Cannot connect to WiFi and poor connectivity

Question

My router says C6250 on it rather than R6250.

I bought the router in May 2017. I was unable to connect my computer wirelessly to it, but really never had a need (only had a computer when I bought this router and simply connected the computer with a wire). Now, however, I have a need. My devices (2 cell phones and a wireless printer) can see the router (regular and 5G) and the printer even says it connects with router. However, the computer cannot connect with any of them. My computer is unable to connect wirelessly to the router. The message I get is that it cannot find the IP address. I have tried unplugging the router, turning off the computer and then unplugging the router and plugging it back in before turning the computer on, pressing the reset button on the router, and spending many hours searching the internet for solutions. I am also unable to connect to the Netgear router login page. The page says I am not connected to my router's WiFi network. Wifi is turned on at my computer.

About 2 months ago, my internet was slow and frequently only partially loaded pages. After a month or so of this problem, I rebooted the computer and everything was better until last week. Now I have even worse connectivity problems to the point that I have to avoid most of the internet and just hope to maintain a connection long enough to post this message. Rebooting the computer and router have done nothing to improve this problem.

Are these two problems likely related? Any suggestions? General consensus among friend with more tech knowledge than I have is that my router is bad (at only 7 months old, that will be very aggravating). As you can probably tell, I am not particularly tech savvy. So, if the suggestions include changing settings, please tell me where to find those things. I am running Windows 10 on a computer that is about 18 months old.

Thank-you

michaelkenward · Answer

PaulJR8 wrote:
My router says C6250 on it rather than R6250.
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This means that it is not a router. It is a cable modem/router. That might help in your hunt for solutions.
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There is a manual for the C6250 somewhere at the end of this link:
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 &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; C6250 | Product | Support | NETGEAR &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; 
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PaulJR8 wrote:My devices (2 cell phones and a wireless printer) can see the router (regular and 5G) and the printer even says it connects with router. However, the computer cannot connect with any of them. 
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By process of deduction, it seems that your PC has a wifi problem.
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PaulJR8 wrote:I am also unable to connect to the Netgear router login page. The page says I am not connected to my router's WiFi network. Wifi is turned on at my computer.
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Ignore that message. It is wrong. This may help:
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If you cannot login to your router | Answer | NETGEAR Support
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I am running Windows 10 on a computer that is about 18 months old.
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Windows has reasonable tools for diagnosing network issues. Have&nbsp; you tried&nbsp;the network troubleshooter.
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The fact that you have various issues makes it hard to know where the trouble lies, PC or router, or maybe a bit of both.
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The PC's failure to do wifi make me think that is the first thing to try. Getting that right might mend other problems.
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PaulJR8 · Answer

The Windows troubleshooter is giving me multiple messages:

1. Failed to connect automatically. I have done a few Internet searches on how to get my computer to automatically connect to the router, but the sites I am finding are telling me to click on options I do not see on the page. I will keep searching answers. However, any help would be appreciated.

2. Windows also failed without updating settings.

3. Failed to investigate modem.

Somewhere I also received a WiFi doesn't have a valid IP configuration.

I am running Windows 10.

Thanks for the help!

PaulJR8 · Answer

One last discovery.I was able to connect my computer to my cell phone using my cell phone as a hot spot. Connectivity issues are absent. So, if my computer can connect to my cell phone wirelessly without a problem that would lead me to think that least some of my problem is in my modem/router. Would that be a fair assumption? (I recognize there could still be an issue with my ISP and perhaps poor wiring or something leading to connectivity issues). It seems the problem would not be in the computer itself since the problem goes away when I change the connection method.&nbsp;Unfortunately, my cell phone is not a long-term solution so I still need to fix this modem/router or whatever else is causing these problems.

michaelkenward · Answer

PaulJR8 wrote:
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I was able to connect my computer to my cell phone using my cell phone as a hot spot.
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Nice bit of research. I was going to suggest that you work through the links one at a time to work out what is going on. This one suggests that the PC's wifi is working as expected.
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But all those Windows errors are worrying.
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You say that the&nbsp;cellphone connects to the router's wifi with no problems, so you still have a wifi problem with the PC and a Windows error from that.
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I assume that you connected to the cell phone's hot spot using wifi with a different SSID and password.
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You could try telling Windows to forget the SSID that you were using to connect it to the router's wifi.
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Network Internet settings
WiFi
Manage known networks

Click on the one you were using and tell it to Forget.
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Then you can try to connect again and see if it works.
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Did you get anywhere with being able to login to the router? That is another sign of things going wrong.
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I'm afraid I do not recognise the other messages that you got from Windows:
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2. Windows also failed without updating settings.
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3. Failed to investigate modem.
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PaulJR8 · Answer

I had the cable company technician out today to check my connection. He was unable to access the router either. He was completely stumped on the problem. However, as soon as he swapped out my Netgear modem/router for an Arris modem, my connectivity issues disappeared. I am now getting consistent connectivity and faster loading. This new modem is just a modem so I am not sure I can test any of my wireless issues. However, given that changing the modem fixed many of the problems I was experiencing, that leads me to believe it was the router/modem.This modem/router is only 7 months old, and I paid $150 for this modem/router so I am not happy it worked less than 5 months - maybe never since I could not connect wirelessly right out of the box (it just didn't matter at the time so I never pursued figuring it out). I just contacted Netgear tech support for the second time. We will see if I get a response this time. I need to know where to send it to be fixed/replaced.According to the cable technician, I just need a new router now. Any suggestions?

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Cannot connect to WiFi and poor connectivity

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