Question Fixing an internet access problem for my laptop on my LAN

[BonzaiDuck]

First -- the origin of the problem. I've had a Win 2012 R2 Essentials server on my home network for about six years.

The boot disk died on the server. It is now old hardware. I have decided that I no longer want the trouble of a server in my household (after some 20 years having one in one way or the other). I can do peer-to-peer file sharing, or buy a NAS from Synology or QNAP.

Maybe two years ago, I tried implementing the server as "Domain server" on my home network, and it caused me problems trying to arrange for server backup of all my workstation and laptop clients in the house. I hacked the server back to following a traditional "Workgroup" network model, but I had set up my laptop in such a way that the "5G" option among my wireless networks somehow kept some vestige of this domain configuration. Even so, the server had been backing up all the other machines without fail, and this included the laptop when it was running.

Now, the server, which had a fixed IP address which I'd chosen for it, is no longer available -- Of Course! -- because I am taking it out of the configuration.

I haven't raised up my laptop for use in about nine months, and it was overdue. I started it up. Suddenly there was no internet available under the 5G wireless network option. I noticed that Wireless Properties shows the IP address of the old server as a "DNS server", while all the other machines simply show the 192.168.0.1 address of my router. I would prefer that my laptop communicate at 5G instead of 2.4. I cannot figure out how I can change the appropriate "properties" of the Wireless connection so that it no longer points to the old server IP address. all of my ethernet-connected desktops show the router address as DNS server instead of the the server's address. And they are all connected together, sharing files and working just fine.

I have come to a crossroads in my twenty years of retirement. I had been the computer guru during my day-time worklife, and I taught computer topics at a local graduate school until two years after retiring from my day job. As a matter of personal identity, I dragged my work orientations into my retired life, and having a household server for me and the family was one aspect of it. Now, one user in the family has dementia and doesn't use a computer anymore, and my brother died a year and a half ago. So last year I had to dispose of two PCs -- dated hardware, but superb for Moms and Bro. Getting rid of the old server also adds to household savings for the electric bill.

I'm scaling back my digital lifestyle, while preserving my serious computing needs.

Any ideas as to how I can get this laptop to communicate wirelessly at the 5G speed? I think it will be fine if I can just change that setting for the local DNS IP address. I'm tired of keeping up with IT details, even if I have a marvelous library. I want to make my life simpler. I have other more important things to do. I'm getting old. I need to make my life simpler while remaining connected, doing my online banking, managing my Quicken, e-mails, online shopping, my document archive and everything else.

 

[Tech Junky]

Control panel/ network/ right click adapter / properties/ ipv4 / change it.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Control panel/ network/ right click adapter / properties/ ipv4 / change it.

Good. The Win 10 control panel path didn't get it for me, but I clicked on the little sys-tray wireless icon, selected the 5G version of my connection, found "properties" and the ipv4 item, properties -- and there is was. I changed it. All good.

I should be able to figure this s*** out quickly. But I must be slowing down. It's like your CA drivers license: at some point, you get old, and you only get a Senior ID. I think I am giving up my lust for hardware configurations. I think I'm going to start shopping for a Dell Precision and give up building PCs. Saying that -- I'm hard bent on passing my driving test in October. So I can renew my driving license . . .

 

[Fallen Kell]

Its more like anything else, "use it or lose it". Really that is it, as our brains are just wired that way, that over time, if we are not using those neural pathways, the links they established to other neurons degrade and as they are no longer being activated, and thus over time without use, some of those connections are reclaimed, removed, and replaced by other connections that we are actively using.

So don't be so hard on yourself about some of the stuff as it has become less of an important part of your life in retirement. That said, don't go completely off the deep end and pigeonhole yourself with just getting pre-built systems. I mean it is fine for laptops, but building a desktop system really doesn't have many "gotchas" that you need to look out for unless you are doing massively large heatsinks or graphics cards.... The PC makers were really ripping people off during the pandemic (and before) on decent PC configurations, charging 20-30% more on RAM or GPUs (well, GPUs were ripping everyone off last gen before ether changed to proof of stake, and NVidia seems to be thinking they should be the ones getting that premium this gen, even though there is no crypto to be mined off the back of their cards to recoup the exorbitant prices).

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I think I've got my mind back on practical matters now. There's no hurry about either buy or building a 12th/13th gen intel system. I can chip away at it for the remainder of the year. But meanwhile, Windows 10 is still supported, and these older systems I have built are stellar.

I upgraded the laptop to Windows 11, and now I'm less eager to use it. There's a win 11 learning curve. But -- I shall prevail.