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What is "Limited Connectivity" and how do I fix it?

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Summary: "Limited Connectivity" displays when your computer is having problems completing its network configuration. It might as well mean "no connectivity".

I have recently started receiving "limited connectivity" messages at our vacation condo. Looking on the web I've found a jillion ways to fix this problem and can't believe all the advertising. I've found that cycling the repeater that is in our condo will usually clear this problem. What causes it and what do I do when cycling the repeater doesn't work?

"Limited connectivity" happens when your computer can connect to the network ... but it can't.

I know, that wasn't very helpful. But it's actually accurate. Your computer was able to connect the network in one way, but was unable to complete the next step.

"Limited connectivity" happens when:

  • Your computer detects that a network is present and operating. That means that it detects that the network cable is plugged in, or that it was able to connect to a wireless access point.

  • Your computer's request for an IP address went unanswered.

It's that last one that needs a little explanation.

An IP address is how your computer is located on its network. The vast majority of machines are configured to connect to the network using DHCP to get what's called a "dynamic" IP address. That means that rather than permanently assigning a specific IP to that machine, the machine "asks" for an IP address when it connects to the network.

Dynamic IP addresses are simpler to configure, and allow for IP addresses to be re-used when the machines that they were temporarily assigned to are taken offline.

"If you check your IP on your machine and it starts with '169.' that's a made-up IP address."

A DHCP request for a dynamic IP address is very simple: your computer broadcasts to all the devices listening on its network "Would the DHCP server listening please assign me an IP address!". On each such network there should be one device that hears that request and responds with something like "Here ya go: you will be 192.168.1.4 - and by the way, when you want to talk to others on your network, here's some more information, and when you want to send something to the internet, send it here."

In other words your computer gets both its IP address as well as instructions on how to talk to the rest of the world.

At that point your computer is ready to communicate with the world.

So, what happens if no one responds?

Your computer will repeat that request ("Would the DHCP server listening please assign me an IP address!") a few times, and then it'll give up.

And declare that you have limited connectivity.

Connectivity is "limited" because your computer will likely make up an IP address. If you check your IP on your machine and it starts with "169." that's a made-up IP address. Only your computer knows about it, which means that no other computer knows how to contact yours. In addition, your computer doesn't know how to find or send packets to anyone else.

Limited connectivity is extremely limited. In practice, it means no connectivity.

There are scenarios where, if you know what you're doing and you're willing to jump through some hoops, you can actually force communication while you're in this state by doing things like manually configuring TCP/IP settings on your network card. But it's not meant to be a long term solution at all.

So, what do you do?

DHCP is typically handled by your router, or in some cases your broadband modem. If you have a single PC connected to the internet, it may also be handled by your ISP.

Believe it or not, 90% of the time what you did is exactly right: reboot your router. Sometimes routers just "get into a state" and need to be rebooted. It's silly, and in an ideal world shouldn't be needed, but it is what it is. I probably reboot my router once a month, on average.

Wireless access points, those which are not routers but simply provide the wireless connectivity to a wired network, can sometimes also hiccup and fail in such a way as to cause this problem. I believe it happens when the wireless side of the device keeps working while the wired connection is, for some reason, inoperative. Again, a reboot of the device typically clears this up.

In either case, it's easiest to then reboot your computer(s) to force them to request new IP address assignments from the now functioning router.

If the reboot resolves the problem, but then it reoccurs quickly, I would check with the manufacturer of that device to see if there is new firmware available for it. Even though we think of routers and access points as hardware, they are in fact small computers running programs, and the programs sometimes have bugs. Sometimes those bugs don't manifest until something outside of the device changes. (I've heard anecdotal evidence that the new TCP/IP code in Windows Vista has exposed issues with some routers, for example.)

If your firmware is up to date, and the problem repeats frequently, I would investigate trying a new router or access point to see if that clears things up.

Related:

Article 12496 | Posted June 19, 2008

Recent Comments
10 Comments

You also get 'limited connectivity' if you connect to your router but do not imput a wep/wpa key or the wrong one.

Basicly you are connected to the router, but it doesnt want to know you without the correct key.

Posted by: Eeveevolve at June 19, 2008 11:53 PM

I had this experience in a public library's hot-spot. I was assigned an IP and it is an open (no security) wireless connection. Yet, I got limited connection. May be the router was kaput like Leo says. My trouble was that whatever I did with my computer, I got the same IP and same "no connection".

Ultimately I had to take the course Leo suggests as a short term solution - manually configure TCP/IP setting. I went on to assign myself an IP and got full connection pronto.

You have got to know your settings. Computer systems are still not ignorant friendly.

Posted by: Rahul at June 20, 2008 3:54 AM

For me i have a personal experiment at this problem, and see that "limited connectivity" caused also when there was a malfunction on the main lines of the Internet network , any way thank you leo for useful article.
http://www.fosdir.com

Posted by: peter at June 20, 2008 9:53 PM

Although I don't usually get the "limited connectivity" errors, I find that some routers (I have a Speedtouch one) drops the wireless whilst keeping the ethernet somewhat active, though in this state the router is extremely slow, sometimes unresponsive and I usually either wait for it to reboot itself - though I still haven't figured out how or why it does that - or just restart it manually.

Posted by: Eli Coten at June 24, 2008 9:48 AM

We also get the "limited connectivity" when our ISP broadband feed isn't working. Since Comcast and Insight swapped coverage areas in the Midwest this year, this has been happening while they do their maintenance.

Posted by: Stuart Ball at June 24, 2008 11:08 AM

I had Limited Connectivity for at least five months, I had to re-boot every time I looked at my computer, I tried everything I could read about,but then I put my computer in for a service as I needed help, they sorted it right away, it was my Panda Antivirus plus Firewall that was at fault, it was running but blocking use of the computer,Panda is now running perfect.hope this helps, JIM.

Posted by: Mr James Morrison at June 24, 2008 4:25 PM

If you have Windows XP, from a command prompt enter "arp -a". If you get a response like:

Interface: 192.168.1.77
  Internet Address Physical Address   Type
  192.168.1.1       02-10-40-4c-3c-8c dynamic

then your computer is able to talk, at the lowest level, with the router. That's a good thing.

In this example, the router is 192.168.1.1 and the computer where I entered the command is "Interface" or 192.168.1.77.

If you don't see any IP addresses other than the Interface one on the first line, then the problem is likely hardware rather than software. Is a wire unplugged? Is the WiFi radio turned on? That sort of thing.

This should work with other OSs and other versions of Windows too as ARP is a TCP/IP thing rather than a Windows thing, but the command syntax may differ.

Posted by: Michael Horowitz at June 24, 2008 8:48 PM

My internet connection was working one day and failed to connect the next day with limited connectivity. I tried everything I read from the web but was unable to resolve it. Fortunately, I check the list of install softwares/update and found that the last thing installed on the laptop was an antivirus update. When I uninstall the update, things started to work again.

Posted by: Mr Anonymous at June 28, 2008 11:39 PM

I always wondered where that 169.x.x.x ip address came from thx

Posted by: Kevin at July 1, 2008 1:32 PM

Thanks for the article. I was having a terrible time installing a linksys wireless N adapter while using a linksys wireless N router. They should be compatible, right? I had already tried rebooting the router, but after reading your article I decided to try rebooting the router again... and it worked. What a pain tho!

Posted by: Mark at November 14, 2008 4:32 PM

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