Windows 10 says I have no internet connection, but I have.

For reference .. not all my settings were like: (but for now it is working for 2.4ghz - OK; 5ghz - not OK ...?)

The CORRECT values are: 

And then the most important one: 

Make sure all of these are populated with these EXACT values and then reboot. 

Next, if wait for the problem scenario to happen again.   If it does: 

1. Open an elevated command prompt.

Start menu  ->  type cmd -> right-click “Command Prompt” -> select “Run as administrator” 

1. Copy/paste this command

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1. Wait 30 seconds
2. Disconnect network.  If wired, unplug ethernet.  If wireless, disconnect wifi.
3. Wait 60 seconds
4. Reconnect network.  If wired, plug back in cable.  If wireless, connect wifi
5. Wait 120 seconds
6. In command prompt type

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I will repeat what I've said many times in this thread.

If you want to break your machine's network connectivity HARD disable the active probe.

But seriously.

We do not currently know of any new NCSI bugs that suddenly break after upgrade past 1909.

If there was a new bug we'd be hearing about it globally from our customer base.

And if there was a new NCSI bug you'd be breaking your machine even harder by destroying any and all ability to detect network connectivity.

Maybe you found in your specific machine's environment that this works for you.  You will pay for it later.

DO NOT DISABLE ACTIVE PROBING.

Instead troubleshoot the reason the active probe doesn't get a response, which is usually best done by getting a network capture and checking for probe send and receive (or lack thereof).

Search this thread for my other responses on other details of troubleshooting.

I can't copy/paste this stuff every time someone posts the bad recommendation to disable the active probe.

Oh just please stop the rhetoric about the dangers of disabling active probing. 

My MIS director and I (I am an engineering director) have been dealing with this issue for over 6 months with computers throughout our business. It didn't matter if the employees were in the building or remote, the NCSI icon showed up regularly. And yes, it does cause system slowdowns for those computers that are running software that requires heavy network interaction.

We had noticed when the NCSI shows up, certain programs become choppy and systems slowed down. Our CAD and PLM system are tied together and the data is half cloud and half network based. I was seeing CAD stations laboring to access files when the NCSI globe appeared. During those times I was able to see the active probing traffic increase and the discrete computers processor, memory, and network activity spike. My MIS director was seeing the same from other department computers, including his, as well. 

Reviewing the multitude of information on this and other blogs, people are saying to "turn on" active probing in the registry settings with some very detailed instructions. But none of them can explain why it is so essential. Additionally, our finding is that active probing was turned on by default at the time of Windows install. So if it is turned on by default, why are all of the sites saying to turn it on?!?

This did not sit well with us because our analysis said active probing IS the issue. We narrowed the problem into how that feature works by watching traffic and discrete computer resource activity. When Microsoft active probing does its thing and something it doesn't like happens, that's when issues can be seen. Observations in the way the way network traffic increased tied with individual computer resource loading increased, we started thinking that we either had a virus or that active probing was stealing information. We verified no virus and came right back to active probing. And no, it is not our network or network settings, firewall or anything else we could find. Plus, we see the issue no matter where people tie into the internet (home, coffee shop, work, hotspot).

So opposite of what has been recommended seemingly everywhere, we decided to follow our own logic and went the opposite of prevailing thought/commentary and we DISABLED active probing.

I am here to say that this was an Instant fix for the nearly 100 computers we changed. No more issues, no more slowdowns, no more complaints, no network issues, no issues detecting if the internet is down, no network traffic spikes, no more computer resource usage spike from active probing, and unlike the doomsayers, life continues without problems now.

Most importantly, in deference to the Microsoft employee's doom saying above, none of our machines have broken network connectivity because of the change. In fact, I am typing this reply from one of the computers now that I changed over 1 month ago. The issue is completely gone now and not a single computer on our team has an issue with this change.  And yes, our people work in the the building and remote without issue.

So I ask that Microsoft address the active probing issue. Until they do have a fix, please start recommending that people DISABLE active probing. We lived without it for many decades, we can live a few more while Microsoft works out this problem.

I finally got this to work after scouring the internet. Here are my regedit settings:

Feel free to try and use the settings I've found to work (pictured above). Full settings I used are as follows (in case something happens to the screenshot):

ActiveDnsProbeContent = 8.8.4.4

ActiveDnsProbeContentV6 = 2001:4860:4860::8844

ActiveDnsProbeHost = dns.google.com

ActiveDnsProbeHostV6 = dns.google.com

ActiveWebProbeContent = Microsoft Connect Test

ActiveWebProbeContentV6 = Microsoft Connect Test

ActiveWebProbeHost = test.dynamix.run

ActiveWebProbeHostV6 = test.dynamix.run

ActiveWebProbePath = connecttest.txt

ActiveWebProbePathV6 = connecttest.txt

EnableActiveProbing = 1

Your network won't show that it's online until you launch a browser and connect to a site after logging into Windows 10. That seems to be when the internet check is finally made.

I use Blackbird which modifies the hosts file to block Microsoft's default internet test. Hope this is a useful alternative for someone.