What does No Internet Secured mean?

Last Updated on October 11, 2019 by Dave Farquhar

What does No Internet Secured mean? It’s potentially the least helpful error message in all of Windows 10. And it doesn’t help that it doesn’t look at all like an error message either. So let’s talk about what it means when Windows 10 says No Internet, Secured, and more importantly, how to fix it.

What No Internet, Secured means

what does no internet secured mean
What does No Internet Secured mean? Sometimes it’s a hardware problem. The wires on the right connect the antenna to the wireless card. Sometimes there are two or three of them. If just one of them is loose, your wireless stops working.

When you connect to a wifi network and hover over the wireless symbol in the lower right hand corner of your screen, normally it tells you the name of the network, plus the words “Internet Access,” and, maybe, whether it’s secured. That tells you you’re connected to the network and, obviously, that the Internet works. That’s probably what you want. These days it’s pretty rare for someone to connect to a network and not want Internet access.

Sometimes the network works, but the Internet doesn’t. When this happens, you get the confusing error message that says No Internet, Secured. This tells you that the network works. It also tells you that the network is secured with some kind of encryption. But it means you can’t get to the Internet. Secure wifi is important, but lack of Internet access is a more immediate concern.

The message is telling you two different things. One’s good and one’s bad, and it’s not exactly clear. Even a slight change to “Secured but no Internet,” would make it much easier to understand.

Testing your Internet connection

When this happens, you can verify this by opening a command prompt and typing ping google.com and hitting enter. If you see the message request timed out, Google is unreachable. If you can’t reach Google, chances are the Internet is down. You can try pinging another web site to verify. I usually ping yahoo.com out of habit, but any site that’s always up is OK.

To do this on Windows, click your Windows logo in the left hand corner of the screen and start typing cmd. Click on Command Prompt. Then type ping google.com followed by ping yahoo.com and watch the response. When you’re done, click the X in the right hand corner of the window. This works on both Windows 7 and Windows 10. From Windows 8, the easiest thing to do is right-click the Windows logo, then select Powershell from the menu and type your ping commands.

Sometimes just pinging a couple of web sites is enough to wake up your Internet connection. If not, it’s time to try some other things. What you do next depends on whether you’re at home or at work. If it’s your work network, call your help desk. If it’s your home network, you’re may be rebooting some stuff.

When No Internet, Secured is a hardware problem

The first thing to do is see if your phone or tablet can get to the Internet on the same wifi connection. If they can, it’s probably a hardware problem on your Windows laptop. Fortunately, it’s not too terribly difficult to fix.

I saw this on my son’s laptop. It said No Internet, Secured, and the wifi connected at super-slow speeds. The connections between his antenna and his wireless card were loose. When I shut down his laptop, removed the battery, then removed the panel covering his wireless card and reconnected the loose wires, I got a solid 144-megabit connection and working Internet. That’s a lot nicer than a 4-megabit connection with no Internet access.

Fixing No Internet, Secured

What does No Internet Secured mean?
What does No Internet Secured mean? That’s Windows 10’s way of saying it’s time to check your modem. On this modem, if the activity light stays dark, I would expect my ISP has problems. Every modem has a way to tell you it can’t connect, but every modem is a bit different.

If the problem isn’t just a single device, the easiest cure for No Internet, Secured is to reboot your modem and your router. I always turn both devices off and leave them both powered off for a minimum of 15 seconds. This gives them a chance to clear their memory properly. Some people think this is optional, but it really helps.

Turn your modem on first and watch the lights. There’s usually one light that goes solid when your Internet connectivity is working. Sometimes it’s labeled Internet or Service. Sometimes it’s just an up arrow. If that light doesn’t light, your Internet provider may be having issues. More on that in a minute.

If you get the solid light, when you turn on your router and it finishes starting up, you should have Internet again. If you don’t get the solid light, the modem may be waiting for your router. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try.

Of course, if you have an all-in-one modem/router device, you only have one thing to turn off and on. Give it a try and see if it helps.

Getting help

If all that fails, you can call your Internet provider’s 800 number. They’ll be able to tell you if they’re having issues in your area. Sometimes I’ll also pull up a web browser on my phone and just search on “is Charter down.” Substitute the name of your Internet provider, of course. This always takes me to one of two or three independent web sites that track ISP outages, and I’ll quickly know if anyone else in my area is having problems.

If you call and they say service is up, but your modem won’t lock on, ask if they can conduct a line test. This will help determine if the problem is your modem, or if it’s the wiring to your house. If it’s the wiring, it’s probably the ISP’s responsibility to fix. If it’s the modem, it may be their responsibility to replace it or it might be yours.

So what does No Internet Secured mean? Now you know. And hopefully you know what you need to know to fix it. Best of luck.

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One thought on “What does No Internet Secured mean?

  • May 28, 2018 at 10:22 am
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    Some ISPs have web pages where they list known problems with service. Those are also worth checking (with your phone) if your home internet isn’t working.

    If you use a DNS provider other than your ISP on your home network, one other possibility is that your internet connection actually works but your DNS provider is down. That will cause name resolution to fail. But if you know enough to have set that up, you probably already also knew how to reset your router!

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