Lesson 7 of 720 minutesFinal lesson

Connected, but no internet: find the fault in five steps

The Wi-Fi icon says you’re connected. Nothing loads. Most people restart things at random and hope. You now know enough to do something better: check each part of the journey in order, find the exact step that fails, and fix that. This lesson puts everything from the course together into one method you can use for the rest of your life.

In this lesson

A five-step check that finds where a connection breaks
What each failed step tells you, and what to try
A worked example, from “nothing loads” to the cause

You’ll need: the commands from Lessons 2, 4 and 5: ipconfig, ping and nslookup. Do the steps now, while everything works, so you know what “normal” looks like on your own network.

Why “connected” doesn’t mean “online”

“Connected” only means your device has joined the Wi-Fi: the link to the router works. Between there and a web page are all the other parts you’ve met in this course: an address from the router, the router’s own connection to your provider, DNS turning names into addresses, and the website itself. Any one of them can fail while the Wi-Fi icon stays happy.

The trick is to test them in order, from closest to furthest. The first test that fails points at the broken part.

One device or all?Is it just this device?
Do I have an address?ipconfig
Can I reach the router?ping the gateway
Can I reach the internet?ping 1.1.1.1
Do names work?nslookup

Step 1: one device, or everything?

Check a second device on the same Wi-Fi, like your phone with mobile data switched off. If the phone works, the problem is with the first device, and you can skip ahead knowing the router and internet are fine. If nothing in the house works, the problem is the router or beyond it, and there’s no point fixing the laptop.

Step 2: do I have an address?

Run ipconfig (on a Mac or phone, look in the Wi-Fi network’s details, as in Lesson 2).

A normal private address like 192.168.1.37, with a Default Gateway: fine, go to step 3.
169.254.something, or no address at all: the device never got an address from the router (the DHCP conversation from Lesson 3 failed). Turn Wi-Fi off and on, or restart the router. On Windows you can also ask for a new address with ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew.

Step 3: can I reach the router?

Ping the Default Gateway address from step 2, for example ping 192.168.1.1.

Replies: your device and Wi-Fi are working. Go to step 4.
Timeouts or heavy loss: the problem is between you and the router. Move closer, try a cable, or restart the router. If only this device fails, its Wi-Fi settings or adapter are the suspect.

Step 4: can I reach the internet, by number?

Run ping 1.1.1.1. Using a number skips DNS entirely, so this tests only the connection itself.

Replies: your connection to the internet works. The problem is probably names: go to step 5.
Timeouts while the router answered fine: the break is between your router and your provider. Log in to the router (Lesson 3) and check its internet status page: no internet address, or a “disconnected” WAN, confirms it. Restart the modem and router, check the cables, and check your provider’s outage page from your phone. If it stays down, it’s one for your provider.

Step 5: do names work?

Run nslookup examineip.com (Lesson 4).

You get addresses back: DNS works. If one particular site still won’t load, the problem is probably that site. Open the browser’s developer tools (Lesson 1) and look at the status code.
It times out or fails while ping 1.1.1.1 worked: it’s DNS. The connection is fine, but nothing can turn names into addresses. Flush the DNS cache, try a different DNS server (ask one directly with nslookup examineip.com 1.1.1.1: if that works, your usual one is the problem), and restart the router. If the router’s DNS setting has changed without you touching it, read Has Your Router’s DNS Been Hijacked?.

The whole method on one table

First test that fails	The problem is	Try
Only one device is offline	That device	Wi-Fi off and on, forget and rejoin the network, restart it
Address is 169.254 or missing	The router didn’t give it an address	Restart Wi-Fi or the router; `ipconfig /release` and `/renew`
Router doesn’t answer ping	Wi-Fi or cable between you and the router	Move closer, use a cable, restart the router
1.1.1.1 doesn’t answer	Router-to-provider connection	Check the router’s status page and modem lights, restart both, check for an outage
Names don’t resolve	DNS	Flush the DNS cache, try another DNS server, restart the router
Everything passes, one site fails	That website	Check its status code in developer tools; try later

A worked example

Ana’s laptop: “Connected, no internet”

Ana’s laptop shows the Wi-Fi as connected, but no website opens. Here’s how the five steps go:

One device or all? Her phone, on the same Wi-Fi with mobile data off, can’t open websites either. So it isn’t the laptop.
Address? ipconfig shows 192.168.1.37 with a Default Gateway of 192.168.1.1. Normal.
Router? ping 192.168.1.1 replies in 2 ms with no loss. Wi-Fi is fine.
Internet by number? ping 1.1.1.1 replies in 18 ms. The internet connection works.
Names? nslookup examineip.com times out. But nslookup examineip.com 1.1.1.1 answers straight away.

Diagnosis: the DNS server her devices use, which is her router passing questions to the provider’s resolver, has stopped answering. Everything else is fine. Restarting the router fixes it; if it keeps happening, she can set a public DNS server on the router. Five quick tests, and she knows exactly what broke instead of guessing.

On hotel, café or airport Wi-Fi? “Connected, no internet” there often just means you haven’t signed in on the network’s login page yet. Open any website and the sign-in page should appear. Read Is Hotel Wi-Fi Safe? before typing anything into it.

For a step-by-step list of fixes for every device, keep How to Fix “WiFi Connected But No Internet” handy, and for Windows’ own version of the message, How to Fix “No Internet, Secured”. Now you’ll know why each fix works.

Key takeaways

“Connected” means the link to the router works, nothing more.
Test from closest to furthest: device, address, router, internet by number, then names.
The first test that fails tells you which part is broken.
Pinging 1.1.1.1 works without DNS; if it works but names don’t, the problem is DNS.
Run the five steps once while everything works, so you know what normal looks like.

Check yourself

Three real situations. Pick one answer each and you’ll see why.

1. Your laptop is connected to Wi-Fi, but ipconfig shows the address 169.254.12.7. What should you try first?

2. The router answers ping, but ping 1.1.1.1 times out, and your phone on the same Wi-Fi has no internet either. Where’s the problem?

3. ping 1.1.1.1 replies normally, but nslookup examineip.com times out. What’s broken?

Reaching 1.1.1.1 by number proves the connection works. The only thing failing is the lookup, so it’s DNS. Try nslookup examineip.com 1.1.1.1: if that answers, your usual DNS server is the culprit.

That’s the course. You can now follow a page from Enter to screen, find your addresses, read your router, run DNS lookups, measure your connection, read an address block and track down a fault. Go back to the course page and try the opening quiz again to see how far you’ve come.

More free courses are on the Learn page.

This lesson is part of the free course How the Internet Works, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: you may share and adapt it for non-commercial use, with credit to ExamineIP and a link to the original.