"Connected, no Internet" - DNS client issues January 2022

[mikesmith9351 (Oldsmobile_Mike)]

Anyone aware of any widespread issues with DNS client possibly related to a Windows update within the past week? Super-strange, we’ve gone from never having this issue, to two people having this issue in the past week. Got one person fixed by sending him a bunch of USB-to-Ethernet adapters until one worked. They also did a system restore, so not sure if it was the adapter or the system restore that “fixed” the problem. The second person, still working with them.

The issue is that they connect to their local WiFi or Ethernet wired connection. They get a “Connected, no Internet” message in the system tray. Open a command prompt, able to ping 8.8.8.8 with 100% success but no web pages or apps can connect. Running the network troubleshooter says “The DNS server isn’t responding”. “Your computer is trying to use a DNS server that is incorrect or doesn’t exist.”

Tried all the basic stuff. IP config /release & /renew, manually entering a DNS server, all ipconfig settings are correct and DHCP/DNS being received from user’s home router. Other machines on the network able to connect with no issues. Tried logging in with a different user account, local admin on the machine, no difference. Reviewed host files for anything out of the ordinary. One person has an ASUS laptop in Nevada, the other person has a Microsoft Surface Book and is in Florida. No detectable pattern other than DNS just isn’t working on their machines.

Maybe paranoid but worried about “tip of the iceberg” problem since it’s struck twice this week. Anyone else seen this?

[mikesmith9351 (Oldsmobile_Mike)]

Here is the output from an affected user’s ipconfig /all. Everything seems right to me. We manually put in 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as a test. The IPv6 addresses check out to be his local ISP DNS servers. We tried disabling IPv6 and using just the google addresses, no difference.

[mikesmith9351 (Oldsmobile_Mike)]

Editing to add: Of course this is the CEO having the problem, now. Not just some low-level person.

[mikesmith9351 (Oldsmobile_Mike)]

Screenshot of error message:

I should have mentioned, both users also tried mobile hotspot on their cell phones, no difference. Definitely seems device specific, rather than ISP issue. Not running any kind of 3rd party “DNS protection” software that could be interfering, either.

[adam3813 (Adam-BCH)]

I have been seeing a lot of issues with some windows 10 systems showing the alert in the system tray no internet connected but there is internet.

When it does that some MS Office apps don’t work. Seems that notification makes office think there is no internet.
My understanding is that alert is the OS not pinging a Microsoft site.

You can try.

Reset Network Adapter and DNS using Command Prompt

1 Run as Administrator Command Prompt
2 Type the following commands, pressing enter after finishing each one:
netsh winsock reset
ipconfig /release
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew
Exit Command Prompt
Restart your PC.

Also take a look at this [article](https://
How to fix 'no internet' connection bug in Windows 10 2004)

The registry fix in the article has worked for me but sometimes it comes back on some systems too.

Very frustrating.

[jadrien (Jim Peters)]

I have been fighting this battle for a couple of weeks.

Don’t know what caused it, but I suspect it is a recent Windows Update from the middle of December.

I come to calling it the “Windows Globe DNS issue” because the computer icon -network icon goes from that to a globe when Windows has decided I have no Internet access (via ethernet that is has named as the SSID of my 2G Wifi network). If I connect to one or both VPNs (one is a Barracuda VPN Client; the second is a Fortigate VPN Client) then things get worse and I usually am seeing the globe. No trouble accessing the public Internet, but application clients on my laptop that need to take the fortigate VPN to get to their server can’t reach them.

[mikesmith9351 (Oldsmobile_Mike)]

Thanks Jim and Adam. I’ve followed up with my user to see if he can try the above list of commands. Pretty sure we’ve already tried all of those but at this point couldn’t hurt (other than his frustration level) to try again. I’ve also pointed him to the article with the registry key modification, and a few similar tips I got on Reddit. Challenging supporting remote employees all around the country, feel like if I had the machine in front of me I could do more. If we are unable to get it to work I’m going to have to ship him a new laptop, since right now he’s not able to get online at all (either via WiFi or with a USB-to-Ethernet adapter). At least it’s a “relief” to know we’re not the only ones having this type of issue.

[mikesmith9351 (Oldsmobile_Mike)]

Editing post to add:

Here is a screenshot from my user showing the results of an nslookup command:

And here is the results of ping to 8.8.8.8 and www.google.com . The attempt to ping google by name failed.

DNS on the device is still not functioning. User is unable to perform a System Restore due to an unspecified OneDrive error. All other attempts to repair (including mobile hotspot, various command line commands, using external USB-to-Ethernet adapter, etc.) have failed. I’m sure the “nuclear option” of format the hard drive and reinstall Windows would work, but I can’t really walk a user through that in the field (1,000 miles away). Looks like I’ll be shipping him a replacement computer.

[jadrien (Jim Peters)]

Since I last posted the following has gone on with my computer:

1. I took it (the laptop) to the office on Wed Jan 5th. It hadn’t been on the office network since early December. I don’t think this made a difference other letting AD refresh because it was on the network and not going over the VPN.

2. Dell Command Update offered me 4 updates on Thursday Jan 6th. I installed them. They are listed below. I noted whether this computer had a prior update for this in the Dell history. The hardware is about 14 months old.

Dell Power Manager Service; 3.10.0; APAC prior 5/26/2021, v3.9.0
Intel AX210/AX201/AX200/9560/9260/9462/8265/3165 Wi-Fi UWD Driver, 22.70.0.6, DRVR prior not found in history
Intel UHD Graphics Driver, 27.20.100.9664, DRVR prior not found in Update History of Dell Command
Dell Precision 3541 and Lattitude 5401/5501 System BIOS, 1.15.1 BIOS prior 8/3/2021 v1.13.0

3. I switched to using the on-board ethernet from the one on the Dell (WD19) dock and re-enabling WiFi. I did put it on my local 5Ghz wi-fi network, but it seems to be back on 2G when I wake up the computer.

4. I spent the day yesterday, Friday, Jan 7 working all day with the computer and didn’t have the issue.

5. Of note, my set up and home and the office have identical keyboard, mouse (Logitech) and Dell docks that stay put. So when I moved to the office the laptop connected to the other Dell (WD19) dock and was using the Realtek USB ethernet port on it.

6. Earlier in the week I refreshed the firmware in my ASUS wifi router. I also rebooted it on Friday morning. It is sitting next to this computer so the WiFi signal is obviously very strong because it is literally only about 4 feet from receiver. My laptop is always connected with ethernet so wifi is usually redundant and I had turned it off last week or so to eliminate it as a variable.

[bavariantechuser (bavarianspice)]

Had this in 3 different settings/customers networks. Seems NOT to be related to the make and cfg of the wireless infrastructure or dns-server on W2019 and W2022.

Don’t see the issue in another network that uses Wi2016 for DHCP and DNS.

Looks like a W10 and W11 client issue in combination with DHCP.

Don’t see issues when using fixed IP-addresses.

But also don’t see a solution to that yet.