The internet is great, but what about the internet really not working? In most cases, a little troubleshooting should help fix any unrecognized network errors or no Internet connection on Windows.
With this step-by-step guide, you will be able to take all the necessary steps to fix your online situation and get back online as soon as possible.
Windows Internet problems arise for a variety of reasons, so you have to try every step until you find a solution.
Test the Internet
You should first check if your internet is actually working or not. This is a great starting point to make sure the issue is not related to a specific website or application. Open your browser and visit https://www.google.com/ If the page loads, your Internet is working fine, but other websites you access may temporarily not work.
If the page won’t load or says you’re not connected to the Internet, it’s time to start troubleshooting.
Solve router or modem related problems
If you know your Internet isn’t working, make sure your router or modem is okay. Each network device will work slightly differently, so we can only offer a rough guide for these steps. You may need to refer to your router or modem manual for more details.
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Turning off your router or modem and turning it back on is a great start. Wait a few minutes for everything to be online again. Visit https://www.google.com/ to see if this solves an unidentified network or internet issue. If not, follow these steps.
If you are using a wired connection:
- Make sure the Ethernet cable is properly connected to your PC.
- Make sure the same Ethernet cable is connected to your router or modem.
- Make sure the cable is not damaged.
- Make sure all cables are securely attached to the router. Sometimes it is enough to loosen the cable to lose Internet access.
- Make sure the modem or router cable is securely plugged into a port on the wall.
- If you are using a wireless access point, Powerline adapter, or other networking equipment, make sure the connections are working and working.
If you are using a wireless connection:
- Make sure the WiFi indicator on your router is on. If not, wait or call your ISP for help.
- Click the arrow on the taskbar and select a network option to try to reconnect to your network.
- If available, re-enter the correct Wi-Fi password.
After following these steps, try going to Google from your browser again. If the connection still doesn’t work, follow these steps.
Network Card Driver Update
Windows 10 does a great job of automatically finding and installing the right drivers for your hardware. Therefore, if there is a potential problem with the driver, follow these steps.
- Open the Start menu and search for Device Manager.
- Open Device Manager.
- Click the arrow next to Network Adapters.
- Right click on the network adapter.
- Click Update Driver.
- Click Search Automatically for Updated Driver Software.
- Wait for the driver installation to complete.
Then try going to Google again in your browser. Hope your internet is working now.
Not sure which network adapter is right? To find out, follow these steps.
- Open the start menu.
- Enter CMD and click Command Prompt.
- Type ipconfig / all and press Enter.
You will see several results. There should be one Ethernet or WiFi adapter whose name will match the name found in Device Manager. Other results are more likely to be for virtual Ethernet devices such as VPNs.
Disable Virtual Ethernet Devices
If you haven’t found a solution yet and are still getting unrecognized network errors or you don’t have internet, you should try to uninstall all virtual Ethernet drivers on your PC, as they can cause serious problems with how your PC connects to the internet. A virtual Ethernet driver can be anything from a VPN to software designed to improve ping or packet loss.
You can find virtual Ethernet devices and disable them by following these steps.
- Open the Start menu.
- Enter View Network Connections and click the result that appears.
- You will now see your Ethernet devices.
- Right-click each network device owned by the program and select Disable.
- If you’re unsure, you can Google the name of each network device to find out more before disabling them.
Both Ethernet and WiFi adapters may be active
If two network adapters are active at the same time, it may cause problems with your connection. It’s always best to use a wired connection over Wi-Fi, so you can simply turn off the Wi-Fi connection if that’s a problem for you.
- Open the start menu.
- Find “View Network Connections” and click on the result.
- Right-click each adapter here and disable all of them except the primary Ethernet adapter.
To access Wi-Fi networks in the future, you must visit this page to re-enable the Wi-Fi adapter.
Reset TCP / IP Stack
Using this command will allow you to reset some network settings to their default values. It can solve problems that might arise after installing certain software or manually making changes to network settings.
- Open the start menu.
- Enter CMD and right-click Command Prompt.
- Click “Run as administrator”.
- At the command prompt in the window, type netsh int ip reset and press Enter.
- Restart your computer.
If you are still having problems, follow the troubleshooting steps below.
Solve problems with the network adapter
There may be some underlying problems with your network adapter that can be quickly diagnosed using the Windows Control Panel. If you’ve already updated your network adapter drivers, follow these steps to try to diagnose other problems.
- Open the start menu.
- Enter View Network Connections and click the result that appears.
- Right click on the active network adapter.
- Click Diagnostics and wait for the troubleshooter to complete.
By default, if your network adapter is configured to use a static IP address but must use DHCP, this should fix that. Nevertheless, it would be nice to check yourself. To do this, click “Start”, then “Settings” (gear icon), and then click “Network & Internet”.
Then click on “Change adapter settings” under the “Change network settings” heading.
This will bring up another window that will show all the network adapters on your system. Depending on which one is active, you just need to right-click it and select Properties.
The Ethernet or Wi-Fi Properties dialog box opens. Click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP / IPv4) and click the Properties button.
Finally, depending on your network, you either need the correct static IP information, or you just need to select Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.
Hopefully this helps solve your problems, but if not, skip to the next step below.
disable firewalls in your antivirus
Firewalls are designed to keep bad traffic or members from gaining access to your network, but since they deal with network access at the administrative level, they can sometimes cause some network connectivity issues for simple tasks like browsing the Internet.
To see if your antivirus firewall is causing internet connection problems, you should temporarily disable it to test it. Please note that after turning it off, you can become vulnerable to attacks, so only visit verified websites.
You should search the internet for how to disable the firewall for your specific antivirus. Typically, you need to find your antivirus through the Start menu, open your antivirus and select the firewall option. It will be possible to disable the firewall for a specified period of time.
After disconnecting, open your browser and visit a website such as Google.com. If your internet is working, you should uninstall this antivirus and try another one.
Summary
We hope our guide helped you fix any unrecognized network issues on your Windows PC. If you still need help, please leave a comment below.
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