Notification – but no explanation – for the “Wi-Fi doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” bug

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  As far as I know, this is unprecedented. Microsoft has not only acknowledge the bug I talked about yesterday – the one that knocks out Wi-Fi on
[See the full post at: Notification – but no explanation – for the “Wi-Fi doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” bug]

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I don’t know if KB3201845 solves the DHCP problem as I didn’t notice it in the first place.
However I posted here
https://www.askwoody.com/2016/mysterious-wi-fi-doesnt-have-a-valid-ip-configuration-bug-in-win10-1607-wasnt-caused-by-todays-cumulative-update/#comment-110652
something related, found on the patchmanagement.org mailing list.
It is claimed in a Microsoft Dutch blog that the current patch actually fixes the DHCP problem, which may confirm my theory about the early release of the patch. 🙂
The files of the patch have the date 17 November, which indicate that it has been tested internally and in Preview for a while, so it is not quite a rush job.

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Yeah, I had a couple of phonecalls already: “my wifi isn’t working, what could it be?” My reply: You’re on Windows 10 aren’t you? Told you not to, didn’t I? Stop calling me.

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Warning doesn’t appear this morning (6:00 Central). Have they pulled the KB3201845?

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Are you talking about the banner warning at the top of this page?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12387/windows-10-update-history

It’s way up at the top – easy to miss. I’ve never seen Microsoft spread a warning about a bug in that matter.

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🙂

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Another possibility is that, by forcing a restart, installing KB 3201845 fixes the problem.

I really don’t know what’s correct.

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Woody: I was checking for updates on my Windows 7 PC last night and when I went to the KB articles for more information, I saw the same banner you’re showing here. Perhaps the problem goes beyond Windows 10?

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My internet provider did something similar, which is also the first time I’ve ever seen them do anything like that. They put a banner across their web page that basically said that there were widespread internet problems and it wasn’t their fault, etc. They must have gotten tired of all of the calls for support.

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I bet ISPs spend millions of dollars responding to Microsoft’s glitch.

Sure wish I knew what caused it.

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Well sunuvagun. There it is on the Win 7 update page, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/22801/windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2-update-history

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Hmmm a classic case of “post and run” last thing friday afternoon. The update showed up, uncharacteristically late friday evening, then the Banner about network issues some time later after 1800MST (which now is on all the win ver. pages 7-10) Kinda messed my calender up set to remind me to get all my “ducks in a row” prior to “Terrible Tuesdays” Damm M$ your getting rather sneeky in you old age 😉

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The bar appears in all and any support.microsoft.com articles, similar to the “Windows 10 Free Upgrade Offer” that was before July 2016

i doubt it’s specifically related to the issue in win10 ver 1607

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Interesting!

Wow, they really got their butts kicked.

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This has happened in the past with Microsoft enforcing stricter (newer) standards for DHCP clients with which some routers were not compliant.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/928233

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Apple is as sneaky by posting updates on Saturday or Sunday in other time zones.

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Interesting! I haven’t seen any particular problems with specific routers – and I have no idea when/how the standards would’ve changed.

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For the last several months I have noticed something strange in my Win8.1 Parallels VMs. I do not have Win8.1 running directly on any PC.

When I first start up, there is a yellow triangle on the Network connection icon in the tray. If I pause on it, it says “no internet access.” But there IS internet access b/c the browser works and I can update programs and download data. I can get around this by disabling the network card or rebooting, then the triangle goes away (similar to the workaround here). I haven’t gon so far as ipconfig /releaseipconfig /renew or resetting winsock.

The network connection in the the VM is shared by the Mac, so it appears as wired even the Mac’s connection is wireless. But the SYMPTOMS are similar. I have not had the problem with Win7 or Win10 VMs, but it seems the warning is on Win7/8.1 pages as well.

Makes one wonder….

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The yellow exclamation mark is an old issue coming on and off on most operating systems with little consistency. It is not something new and it is not clear in which conditions it happens.

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Only if you are affected by the issue.

The fix number 5 from http://www.sysprobs.com/fixed-windows-10-limited-connectivity-not-getting-ip-from-dhcp makes sense.
Do not attempt the other fixes in the article for now.

*********************************************
If your wired network is fine, but you are having trouble in wireless network only, then you can change the power options and wake up the WiFi Adapter.

Right click on the WiFi adapter and select Properties.

wifi properties Click on ‘Configure’.

configureOn the ‘Power Management’ tab, uncheck the below option.

This will prevent Windows 10 to turn off the WiFi adapter when it goes to sleep or hibernation mode. Because when the laptop resumes from sleep, the WiFi adapter may not wake up and work properly. So, avoiding this feature may help in having proper wireless network connectivity in Windows 10.

