Why can't my laptop connect to public Wi-Fi?

Question

I have a ASUS ROG Strix Model G5130 and I am currently running windows 11. I am able to connect my laptop to my home Wi-Fi and to my phone hotspot. This has been in multiple hotels in multiple countries. The pattern seems to only be with unsecure public Wi-Fi. I can't even get to the splash page that hotels usually have to sign in because I can't make the initial connection. I get a message saying "Can't connect to this network" when clicking the "connect" button in the Wi-Fi list.

So far I have tried the following:

• Restarting network adapter
• Network reset to default configurations via the settings
• Updating network drivers
• Updating windows
• Turning off power saving mode for the network adapter (which involved adding a regedit DWORD)
  • Which was PlatformAoAcOverride, Value 0. This was due to a different issue where the laptop power settings turned off my network adapter during sleep mode but thanks to windows I could not see the power management tab. Removing the DWORD did not fix my new issue. (adding in case it might be related but I don't think it is.)
• Forgetting access points doesn't work because I can't connect in the first place so there is nothing to forget

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This problem drove me crazy for about an hour and a half one night in a hotel. I kept receiving an error message that I could not connect to the network. I was able to log onto the network with my phone and so was the desk agent in the lobby. I was able to connect the computer to my phone hotspot so I knew it had to be a setting on my computer. I reset my network settings, flushed the DNS and all those asssociated steps, reset network settings,toggled airplane mode off and on, same with wifi, etc.

Not until I looked at the "random hardware addresses" was I able to fix the problem. Just toggling that off took care of it. I would guess that hotels want a better means of tracking IP or MAC addresses for security reasons. I doubt that all hotels use this feature but they did in the Marriott property in which I was staying.

Answer 2

So glad it worked for you. It's sad that the Microsoft technicians are convinced that running the worthless troubleshooter actually solves problems. It has never helped me with ANY problem. Total waste of time.

Answer 3

Hi - I just wanted to say that this post led me to a solution to the same problem. However, it was doing the OPPOSITE of what worked for the person who posted this solution.

I had been unable to connect directly to the hotel's WiFi through the laptop, but my cell phone did connect, so I used the cell phone's hotspot option to connect the laptop to the Internet.

As suggested in the post, I navigated to the RANDOM HARDWARE ADDRESSES option and found that I already had that option toggled off. Figuring I'd take a shot, I turned this option to ON and the laptop connected!

My laptop is an ASUS ROG Strix G512LV running WIN 11 Home.

I appreciate the original poster's solution even though it was not quite the same fix - but it led me to the fix for my machine and maybe it will help others.

Answer 4

Is the network set as Public or Private on your PC?

From the screenshot you sent it seems that you are trying to connect to an extended WiFi network, such as a Mesh network or to a network that uses WiFi repeaters or range extenders.

If you have the possibility, try repeating the test by moving your PC close to the workstation of the main router, connecting directly to the router's WiFi network and check whether the problem still persists or not.

In any case this is not a problem with Windows or your device but this could depend on the setting of the hotel's WiFi network on which restrictions may have been configured for certain devices or your device has been blacklisted .

In any case, this problem must be resolved by the router manager or the network administrator.

What is the exact model of your WiFi adapter?

Answer 5

Yes I have contacted multiple hotel managers in multiple hotels. They reset the router for me each time.

I am using Windows Defender for my firewall/antivirus and I disabled them. Still having the same issue.

Here is a screenshot o the troubleshooter after trying all of the recommendations. I can connect to the same network with all of my other devices (2 different cell phones and work laptop) so the signal strength is not low.