Wi-Fi Connected, No Internet? Here’s How to Fix
You’re busy working or casually scrolling through those endless social media feeds on your phone when you suddenly notice new content stops loading. It turns out that your connection has gone off, but surprisingly, you’re still connected to the network. This usually happens over Wi-Fi when you’re connected to your router, but there’s no active internet response.
This guide will attempt to isolate potential reasons for why this might be happening, provide solutions, and advise on what to do in the rare scenario where the issue stems from your ISP and your modem’s internet light switches from green to red.
1) Check Your Connection Speed and Signal Strength
Your first course of action should be to verify if the problem exists. Turn off your mobile data and try to open any website on your phone’s browser, preferably an internet speed test. This is important as it will help identify the underlying cause of the issue.
Check to see if you’re within your router’s signal range. Try moving closer to ensure that there is nothing wrong on the user’s end. If your router has a dedicated speed test that it can run on your browser over a wired connection, use it to test your connection.
2) Restart Your Wi-Fi Connection
When you’re connected to Wi-Fi on your mobile, and there’s no connection, try to restart the specific connection. This may resolve any network conflicts within the device itself. You may also switch to a different network, preferably mobile data, to check if the issue lies with the network in question.
In many cases, a simple restart can fix issues that are otherwise hard to explain. If a restart doesn’t fix the issue on your end, you may also attempt to restart the modem itself. While doing so, verify that the router’s cables are properly wired in their respective ports. This quick check can easily help identify any issues on the user end.
3) Check Your Device’s Date and Time
Some routers use the device’s date and time accuracy as a check to verify that the connection is authentic. This is why, if your connection goes dead, it may be a good time to check your date and time settings. Ideally, it’s best to use the network-provided date and time zone so that it doesn’t require manual tweaking over time.
- Open your phone’s Settings and select System.
- Tap on “Date & time.”
- Turn on the “Set time automatically” setting.
- Scroll down, and under “Time zone,” toggle on “Set automatically.”
- Under “Time format,” enable “Use locale default.”
Note: These steps were replicated on a Pixel. The steps to change the date and time settings on your device may vary.
4) Check Your ISP Billing History
When there’s no internet connection on your modem, especially unexpectedly, it may be a good time to re-check your ISP’s billing history and payment records. Make sure that you have all dues cleared. There may be a good chance that if you’re behind on your payment schedule, your ISP has cut off your connection. This would explain why, even though you’re able to connect to the specified network, there’s no internet access.
More often than not, internet access is restored after a while. Make sure that you don’t tinker with settings you have little to no knowledge of, like clearing partitions, switching to a static IP, or changing advanced network settings.
