WiFi connected but no internet on Windows 10/11 fix

You're sitting at your desk, the WiFi icon in the system tray shows full bars and says "Connected, secured." But when you open Chrome or Edge, you get that spinning circle, then "No internet." Maybe a DNS error. Maybe it just hangs. This happens most often after you wake the laptop from sleep, after a Windows update, or when you switch between different WiFi networks (home to office). The router is broadcasting, your laptop sees it, but something between your network card and the internet is broken.

What's actually going on

Three things cause this 90% of the time:

IP address conflict or stale lease. Your computer still thinks it has a valid IP from yesterday, but the router already gave that address to someone else.
DNS server isn't resolving. Your computer is trying to reach a DNS server that's down, or it's pointed at a wrong address. Since the router reports "connected," Windows thinks everything is fine—but it can't turn a hostname like google.com into an IP.
The router itself is blocking your device. Some routers have a device limit. Others get confused after a power surge or firmware bug. The WiFi radio on your laptop is talking, but the router's DHCP server isn't handing out a valid path to the internet.

The fix is straightforward. Don't reinstall Windows. Don't buy a new router yet. Follow these steps in order. Each step is something you can undo if it doesn't help.

Fix 1: Release and renew your IP address

This is the fastest thing to try. It tells Windows to drop its current IP lease and ask the router for a fresh one.

Press the Windows key and type cmd. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. You'll see a User Account Control prompt—click Yes.
Type this command and press Enter:
```
ipconfig /release
```
You'll see the output change to something like Media disconnected or all zeros for the IP address. That's normal.
Now type this and press Enter:
```
ipconfig /renew
```
This may take 10–30 seconds. After it finishes, you should see an IPv4 Address that starts with 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x. If you still see all zeros, the router isn't responding. Jump to Fix 3.
Finally, flush your DNS cache:
```
ipconfig /flushdns
```
It should say Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.
Close Command Prompt and try loading a webpage.

If that didn't work, don't repeat it—move to Fix 2.

Fix 2: Reset Winsock and the network stack

Sometimes the Windows network stack itself gets corrupted. This is common after a failed VPN connection or a botched Windows update. Winsock is the part of Windows that talks to your network adapter. When it's broken, you can be "connected" to WiFi but have zero data flow.

Open Command Prompt as administrator again (same way as above).
Run these commands one at a time, pressing Enter after each:
```
netsh winsock reset
```
```
netsh int ip reset
```
Each one will print a success message. After the second one, it may say Restart the computer to complete this action.
Restart your laptop. Don't just shut down and turn back on—actually restart from the Start menu.
After reboot, reconnect to your WiFi and test the internet.

This fix works especially well if your problem started right after installing or uninstalling a VPN client like NordVPN or ExpressVPN. Those tools often mess with Winsock.

Fix 3: Switch to a public DNS server

Your router's DNS might be the bottleneck. Many ISP-provided routers have slow or overloaded DNS servers. Switching to Google's DNS or Cloudflare's DNS is free and often fixes pages that time out.

Press Windows key + R, type control, and press Enter to open Control Panel.
Click Network and Sharing Center (if you don't see it, change the View by dropdown in the top right to Large icons).
In the left panel, click Change adapter settings.
Find your WiFi adapter. It's usually named Wi-Fi or Wireless Network Connection. Right-click it and select Properties.
In the list, scroll to Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Double-click it.
Select Use the following DNS server addresses.
Enter these values:
Preferred DNS server: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS server: 8.8.4.4
(If you'd rather use Cloudflare, use 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1.)
Make sure Validate settings upon exit is checked. Then click OK.
Close all the windows. Open a browser and test.

A quick note: after switching DNS, if you get an error that says "The connection was reset" or "DNS probe finished no internet", you may need to flush your DNS again (run ipconfig /flushdns one more time).

Fix 4: Disable IPv6 on your WiFi adapter

IPv6 is enabled by default on Windows. Some older routers or ISP networks handle IPv6 poorly, causing Windows to think it has a dual-stack connection when it really only has IPv4. This creates a situation where the connection appears active but no traffic gets through.

Open Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings again.
Right-click your WiFi adapter, go to Properties.
In the list, uncheck Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6). Don't touch anything else.
Click OK.
You don't need to restart. Try the internet immediately.

If this fixes it, leave IPv6 off. If it doesn't, go back and re-enable it—some websites and apps (like Xbox Game Pass or certain VPNs) require IPv6.

Fix 5: Reset the entire network stack with Windows Settings

Windows 10 and 11 have a built-in network reset that does all of the above plus reinstalls your network adapter drivers. It's a last resort but it works when nothing else does.

Open Settings (Windows key + I).
Go to Network & internet (Windows 11) or Network & Internet > Status (Windows 10).
Click Advanced network settings (Windows 11) or scroll down and click Network reset (Windows 10).
Click Reset now. Windows will warn you that it will remove all saved WiFi networks and VPN connections. That's fine—you'll just need to re-enter your WiFi password.
Your PC will restart automatically after a few minutes. Once it's back up, reconnect to your WiFi network.

This is the nuclear option. It re-installs your network card driver and resets every TCP/IP setting to default. If the problem is software-side, this will kill it.

What to check if it still fails

If you've done all five fixes and you still have WiFi but no internet, the problem is likely on the router side or the ISP side. Here's what to do next:

Power-cycle your router. Unplug the power cable from the router (and from the modem if they're separate). Wait 60 seconds. Plug the modem back in first, wait until all lights are solid, then plug the router back in. Wait two minutes, then try your laptop.
Check if other devices work. Grab your phone, connect to the same WiFi, and try loading a webpage. If your phone also can't load pages, the router or ISP is the problem. Call your ISP. If your phone works fine, the issue is isolated to your laptop—try uninstalling the WiFi adapter driver from Device Manager (right-click Start, choose Device Manager, find Network adapters, right-click your WiFi card, select Uninstall, then restart Windows to auto-reinstall).
Disable your antivirus or VPN temporarily. Some third-party security suites (like Norton or McAfee) have a firewall that can block all internet traffic even when WiFi shows connected. Turn off the firewall for a minute to test. If the internet comes back, you've found the culprit—adjust that software's settings.
Boot into Safe Mode with Networking. If you still have no internet in Safe Mode, it's almost certainly a driver or hardware issue on your laptop. If the internet works in Safe Mode, then a startup program or service is blocking your connection—run msconfig and do a clean boot to narrow it down.

That's the full rundown. Start with Fix 1, work your way down. Most people are back online by Fix 2 or Fix 3. You got this.