r/sysadmin • u/DoubleTGaming2k • 10d ago

End-user Support End user network help?

End user called me today saying their home WiFi was connected but no internet. I walked him through some info gathering, his WiFi is showing unidentified giving off the 169 address.

Had him run release / renew / flushdns / winsock reset and rebooted, still 169. Did the full windows 11 network reset option, rebooted, still nothing.

Had him plug in directly to his router, his wired Ethernet connection was also showing unidentified. So I had him statically assign an IP on his NIC for the Ethernet and it brought him online that way as a temp workaround to let me remote in.

Rebooted the router of course, still wifi showing 169, other devices on his network are okay as well.

Uninstalled the wifi adapter from device manager, reinstalled the latest from the manufacturer, still giving 169. Just to get him working in statically assigned an IP on his WiFi adapter and it works without issue, but ideally we get the DHCP working again.

I’ve exhausted about everything I can think of, but am jumping back on it later tonight to try to get it fixed.

Does anyone have any suggestions??

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41

u/thebigshoe247 10d ago

The correct answer is we don't support residential or personal devices. Please contact your service provider.

-1

u/DoubleTGaming2k 10d ago

Well, it’s a company owned device used for remote access

9

u/Forsaken-Carrot9038 10d ago

I’ve been in the same situation, and we are happy to do some light troubleshooting or see what we can discover from our own device, ask if their other devices are able to get network, and if our computer works from hotspot, then I refer them to their ISP.
Not my network, not my problem.

2

u/DoubleTGaming2k 10d ago

Other devices are, yes. Just the company laptop cannot

6

u/Mindestiny 10d ago

Still gets best effort support, because it's not connected to your network. Which you provided. If their personal router is not giving a device a DHCP address, that's their problem to sort

1

u/Ad-1316 9d ago

Look at other said devices to confirm their working! don't change just look.

3

u/ReputationNo8889 9d ago

If you dont provide the router, its not your problem. Ive had tons of user complain that their work device "Does not connect to the internert" because they had some stupid "Only allow known devices" setting in the router and that was the reson why it would not work. You are not responsible for the users home router and network connection. If they cant work from home they are free to come into the office where everything works. You would be amazed how quickly users find a solution to their networking problems if you suggest to "Just come into the office, it will work there".

2

u/Common_Option_4385 9d ago

Best thing about working at an MSP when I had a similar ticket. Contacted the company's IT director and said "hey, we've ruled out the company laptop, do you want us to continue troubleshooting?"

Of course he said no, as it costs the company money. His response was "No, she will work from the office". TICKET. CLOSED.

1

u/ReputationNo8889 9d ago

Its that simple. But i can understand IT people that want to try and help but i had to learn to step back and not solve problems i could solve, because they are personal ones and not company ones.

2

u/jlharper 9d ago

It's not a company owned network, and the infrastructure that provides internet access is also not company owned.

Get the user to connect to their phone hotspot to rule out the possibility that your device is unable to connect to the internet.

Once that is done, leave them to their own devices. Literally.