Wi-Fi Connected but No Internet: A Fault-Finding Order

"Connected, no internet" means your machine reached the router successfully. The problem is between the router and the outside world, or in how your machine resolves names. Those have different fixes.

Step 1 — Test a second device

If your phone also fails on the same Wi-Fi, the router or the line is at fault. If the phone works fine, the problem is your computer. That single test decides everything that follows.

Step 2 — If other devices also fail

1. Restart the router properly — unplug it for thirty seconds. Not a soft reboot from its menu.
2. Check the router's status lights. A red or off internet light means the line is down. That is your provider, not your computer.
3. Look for a captive portal. Hotel, campus and shared networks require you to open a browser page and accept terms; until you do, they report "no internet".
4. Check for a provider outage on your phone's mobile data before spending an hour on your PC.

Step 3 — If only your machine fails, run three commands

Open Command Prompt and run these in order. Each answer rules out a layer.

1. ipconfig /all — do you have a valid IPv4 address? An address starting 169.254 means the router never gave you one (DHCP failure). A duplicated address breaks the connection in ways that look exactly like this.
2. ping 1.1.1.1 — if this works, your connection is fine and only name resolution is broken. Go to Step 4.
3. nslookup google.com — if this fails while the ping succeeded, it is definitely DNS.

Step 4 — Fix DNS

1. Settings → Network & internet → your adapter → DNS server assignment → Edit → Manual → IPv4 on, and set 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8.
2. Flush the cache: ipconfig /flushdns.
3. If DNS now works, the router's DNS relay was the problem — and it will come back on the next DHCP renewal unless you fix it at the router.

Step 5 — Reset the adapter and stack

In an elevated Command Prompt:

1. netsh winsock reset
2. netsh int ip reset
3. ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew
4. Restart.

Then forget the network and rejoin it — that clears a corrupt saved profile, which is a common cause after a password change on the router.

Step 6 — Drivers and adapters

Device Manager → Network adapters. Uninstall the wireless adapter and restart. If the machine only loses connection after sleep, open the adapter's Power Management tab and untick Allow the computer to turn off this device.

For a laptop that connects to some networks and not others, check whether the network is 5 GHz only and the adapter is 2.4 GHz only, or whether the router is using WPA3 with an adapter that only supports WPA2.

Signal problems are not this problem

If the fault is speed rather than connectivity, the issue is coverage: distance, walls, and 2.4 GHz congestion from neighbouring networks. Move closer before blaming the provider, and prefer wired for anything that must not stutter.