Various wireless connectivity issues

Hi,

I have quite much trouble with my WiFi when I'm trying to connect to wireless networks. There are like 3 or 4 kind of problems, which occur at quite random intervals, and are really annoying.
My problems:

• I start my windows 8, and try to connect to a wifi, but it says it cannot connect
• It connects seemingly (the wifi icon on the taskbar turns white, and Networks says connected), but when i hover over the wifi icon, it says either Identifying, or Not Connected- Connections are availble
• It says Limited, and after a while it either turns into connected, with internet access, or just throws it away.
• While trying to connect, Networks says Connecting to the network is taking longer than usual, and either simply disconnects, or connects with Limited.

These problems happen usually when i try to connect to my universitys network (it has two networks, an Open network with Mac address filtering, and one with WPA2 Enterprise with EAP-TTLS and PAP) but sometimes it also happens when i try to join my home network (it's a WPA 2 hidden network), and I think this happens almost every time when i start my computer from sleep mode, and sometimes when i boot it from shut down.

I've tried fixing it on the long term with installing windows 7 drivers, reinstalling windows 8 drivers, letting windows search for his own required drivers, troubleshooting it with the official troubleshooter but nothing really solved the issue. But what is strange, that after a reboot (or two, or three...), or after some trial-and-error testing (A.K.A furiously clicking and trying everything you can think of) like disconnecting, making the wifi forget that network, turning it off, then on, from network and sharing, connecting to it manually, etc, the wifi starts working. And what's even more frustrating, is that my wifi works perfectly fine under Ubuntu (and also win 7, if i remember correctly)
I would really appreciate any kind of help, cause I think it is a software side error, and I'm not really experienced with anything like this.

Edit: I also have a problem, that my WiFi does not connect neither to my universitys, nor my home network. Do you have any kind of solution for this?

Thanks in advance for the help.

I think you might be on the right track with the University multiple networks security settings that might be the root of your problem which has somehow corrupted your wifi protocol stack. Try rebooting your homes network router by unplugging it from the AC outlet for 2 minutes and then plugging it back in. This might help you solve your home wifi issues.

As far as your University's wifi, you'll have to contact their network administrator for support for that issue on there end.

I doubt that these errors are caused by my Universitys WiFi, because this same Wifi is, in the meantime, working perfectly for everybody else in my class, and these networks are fine when I'm using Linux. That's why I think the main cause is some kind of compatibilty error between my WiFi and my OS.
By the way i forgot to write, but i use a Lenovo y580 with a Broadcom 802.11n Network adapter (driver version:6.30.59.26), i hope this helps.

Have you tried updating the wireless adapter?


Lenovo Support - Drivers & Software (US)

I tried installing the drivers on the official Lenovo site, but those are for Intel Wireless cards, as far as i can tell, so I use a driver from the lonovo forums (Lenovo Y580 Windows 8 Pro 64bit Complete Drivers - Lenovo Community)
Otherwise I couldn't really find any other kind of driver for my adapter which was more up to date than the one I linked.

In the meantime, I've made an observation: when I try to connect to a wireless network, my Wi-Fi disables itself (or windows disables it, or something else), then enables itself, and the connecting tab says you can't connect to this network. But after a restart though, it connected on the first try to the same network. Do you think it has something to do with the fact that I disabled some drivers (WiFI Capture, NetLimiter, Virtual Box bridged connections) in the properties menu of my Wi-Fi?

I'm pretty sure that the root of my problem is that windows 8 turns off my Wireless when it's trying to connect to a wireless network, and I'm pretty sure that the integrated wireless manager is the problem, since I always managed to connect perfectly when I connected through command prompt, with the "netsh wlan connect "Profile name" "SSID"" command. The only problem is that I don't know to write a valid XML profile manually, so I cannot connect to a yet unused wifi, or how can I make windows 8 connect to a network without turning off my wireless in the process (thus fail to connect). The "restart-as-much-as-needed" temporary solution still works, but this is really irritating especially when you have to do fast, but you can't because you cannot connect to the wireless network.

I have had similar problems but think it could be related to the wireless driver. I fixed it by resetting "fast startup"

When using Windows 8 "fast startup" the OS caches certain system information. My guess is this caches information about the drivers which can lead to driver issues. Anyway this is how I solved my wireless issues:

1. Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\System Settings “change settings that are unavailable” and deselecting “Turn on fast startup recommended”

1. Turning the machine off. Unplugging the machine and taking out the battery for a few minutes.

1. Replacing the battery etc. and starting the machine. Then re-enabling “Turn on fast startup recommended”.

1. You could also try right clicking the wireless network and selecting “forget this network”.

Hope it helps!