“Local area connection doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” – SOLVED

Wi-Fi is very useful when you don’t want to concern yourself with wires when moving your laptops and other mobile devices from one location to another. However, sometimes Windows users are faced with the error message “Local area connection doesn’t have a valid IP configuration”. The problem usually concerns Windows 10 users and prevents them from using their Internet.

Although the error message comes in several variations, the most common are:

• “WiFi doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” – this message is usually caused by a driver issue. Updating your Wi-Fi device’s drivers usually solves it.
• “No valid IP configuration” (Windows 10) – this error is related to your security or antivirus settings. Disabling your antivirus or firewall software usually solves it.
• “WiFi doesn’t have a valid IP configuration unidentified network”, “no Internet secured”, “no Internet access” – these are yet more variations of the error and the rest of the article is dedicated to solutions for fixing them.

The following is a list of methods you can try:

1. Reset TCP/IP:

• Run Command Prompt(Admin) by right-clicking the Windows start button at the lower left corner of your screen and choosing it from the menu.
• Type in “netsh winsock reset” and press Enter

• Type in “netsh int ip reset” and press Enter
• Exit the Command Prompt window and restart your PC.

This aims to resolve IP configuration problems. Remember, though, that in case you use a static IP address, you may be required to configure it again.

2. Reconfigure wireless SSID and password.

Changing the wireless SSID and password of your modem can sometimes fix the error “Wi-Fi doesn’t have valid IP configuration”. This can be done by connecting your modem to your PC with an Ethernet cable, accessing the modem and changing both the password and the wireless SSID. It is strongly recommended to consult the manual of your modem beforehand.

3. Change the channel width.

• Run Network Connections by right-clicking the Windows start button at the lower left corner of your screen and choosing it from the menu.
• Right-click the Wi-Fi connection and choose Properties
• Click the Configure button and then go to the Advanced tab
• Find the 802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4.
• Set it to Auto and preserve the changes by clicking OK.

4. Manually configure your IP address.

When connecting to a Wi-Fi network, you use an IP address. Although this is done by DHCP, whenever there is a configuration problem with it, you get back an IP configuration error. The way to fix this is to manually assign an IP address for your device. The process involves the following steps:

• Run Network Connections by right-clicking the Windows start button at the lower left corner of your screen and choosing it from the menu.
• Right-click the Wi-Fi connection and choose Properties
• Choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties

• Choose “Use the following IP address” and enter the required Default gateway, IP address and Subnet mask. Everyone’s data is different so you will have to enter yours.
• Enter the Preferred DNS server address.
• Confirm that you are done with the changes by pressing OK.

5. Try a Clean boot.

As a last resort, you can try a Clean boot. This ensures you prevent non-essential applications from interfering with your Wi-Fi connection by simply disabling them. The steps are as follows:

• Press together Win Key + R and type in “msconfig” in the Open field. Then confirm with OK.
• When the System Configuration Window opens, choose only “Load system services” from “Selective Startup”.

• From the Services tab, remove the checkbox on “Hide all Microsoft services” and then click on “Disable all” to disable all non-essential services.
• From the Startup tab, open the task manager and disable all the programs listed under Startup by right-clicking on each program and choosing “Disable”.
• Click Apply and OK on the System Configuration Window and restart your PC.

If this resolves your issue, you may want to try to enable and disable certain programs and services in order to pinpoint the one causing the problem.

We hope that one of the solutions listed here has helped solve your Wi-Fi IP configuration problem.