Yellow triangle icon with exclamation mark in the system tray when connected to a wireless network

Summary

This article discusses possible reasons for the limited connectivity icon in the system tray and what can be done to address it

Question

What causes the yellow triangle icon with exclamation mark to appear in the system tray and what to do do to fix the connection?

Customer Environment

ZD managed or standalone AP wireless environment

Root Cause

Faulty drivers or wrong network setup

Troubleshooting Steps

Windows machines in general would indicate a limited connectivity issue in the system tray. Reasons include:
1. Old or faulty wireless driver firmware
2. IP from wrong subnet
3. Wrong gateway IP address
4. Renamed home group. Please check this URL http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/104955-homegroup-rename-windows-7-navigation-pane.html
5. Usage limits that will restrict how much data can be downloaded by a user in a session
6. DHCP renewal
7. DNS issues

As far as wireless is concerned, this limited connectivity icon might show up for the following two reasons:
1. A captive portal login page is involved that requires additional login from the user for complete access
2. A network policy that denies network access to the client

Resolution

Some of the possible solutions include:
1. Wireless driver upgrade. If the driver version is already brand new and the problem isn't resolved, try uninstalling and installing a fresh driver copy.
2. Remove the wireless profile and re-add the target network again
3. Change the network location type from Public to either Home or Work. Please check this URL http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/43629-network-location-set-home-work-public-network.html
4. Try the "ipconfig /renew" command
5. Enable FIPS for this particular wireless connection. Please check this URL http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht080645?tabName=Solutions
6. Increase the DHCP lease time to 24 hours or more. With 24 hour lease time, the client will not attempt to renew the IP for 12 hours which should be sufficient to cover an entire work shift.

Irrespective of the above attempts, if the problem still persists, following are few more things to try:
1. Use "Troubleshoot problems" option by right clicking on the limited connection icon
2. Use "Diagnose this connection" option. This can be seen when you highlight the wireless network connection icon under the All Control Panel Items --> Network Connections.
3. Check for registry key issues
4. First temporarily disable AV and other security software. If this doesn't resolve the issue, try temporarily uninstalling to check again (assuming you are at least behind the corporate firewall and using safe browsing practices).
5. Reload entire Windows OS (as a last resort)
6. Check with your laptop vendor to see if any other customers have reported a similar issue

Article Number:
000003367

Updated:
September 01, 2020 07:50 PM (over 4 years ago)

Tags:
Troubleshooting, Known Issues and Workarounds, ZoneDirector, ZoneFlex Indoor, ZoneFlex Outdoor

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13

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