Acutis Connected to Wi-Fi but no internet
The short answer: "connected but no internet" is not one problem. It is three different problems with the same symptom, and each has a different fix. The name (DNS): your computer cannot turn google.com into a number, so you have a perfect connection and load nothing. The road (the router and your provider): the router has lost its upstream link, so you are on a good local network that leads nowhere. The gate (a captive portal): a login page is in the way until you click through it. The free test, no tools: type 1.1.1.1 into the browser instead of a name. Number loads and names do not: it is DNS. A login page you did not ask for: it is a portal. Neither loads: it is the road, and that is the only case where restarting the router is the right first move.
This page is the text version of the video. Every command below was run on a real Windows machine on 6 September 2026 and every line of output is shown exactly as it printed. The only edits are redactions: network names are replaced with HomeWiFi and OldNetwork, the last three octets of MAC and BSSID addresses are masked, and the trace was run with -d so no hostnames print. That includes the inconvenient results: the router that returns 100% packet loss, the router that does not answer DNS at all, and the hop that times out in the middle of a working trace.
Commands used in this video
In on-screen order. ping, nslookup, tracert and curl.exe run in Command Prompt or PowerShell; the Get- and Test- commands need PowerShell.
ping 8.8.8.8ping google.comGet-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias Wi-Fi -AddressFamily IPv4PowerShell, not Command Prompt. If your adapter is not named Wi-Fi, use the name Get-NetAdapter lists.
nslookup google.comnslookup google.com 192.168.0.1Replace 192.168.0.1 with your own Default Gateway address.
ipconfig | findstr "Gateway"tracert -d -h 6 8.8.8.8curl.exe -sI http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txtcurl.exe -s http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txtTest-NetConnection google.com -Port 443PowerShell, not Command Prompt.
ping 192.168.0.1Replace 192.168.0.1 with the Default Gateway address that ipconfig printed on your machine.
nslookup google.com 1.1.1.1What it actually printed
Colour key, the same as the video: green is the healthy line, amber is the line people misread.
Read the loss figure: a reply from a public number means your packets left the house, crossed the provider and came back, so the road is open.
> ping 8.8.8.8 Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=117 Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Read the number in square brackets on the first line: the name became a number before the first packet left, and that step is DNS.
> ping google.com Pinging google.com [64.233.181.113] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 64.233.181.113: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=107 Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Read the server list: this is who your machine sends names to, and on this machine they were typed in by hand rather than learned from the router.
> Get-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias Wi-Fi -AddressFamily IPv4 Wi-Fi 12 IPv4 {8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4}
Read Server and Name: a healthy answer from the server you expected.
> nslookup google.com Server: dns.google Address: 8.8.8.8 Name: google.com 64.233.181.113
Read the timeouts: this router hands out addresses and forwards every packet, and does not answer a single DNS question. A machine at the default setting here would be connected with full bars and load nothing.
> nslookup google.com 192.168.0.1 *** Request to UnKnown timed-out DNS request timed out. timeout was 2 seconds.
Read the gateway: that is where the road starts.
> ipconfig | findstr "Gateway"
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Read hops 1 to 3: hop 1 is your router, hops 2 and 3 are your provider, and the starred hop 4 is not a problem because hops 5 and 6 past it answered.
> tracert -d -h 6 8.8.8.8 Tracing route to 8.8.8.8 over a maximum of 6 hops 1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1 2 16 ms 16 ms 15 ms 216.160.151.254 3 20 ms 19 ms 22 ms 71.36.254.1 4 * * * Request timed out. 5 86 ms 62 ms 82 ms 4.69.219.74 6 24 ms 23 ms 23 ms 4.68.110.134 Trace complete.
Read the status and Content-Length: 200 and 22 bytes of text/plain is the real file, and a captive portal returns a redirect or a page of HTML instead.
> curl.exe -sI http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txt HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Length: 22 Content-Type: text/plain
Read the body: 22 characters, exactly what Windows expects when it decides you have internet.
> curl.exe -s http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txt Microsoft Connect Test
Read TcpTestSucceeded: True is a real encrypted connection to a real website all the way through, whatever the icon thinks.
> Test-NetConnection google.com -Port 443 RemoteAddress : 64.233.181.139 RemotePort : 443 TcpTestSucceeded : True
Read the loss figure and then ignore it: this router had just handed the machine its lease and was serving four other devices.
> ping 192.168.0.1 Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
Read the address and compare it with the 8.8.8.8 answer: two servers, two numbers, same name, and both are right.
