Ethernet Connected But No Internet — How to Fix It
Short answer
Check the link lights at both ends first — no light means a cable, port or adapter fault, and no software step will help. Then swap the cable and try a different LAN port, avoiding the WAN port. If the link is up, run ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew; a 169.254.x.x address means DHCP never answered.
On this page
The cable is plugged in, Windows shows a wired network, and nothing loads. Wi-Fi on the same machine works fine, which makes it feel like a software fault — but a wired connection has one failure mode Wi-Fi does not, and that is the physical cable itself.
That is why this guide starts at the port and works inwards. The sequence is deliberate: physical link, then addressing, then DNS, then the router. Checking in that order means you never spend twenty minutes on DNS settings for a cable with a broken clip.
If both Wi-Fi and ethernet fail on every device in the house, the problem is upstream and Wi-Fi connected but no internet on every device is the right place to start instead.
Step 1 — Read the link lights
Every ethernet port has one or two small LEDs beside the socket, on both the computer and the router or switch. They report the state of the physical link before any software is involved, which makes them the most honest signal available.
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No lights at either end | No physical link | Cable, port or adapter fault |
| Light at router, none at PC | PC adapter disabled or dead | Check Device Manager |
| Light at PC, none at router | Router port fault | Try a different port |
| Solid light, no flashing | Link up, no traffic | Addressing or DNS |
| Both lights, flashing activity | Link and traffic fine | Router or provider side |
| Amber instead of green | Link negotiated at 10/100 | Cable or port limiting speed |
The decisive case is no light at all. That is a hardware problem, and every software step below is wasted effort until it is solved.
Some laptops have no visible port lights, particularly thin models with drop-down or flip-out ethernet jacks, and USB-C dongles often have none either. In that case, check the router end — it tells you the same thing.
Step 2 — Test the cable and the port
Two swaps isolate the fault in under a minute, and they are more conclusive than any amount of inspection.
Swap the cable. Use a different ethernet cable that you know works — borrowed from a TV, a games console, or a set-top box. If the connection comes up, the original cable was the problem.
Ethernet cables fail far more often than people expect, and almost always at the connector. The small plastic retaining clip snaps off, the plug no longer seats fully, and the contacts make an intermittent connection. A cable can look pristine and still be dead. Check that the clip is present on both plugs and that each one clicks positively into place.
Also rule out physical damage along the run: cables crushed under furniture, run through a doorway, kinked around a sharp corner, or chewed by a pet.
Swap the port. Move the cable to a different numbered LAN port on the router. Individual ports fail, often from a power surge, while the rest of the device works normally.
Avoid the WAN port. The port labelled WAN, Internet or coloured differently from the others is for the connection from your modem, not for your computer. Plugging a PC into it gives you a link light and no internet whatsoever — a genuinely common mistake in a cupboard full of identical sockets.
If you are using a USB-C or Thunderbolt dongle
Dongles add two failure points. Try a different USB port, preferably one directly on the laptop rather than through a hub or dock, and check Device Manager for the adapter appearing with a warning icon. Cheap dongles also fail under heat after long sessions.
Step 3 — Check the adapter in Windows
With a confirmed physical link, check that Windows is actually using the adapter.
- Press Win+R, type
ncpa.cpland press Enter. - Look for Ethernet.
A greyed-out adapter is disabled — right-click → Enable.
An adapter showing Network cable unplugged while the link lights are on means the adapter is not negotiating. Go back to step 2 and swap the cable, then check the driver.
For the driver: Device Manager → Network adapters → the ethernet entry (Realtek, Intel I219, Killer E-series are common names) → right-click → Uninstall device → restart. Windows reinstalls it on boot. If the problem started after a Windows update, get the proper driver from your PC or motherboard manufacturer’s support page rather than relying on Windows Update’s generic version.
The speed and duplex setting
In the adapter’s Properties → Advanced tab, find Speed & Duplex. It should be set to Auto Negotiation. If someone has pinned it to a fixed value like “100 Mbps Full Duplex” and the other end disagrees, you get a link light and a connection that barely passes traffic. Set it back to auto.
