Win11 - Settings says "Not Connected", but I am connected to the internet?

Hi, I've been encountering a strange issue with the network on my Windows 11 PC recently, I'm not exactly sure what caused it.

My taskbar indicates that I have a working ethernet connection, and internet on my PC mostly works fine, browsers work, steam works etc., but the modern style settings app shows "Not connected, you aren't connected to any networks", and this seems to cause certain apps to also assume I have no internet connection (e.g. Spotify, Nvidia GeForce Experience), and therefore not work correctly or start in offline mode. The status of the network adapter in control panel's network and sharing centre shows that IPv4 connectivity is fine (no IPv6 though, but this doesn't seem to be an issue on any other devices on the network - I think this is a limitation of my router).

I don't think that this is an issue with my ethernet adapter driver, since I also have a WiFi dongle installed that faces the same problem. I have also tried uninstalling the driver from device manager and reinstalling the driver from Realtek's website.

Anyone have any idea what's going on or how to fix this? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Are you using any 3rd party apps related to the network or firewall?

You say recently. So you've had Windows 11 installed for a while now and no issue?
How long has it been an issue?
Do you recall any security software you may have installed or tested lately?


What is the router make and model number?

Does this site also say you don't have IPv6 connection?

This will be long, so settle in.
Since the problem is happening on both wired & wireless, you have to prove if the problem is caused by your hardware or Windows by process of elimination. I would suggest these steps. Anywhere you see the word CHECK means to see if “Not Connected” is still being indicated.

If you haven’t already done it, before you start, reset your router and restart computer and CHECK. This could fix the issue.

First, we'll check the wired side of your connections.

1. Connect with wired ethernet cable and keep dongle inserted.

2. Reset your network components to factory default using this tutorial.

3. CHECK - If you no longer see "not connected", go to step 5.

If you still see it, remove dongle and CHECK. If still "not connected", open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow

This is where it gets kind of tricky. After system file checker completes, make note of whether it found and corrected any problems. If found and corrected, restart and CHECK. If that fixed the problem on the wired side continue to step 4.
If it found problems it could not correct, in command window type dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth.
Restart and CHECK.

If there's still a problem after running dism using wired internet and dongle removed, it proves either your ethernet adapter is causing the problem (which I doubt) or there's an erroneous flag set somewhere in Windows that a repair install might fix. (You can eliminate the adapter being the problem by disabling it in device manager, plugging in the dongle, and establishing wireless connection-CHECK)

4. Plug in the dongle. CHECK

5. IF no "not connected" indicated, the wired side is good. Disconnect your ethernet cable and establish a wireless connection. CHECK.

6. If still none, you're ALL good, so stop here.


7.But if you see "not connected" at this point, your wireless side has issues we need to work on.
It's probably the dongle causing the problem, but you can try one more step. Open a command prompt as administrator. Run the following commands one at a time to reset wireless. Let each one complete. You can copy and paste the commands.

netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log
netsh advfirewall reset

Restart computer

8. After all that, CHECK -if you still see the "not connected" when you connect wirelessly, you have a bad dongle. Uninstall it in device manager, unplug it, and reconnect ethernet cable .CHECK
It’s possible but not likely you may see the issue has come back using only wired ethernet. You may have to do step 2 again to get it to go away.

Whew!! That was a long one. Hope it helps.

The firewall was not reset in your above. That should be reset too if you're going to reset everything.
From an elevated admin command prompt.

netsh advfirewall reset

Hi all, my apologies for not seeing that people replied to this thread until now.

@AdvancedSetup Yes , I had windows 11 installed for a while before encountering this issue, but I must admit I can't remember what I was doing immediately before this started happening, since it has been quite a while now. I think I had some other network issue, which I tried to fix with a network reset, but then this was the result.

My router is a Hitron CGNV4-BIZ, however I have noticed I still get this problem even if I share my phone's 4G connection over USB.

That website does indeed indicate that I don't have IPV6 support ("No IPv6 address detected"). And it says the same thign on my laptop/phone connected over WiFi.

I have tried all of the steps @glasskuter kindly wrote out, but still no change :/. SFC scannow returned found no issues.

Also, I should mention that as a last ditch attempt I reset my computer using the "Reset this PC" option in settings->system->recovery, choosing to keep my personal files, and even that hasn't fixed the issue. I also tried updating my BIOS and resetting it to its default settings. At this point do you think it is an issue with my motherboard? Everything still works fine on Ubuntu. The next thing I want to try is a fresh windows installation on a different drive/partition.

Thanks so much for your replies, and again sorry I didn't see them sooner.

P.S. one other thing I forgot to mention - whenever I disable then enable the WiFi or ethernet adapters (or reboot), the correct "ethernet/WiFi connected" icon comes up in the taskbar, but only for a few seconds before it goes back to displaying "no internet access".

Two more thing I've thought about. 1) What do you see when you remove the dongle and completely bypass your router by plugging your ethernet directly into your IP's poe?

2) Your specs indicate a later model mobo which usually have a resident wireless adapter. Are you sure by connecting the dongle that you don't have TWO wireless adapters. Verify in device manager.

Hello, I have also been encountering this problem and have spent countless hours looking for any solutions and went through this thread and many more to no luck. This is the only case that is exactly the same as my own, especially because of the short moment it says activated when I plug Ethernet back into my pc, and how only some apps get effected.
If either of you have any other advice I would greatly appreciate it as I am at the point of giving up on this computer completely because nothing seems to work.

glasskuter said:

Two more thing I've thought about. 1) What do you see when you remove the dongle and completely bypass your router by plugging your ethernet directly into your IP's poe?

2) Your specs indicate a later model mobo which usually have a resident wireless adapter. Are you sure by connecting the dongle that you don't have TWO wireless adapters. Verify in device manager.

Click to expand...

And thank you for the steps given but I have tried that and the windows reinstall and rested Redford has tried.