WiFi connected but no internet — how do I fix it?

Acutis · plain-English network help · updated June 2026

Why WiFi is connected but there's no internet

"WiFi connected but no internet" is the classic networking riddle: your device shows it is joined to the network, full bars, yet nothing loads. The reason is that connecting to WiFi and reaching the internet are two separate things. Your device has a solid link to the router, but the path from the router out to the wider internet — or the translation step that finds websites — is broken somewhere. The good news is that the causes are well known, and trying them in the right order solves most cases in a few minutes.

Work through these in order; each is quick and rules out one cause.

1. Restart the right things, in the right order

Most of the time this alone fixes it. Power-cycle the whole chain so each piece re-negotiates a clean connection:

Unplug the modem and the router (if separate).
Wait 30 seconds.
Plug in the modem first and wait for its lights to settle (1–2 minutes).
Then plug in the router and wait for it to come up.
Reconnect your device and test.

2. Check whether it's one device or all of them

If only one device says connected-but-no-internet, the problem is on that device — its IP, its DNS, or its network stack. Skip to steps 4 and 5.
If every device is affected, the problem is the router or the line from your provider. Focus on steps 3 and 6.

3. Look for a captive portal

On public or guest WiFi (hotels, cafes, airports), "connected but no internet" usually means a sign-in page — a captive portal — is waiting and you haven't passed it yet. Open a browser and go to a plain http:// site such as http://neverssl.com; the portal should appear. Until you accept the terms or log in, you'll have a connection with no internet.

4. Renew your IP address

If your device picked up a bad address or two devices grabbed the same one (an IP conflict), traffic goes nowhere. Force a fresh address:

Windows: open Command Prompt and run ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew.
Mac: System Settings → Network → Wi-Fi → Details → TCP/IP → Renew DHCP Lease.

A telltale sign of an address problem is an IP that starts with 169.254 — that means the device failed to get a real address from the router.

5. Fix DNS

If pages won't load by name but the connection is otherwise up, DNS is the likely cause. DNS is the directory that turns example.com into a numeric address. Reset and replace it:

Clear the cache — Windows: ipconfig /flushdns; Mac: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache.
Switch to a reliable public DNS server: 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) or 8.8.8.8 (Google) in your network settings.

If sites suddenly load after changing DNS, that was the culprit.

6. Check the router and the line to your provider

If every device is offline, the router may have a connection to your devices but no connection to the internet itself.

Look at the modem's internet / online light. If it is off or blinking, the line from your provider is down — reboot the modem and, if it stays down, contact your provider.
Log into the router's admin page and check its WAN / internet status. If it shows no public address, the router isn't getting service from the modem. Reboot both; check the cable between them.
Bypass the router entirely: plug a computer straight into the modem. If the internet works that way, your router is the problem.

7. Reset the network stack (one stubborn device)

If a single device still won't reach the internet after all of the above, its network settings may be corrupted. On Windows, run these in an admin Command Prompt and reboot:

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset

On a Mac or phone, "Reset Network Settings" does the same job. As a last resort, a clean reinstall of the WiFi driver clears deeper faults.

The quick mental model

Connected-but-no-internet always breaks into two questions: is it just my device, or everything? And is the connection itself broken, or just the DNS lookup? Answer those two and you've narrowed it to a single fix. If your device is healthy and the router or line is the problem, no amount of fiddling on the laptop will help — and vice versa.

Stop guessing — is it the network or your machine?

"Connected, no internet" is the exact moment people waste an hour on the wrong device. Acutis Go runs a 60-second check and tells you plainly whether the fault is your network or your own computer, so you skip straight to the fix that matters. Free, no account to try.

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Frequently asked questions

Why does my WiFi say connected but there's no internet?

Because joining the Wi-Fi and reaching the internet are two separate steps. Your device can negotiate perfectly with the router - full bars, connected - while the path beyond the router is broken: the modem has lost sync, DNS is failing, the lease is bad, or a captive portal is waiting for a login. The Wi-Fi indicator only reports the first step.

Should I restart the router or the modem first?

The modem first, then the router, and give the modem a minute to re-sync before powering the router back on. Restarting them in the wrong order, or at the same time, often means the router comes up before there is a working connection to hand out, and you end up repeating the whole thing.

How do I tell if it's my device or the whole network?

Check a second device on the same Wi-Fi. If everything is affected, the fault is the network - router, modem or ISP. If only one device is stuck, the fault is on that device, and the useful next steps are renewing its IP address, checking its DNS settings, and looking at its VPN or security software.

What is a captive portal and how do I know if that's the problem?

It is the sign-in page hotels, cafes and guest networks put in front of the internet. You are genuinely connected to the Wi-Fi, but nothing loads until you accept the terms. If you are on a network you do not own and pages hang rather than error, open any plain http site and see whether a login page appears.

Why does renewing my IP address fix it?

Because the address your device is holding may be stale or wrong - a lease from a previous network, or one that never completed. Releasing and renewing forces the router to hand out a fresh, valid address along with the correct gateway and DNS settings, which is often all that was missing.