’re at the Delta terminal at JFK waiting to board. You fire up your Windows 8 ultrabook and see a plethora of free networks – but two really stick out. The first with the strongest signal says, “Delta Free WiFi” and another directly beneath it says “Delta Air”.
Which one do you use?
Since you want to save some money and it has the strongest signal you choose Delta Free WiFi; however, in this case you would be connecting to a Honeypot, a WiFi network designed to look authentic but is really the work of some loser sitting next to you with a mobile hotspot in his pocket.
Now all your online transactions are being sent to a network monitoring app on his iPhone 5 and he’s capturing all your network activity and automatically uploading it to his Shared.com account.
Delta Air was the real Delta SSID but you didn’t know that because the sign advertising the company network was obscured by a fat dad with three crying kids.
So you picked Delta Free WiFi –
oops.
My point is that you don’t want malicious networks like Delta Free WiFi sitting on your computer. Fortunately, the above technique using netsh commands is guaranteed to solve the problem. Hopefully Microsoft clears this WiFi profile fiasco up in Windows 8.1, but honestly I haven’t heard anything about that, even as it relates to business. Currently all the commands in this article delineates the official way to remove WiFi networks in Windows 8.
Posted in Windows, Windows 8 Tagged with: Security, Tricks