> nslookup google.com 1.1.1.1 Server: one.one.one.one Name: google.com 142.250.72.206
Read the loss figure, not the one 88 ms reply: one slow packet out of four is weather, and 0% loss is the number that matters.
> ping google.com Reply from 64.233.181.113: bytes=32 time=88ms TTL=107 Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Three results that look like problems and are not
Pinging my router returns 100% packet loss. Is the road closed?
No. The same router that returned 100% loss to ping answered hop 1 of the trace in 1 ms, three out of three. Home routers often ignore a direct ping and forward everything. The trace is the test; the ping is not.
nslookup gave me a different address from 1.1.1.1 than from 8.8.8.8. Is one of them wrong?
No. In the video 1.1.1.1 answered 142.250.72.206 and 8.8.8.8 answered 64.233.181.113 for google.com. Both are Google. Big sites have hundreds of addresses and each server hands you the one nearest to it. Two answers is normal. Zero answers is the problem.
One ping reply came back at 88 ms while the others were 32 ms. Is my internet slow?
No. One packet out of four taking a longer road for a moment is weather, not slow internet. 0% loss is the number that matters on that screen.
The checklist
- In the browser, try
1.1.1.1by number. Number loads and names do not: DNS. A login page: portal. Nothing loads: the road. ping 8.8.8.8. A reply means the road is open.ping google.com. "Could not find host" with the number still working means the name service is broken.nslookup google.comagainst your router's address. If it times out, set your DNS to8.8.8.8or1.1.1.1.tracert -d 8.8.8.8. Hop 1 and not hop 2: restart the modem. Not even hop 1: restart the router. Past hop 3: the road is fine.curl.exe -sI http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txt. 22 bytes of plain text means no portal. A redirect means open a browser and log in.
Watch the video
Chapters
- The question
- Three failures, one symptom
- The free test, before any commands
- Numbers versus names
- Who answers your names: the router that does not
- The road: reading the trace
- The gate: the captive portal check
- Three results that look like problems and are not
- The checklist
- Doing this on six hundred machines
The longer fix list, once you know which of the three it is
Connecting to Wi-Fi and reaching the internet are two separate things. Your device has a solid link to the router, but either the path from the router out to the wider internet, the translation step that finds websites, or a login page in the way is stopping you. The commands above tell you which. The steps below are the fixes, grouped so you only run the ones that match.
1. If it is the road: restart the right things, in the right order
Restarting fixes the road case, sometimes, and none of the other two. Only do this when the number did not load and no login page appeared, or when the trace stopped at hop 1 or hop 2. Power-cycle the 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. If it is the gate: look for a captive portal
On public or guest WiFi (hotels, cafes, airports), and on some home routers after a reset, "connected but no internet" usually means a sign-in page, a captive portal, is waiting and you have not passed it yet. Windows checks for this itself with the 22-byte connect test file shown above; if curl.exe -sI http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txt returns a redirect or a page of HTML instead of 200 and Content-Length: 22, that is the tell. 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 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 /releasethenipconfig /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. If it is the name: fix DNS
If pages will not load by name but ping 8.8.8.8 answers, DNS is the cause. DNS is the directory that turns example.com into a numeric address. Most home machines send every name to the router by default, and the router in the video did not answer a single DNS question while handing out addresses and forwarding every packet. A machine at the default setting on that network would be connected with full bars and load nothing. 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) or8.8.8.8(Google) in your network settings.
If sites suddenly load after changing DNS, that was the culprit.
6. If it is the road: 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. The trace tells you where it stops: hop 1 is your router, hops 2 and 3 are your provider, and past that is not yours to fix. Hop 1 answers and hop 2 never does: the router is up but its link to the provider is down, restart the modem. Not even hop 1, while you have an address: the router itself is stuck, restart the router. Everything answers out to hop 3 and beyond: the road is open, stop restarting things.
- 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 resetnetsh 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 three questions: is it the name, the road, or the gate? And is it just my device, or everything? Answer those and you have 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. Episode 1, Is it the network or the machine?, covers the two-device test in depth, and Episode 2 covers the case where one PC will not join the Wi-Fi at all.
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 this check by itself on every machine you are responsible for and reports the verdict instead of the raw output: whether names resolve and who answered, whether the road is open and which hop it stopped at, whether something is standing at the gate. Free, observe-only, no account to try.
Get Acutis Go, freeFrequently 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.