I would like to thank ChrisBeard68 for posting the link to the pureinfotech article on this issue. My laptop is barely 3 weeks old, running Windows 8.1. Until last night, it was rock solid, always connecting to my home network. Last night, min-browsing, it decided it was done. No more connection. No amount of restarting or cycling power to my modem/router would fix the problem. Since other devices in my home were still connecting to the internet, I knew it had to do with Win 8.1. I found this discussion and read his post. For my computer, the first fix on pureinfotech.com seems to have fixed the problem, which was resetting the Windows TCP/IP stack. At least, it's still been solidly connected 5 hours later...
I would like to echo the comments of other posters by saying SHAME on Microsoft for letting this ridiculous problem fester without offering a fix. Let's hope the April 11 update (or whatever the release date ends up being!) addresses it. They put their customers in an untenable position i.e. I couldn't return my laptop to Staples without having them charge me to do what I did (thanks to this thread), since I didn't purchase any sort of support contract with them. That leaves trolling the interwebs for solutions. Why should I be typing instructions at a command prompt to fix a 3 week old laptop? That's insane! In the car world, that would be called a LEMON and there would be a recall.