While you are in Properties, check the Power Management tab and untick Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. On a desktop this is rarely the issue, but on laptops and docks it causes the link to drop after periods of inactivity.
Step 4 — Renew the IP address
A solid link light with no internet usually means the adapter never got a usable address, or it is holding a stale one.
Open Terminal (Admin) — right-click the Start button — and run:
ipconfig /allFind the section for your ethernet adapter and look at the IPv4 Address:
169.254.x.x— the adapter failed to get an address from the router. This is the APIPA fallback and it means DHCP did not answer. Usually a cable, port or router problem rather than a PC problem.192.168.x.xor10.x.x.x— the router did respond, so addressing works. The fault is further out.- Blank, or no Default Gateway — no route out of the local network.
Then renew it:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdnsIf the address is still 169.254.x.x after a renew, the router is not answering
DHCP on that port. Try another port, and confirm the router’s DHCP server is
enabled in its settings.
Test what is actually broken
Three commands separate the layers:
ping 192.168.1.1
ping 1.1.1.1
ping google.comSubstitute your actual gateway address, which ipconfig /all showed you.
- Gateway fails — the problem is between your PC and the router. Cable or addressing.
- Gateway works,
1.1.1.1fails — the router has no route to the internet. That is a router or provider problem. 1.1.1.1works,google.comfails — the connection is fine and DNS is broken. Go to the next step.
If the stack itself is corrupted
When renewing does nothing and the adapter looks healthy:
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip resetRestart the PC afterwards — these do not take effect until you do. They reset the Winsock catalogue and the TCP/IP stack, which third-party VPN clients, antivirus suites and old network tools frequently corrupt.
Neither command deletes saved Wi-Fi passwords. The full Network reset under Settings → Network & internet → Advanced network settings does delete every saved Wi-Fi network, its password, and all VPN configurations — so if you reach for that, recover your passwords first using how to find a saved Wi-Fi password.
Step 5 — Fix DNS
If pinging 1.1.1.1 works but named sites fail, set a reliable DNS server.
Windows: Settings → Network & internet → Ethernet → DNS server assignment → Edit → Manual → turn on IPv4 and enter:
- Cloudflare:
1.1.1.1and1.0.0.1 - Google:
8.8.8.8and8.8.4.4
Then flush the cache again with ipconfig /flushdns and retry.
Setting it once on the router applies it to every device at the same time, which is usually the better move if more than one machine is affected.
Step 6 — Check the router and beyond
If the gateway pings and 1.1.1.1 does not, the router has no internet
connection, and the fault is nothing to do with your cable.
Check the router’s Internet or WAN light. Solid means the provider session is up; off, red or flashing means it is not. Then power-cycle properly: unplug the modem, unplug the router, wait 60 seconds, plug in the modem first, wait for its lights to go steady, then plug in the router.
Use the power cable, not the recessed reset button — the reset button restores factory defaults and erases your network name and password.
What not to do
- Do not start with driver reinstalls. If the link light is off, the driver is irrelevant. Check the physical layer first.
- Do not buy a Cat7 or Cat8 cable to fix no-internet. Cat5e carries gigabit over household distances perfectly well, and cable category has nothing to do with whether traffic reaches the internet.
- Do not plug the PC into the WAN port. It is the single most common cabling mistake and it produces exactly this symptom.
- Do not disable the ethernet adapter and re-enable it repeatedly hoping it will catch. One attempt is diagnostic; ten is not.
- Do not set a static IP to work around a DHCP failure unless you know the router’s range and have picked an address outside the DHCP pool. A collision causes intermittent faults that are much harder to find later.
- Do not assume ethernet is always faster. If a long or damaged cable has negotiated at 100 Mbps and your service is 500 Mbps, Wi-Fi will genuinely beat it. The amber link light is the clue.
Realistic expectations
Most of these cases are the cable or the port, and a swap finds the fault in under two minutes. The rest split fairly evenly between a stale DHCP lease — fixed by the release-and-renew — and a router that has no internet connection of its own.
If ethernet works and Wi-Fi is the thing that keeps failing, that is a different problem with a different cause — laptop Wi-Fi keeps disconnecting covers the wireless side on the same machine.