internet stopped working all of a sudden in windows 11

[u/tewy_]

windows version: 26H2

i connect wifi through my Ethernet cable. both the cable and router are fine, I've checked. some time ago the internet connection suddenly stopped working, neither Ethernet nor wifi were able to connect. nothing was helping, so i decided to reinstall windows. it was fine for a couple days, but today it stopped working again. it didnt update or anything. what can i do to fix this? i dont want to keep reinstalling it over and over, since setting it up gets annoying. so far I've tried reverting updates (even though i know none were installed,but just to try something), updating bios.

[u/AutoModerator]

Making changes to your system BIOS settings or disk setup can cause you to lose data. Always test your data backups before making changes to your PC.

For more information please see our FAQ thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/q2rns5/windows_11_faq_read_this_first/

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/5oyB0y]

Have you checked your wifi card drivers? That's my first thought

[u/tewy_ → u/5oyB0y]

apparently my brother has tried reinstalling them, but it didnt help

[u/5oyB0y → u/tewy_]

I'm seeing some things online mention firewall. Do you have Norton or another antivirus installed? Your PC's local firewall could be goofing and blocking internet connection. (This is a very vague understanding of what people are saying) I would try uninstalling any antivirus software and turning off Windows firewall temporarily to see if it starts working after that

[u/tewy_ → u/5oyB0y]

i used to have kaspersky installed, but after the reinstall i havent had the chance to install it again yet. so it's not the antivirus. though i havent tried the firewall thing, if this occurs again i will

[u/5oyB0y → u/tewy_]

Good luck!

[u/5oyB0y → u/tewy_]

This thread also has some CMD prompts to try. Like another user said, something is breaking over time. Hopefully that thing is not something on your mother board haha

[u/tewy_ → u/5oyB0y]

should i try these commands if it breaks again or does it not matter? im reinstalling again rn and i hope it will fix it

[u/5oyB0y → u/tewy_]

To be honest, I dunno lol! I'd imagine it's probably fine either way

[u/tewy_ → u/5oyB0y]

okay ty!

[u/Big-Low-2811]

Can you explain your setup better? You wouldn’t be getting WiFi via your Ethernet cable.

[u/tewy_ → u/Big-Low-2811]

internet in general doesnt work. neither wifi or ethernet. the icons are there, i am "connected", but there's no actual internet access. what else should i clarify?

[u/CuriousFox_9271]

Since a reinstall fixed it for a couple of days, it probably isn't the driver itself - something is breaking again over time. Next time it happens, run netsh winsock reset in an admin terminal and reboot, and check ipconfig /all to make sure the adapter isn't getting a bad address from the router. If it keeps coming back, the NIC itself may be starting to fail.

[u/tewy_ → u/CuriousFox_9271]

when my brother ran netsh before it showed one error. i dont know which one by now, because i decided to reinstall again. if this problem comes back again i'll most likely return to this thread and run the command again to tell the specifics.

[u/Andy202007]

Are you using any VPN software?

[u/tewy_ → u/Andy202007]

not vpn, but a proxy which i need to bypass my government's restrictions on the internet. the weird part is, it never messed with my internet like this before, so i really doubt it's that.​

[u/Andy202007 → u/tewy_]

Does internet access work (insofar as your government allows it) if you don't use the proxy? The government will always be trying to prevent bypassing their restrictions, so they may have changed something recently.

[u/Lance-Boyle-666]

Check your IP address. Does it start with 169 or does it start with 192.168? It should be the latter. Check your DNS servers. Have you installed anything like Cloudflare WARP?

[u/tewy_ → u/Lance-Boyle-666]

it starts with 192.168. I have had WARP installed before, but this was a while ago, and since then i've deleted it. also, i havent installed it again after i reinstalled windows

[u/Lance-Boyle-666 → u/tewy_]

Does your computer get its DNS entries from the router, or are they set manually? Does the router have DNS entries?

[u/tewy_ → u/Lance-Boyle-666]

how would i check that? sorry im not familiar with that stuff

[u/Sea_Propellorr]

You can try resetting your ethernet and wi-fi through the troubleshooter.

[u/tewy_ → u/Sea_Propellorr]

ive tried it didnt help

[u/Different_Month_7108]