******************************************

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Woody has got a mention on Martin Brinkmann’s site, although Martin believes that the issue is related to the current patch. It is still too early to say where the problem lies.
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/12/10/windows-10-update-kb3201845/

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Seems they are learning off each other and heres “lil ole me” thinking they were deadly rivals lol 😉

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win10x64 v1511 gets this problem just after setup easily fixed by deselecting neighbourhood hotspots connectivity in settings (lots nearby) and the problem never reared it head ever again (same on a few machines) win10x64 v1607 gets the above problem but the solution for 1511 doesent work. Win10x64 v1607 “lives” in a VHD on a Triple boot, well I suppose 4 boot, so when the machine is in use, depending on my whim at the time, I will switch between OSs thats probably why it only occurs occasionally and as for win8.1×64 win7x64 & win7x86 (seperate machine) never a problem at all. Its really nothing but a minor irritant (doesent req. CMD’s or reboot just disconnect and reconnect from desktop) but one that should be addressed. Curious they decided to splash warnings all over the update & version pages maybe they know somthing we dont 🙁

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Yep, I wrote to Martin and warned him. 99% chance it isn’t related to Friday’s patch.

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I tend to agree with you that it is not related to the current patch. The issue seems to have been experienced many days before the current release went public.

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There may be logical reasoning behind it though, which is distributing the load on the update servers especially immediately after the release of the updates.

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Citrix had a similar banner early this year, across all of their KB articles, about which I posted here on the site. Guess what was it about? Obviously issues with Windows 10 updates!

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It’s interesting because I only have the KB3201845 update installed because it’s a certified Current Branch for Business (CBB). I intentionally don’t use the Current Branch.

Now my WiFi doesn’t work normally no matter how many times I reset my router.

HOWEVER because I connect through a VPN (software based) I don’t get any issues. As soon as I disconnect from the VPN it stops working!

When I switch my computer on – directly after my internet security software loads – my VPN software fires up.

Even though I always work behind a VPN it’s extremely annoying that Microsoft can’t get something so simple right… not even for CBB release customers!

For some customers it’s difficult to see how they’ll receive an update, especially if they can’t use an Ethernet connection such as Surface tablets.

The official website below now has 60,086 views and increasing by the minute.

answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/problems-connecting-to-the-internet/f121306e-fab5-411d-833f-e4490ecb8b5c

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Did you try the full-shutdown fix? I’m hearing that works all the time.

KB3201845 isn’t the cause. It helps because it forces a restart but, once restarted, the problem comes back. Or so I’m told.

I wish I could figure out what the %$#@! happened. It’s just all out of the blue.

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Do you have any tweak for IPv6?
There are 2 “good” tweaks which I consider essential on any Windows OS starting with Vista.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTcpip6Parameters
DisabledComponents hex 20 (if using IPv6 in dual stack, prioritise IPv4)
or
DisabledComponents hex 0 (completely disables IPv6, except for internal loopback)

I use the first configuration at home and the second anywhere else where there is no native dual stack.

Disabling IPv6 on the NIC is NOT a good configuration.

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Here is an interesting article on the issue (if I read it eight).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/12/ongoing_windows_8_10_dhcp_problems_affecting_all_isps/

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Yeah, they’re repeating their error from last week.

The problem isn’t caused by a bad update. There’s some other reason why it’s happening.

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Unless it is an older update which shows only now. I think there is more about the November 2016 set of updates for all OSes which starts showing only now.
patchmanagement.org email list has some issues posted there and I also noticed an issue not reported elsewhere in relation to IE browsing to an iFrame hosted on another server inside of the main web site, while using Windows integrated authentication. In my case the only solution was to uninstall the November 2016 CU. This issue affects only certain enterprise products with the built-in functionality, but it may happen elsewhere.
Unless Microsoft is aware of those issues and fixes them silently in the background, we are likely to hear about more of them, due to the many areas patched by the November 2016 CU. All OSes received more or less the same set of patches, so they would likely be equally affected.
Most end-users should not panic though, for them the MS-DEFCON 4 classification is adequate.

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@James,

It’s now up to 87,000 views…with “0” replies?…lol

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They locked it down solid.

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91,149 views @ 1952GMT

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I *may* have just had two of my users experience this bug on wired machines. One had shut her machine down on the 7th, and was unable to get a connection yesterday when she turned it back on. A restart resolved the issue. As I was in a different location I could not look it over any further. Upon checking it today, it shows KB3201845 being installed yesterday, presumably only after it had been restarted.

Today, another machine had no connection. The last update it had was from Nov 9th, and KB3201845 was not to be seen. Looking at the Network Connection Details, it recognized the Gateway and DHCP/DNS servers, but still had a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx address. By the time I got to the machine, it had already been shut down for several minutes and turned back on, still with no connection. An ipconfig /release and /renew fixed the issue.

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Timing issues related to the start of services after the boot may explain this behaviour…

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I could buy into that explanation if it hadn’t been two different machines, on consecutive days, right around the timing of this “bug”, when we’ve never experienced a symptom like this before. It just feels like more than just coincidence, but as it hasn’t been widespread for us, I’m not getting worked up over it.

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Thank you Woody! You saved my day! My check will be in the snail mail on Monday!

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Much appreciated!

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My reply was in relation to the bug, trying to explain what could happen, it was not about timing issues in general.

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So is the permanent solution for this still to do a simple restart once it has a good IP?

My wife’s Win 10 laptop has been having this issue the past couple weeks, and I have to ipconfig /release and /renew to get her going again. I figure it had to be an update of some kind that caused it, but this issue started almost 3 months ago so not sure why it took so long for me to see it.

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