There are times while working on your computer, suddenly the network vanishes and an error message appears “unidentified network”. The situation is annoying, particularly when you are in the middle of some important work, and you can’t just sit back and wait for it to resolve by itself. Because in most cases, it doesn’t.
What you can do is you can try the simple troubleshooting methods explained here to solve the issue quickly.
A yellow exclamation will be visible beside the network icon on the extreme right bottom corner of your system showing a message “unidentified network, no internet access”. When you are connected but you don’t have access to the internet, it means you don’t have an IP available from the Wifi access point or the internet server. It might be that your machine is not configured properly.
This is a common error that can be faced on any Windows Operating System version, 7,8 or 10. This issue occurs when your router, modem or ethernet cannot connect to any network resulting in a disrupted internet connection or denied access to the internet from the server. Sometimes the IP address is not configured correctly, which too can lead to this issue.
You need to tap on the Start icon and then type ‘Device Manager’ in the search box. Find Network Adapter, select the wireless connection and choose to Uninstall. Restart your system if prompted.
Follow these simple steps to reset your network settings, which can at times resolve this issue of unidentified network:
First, you need to open Settings and then click Network & Internet. Next, choose Status and click on Network reset. Now you need to click the Reset Now button and press Yes to confirm the changes and reboot your system.
We will first mention a few quick troubleshooting tips and solutions so that you can fix this issue with ease.
First, you need to check all the devices that connect to the network you are using and see if something is wrong with them.
Start with Windows troubleshooter
To run the Windows troubleshooter, you need to tap on the Windows key, select Settings and then select Update and Security. Now from that, select troubleshoot and then Internet connections.
Troubleshoot will find any issue with the network and resolve that automatically.
Restart the adapter
This will clear any issues from the adapter and if the adapter was creating the issue, it will be fixed.
Disable IPv6
Open Control Panel, select “View network status and tasks” and then select Change Adapter Settings. Select Properties by right-clicking on the network adapter. Uncheck IPv6 and then select Ok to apply the changes.
Restart your router
A router needs to start properly for a better connection. There are times when the router can create the issue with the network and show the error message “unidentified network, no internet access”. Therefore restarting the router might solve the issue.
Check your ethernet cable
Sometimes the ethernet cable also creates issues in transmitting connections properly. You need to open the ethernet cable from the port, clean the port slot and plug in the cable again. This should solve the issue.
Update router firmware
Outdated firmware can create issues that can result in this ‘unidentified network’ error. Firmware is the operating system for the router, therefore it needs to be updated for the proper functioning of the router.
Turn off airplane mode
Check if the airplane mode is turned on. If yes, then turn it off and you will be able to access the internet as usual.
After you have gone through the simple troubleshooting steps, try these solutions to resolve this error permanently.
If your drivers are not updated they can create issues, and to fix it, follow these directions to update your network card driver:
Windows key + X will open Menu > Device manager > Network Adapter > choose Update Driver Software > Search Automatically For Updated Driver Software.
If you have both an ethernet connection and a wireless connection on your system, then that might be causing the issue. Disconnect one of the networks. You can go to Network and Sharing Center, click on Change Adapter Settings and then right-click on the network you are using and select Disable. Wait for a few minutes and then re-enable it.
Anti-viruses sometimes cause issues with your system. You can disable the anti-virus for some time and check if the issue is resolved. If you find that the issue is resolved then the anti-virus is the culprit behind this error message ‘unidentified network’ and you need to uninstall that particular anti-virus and download any other good alternative.
The fast startup feature can create this ‘unidentified network’ issue in a Windows 10 system. To disable this feature, follow the steps below.
Select ‘power options’ in the search bar and open it. Click on “choose what the power button does” then click on “change settings that are currently unavailable”. Then you need to uncheck “turn on fast setup”. Wait for a few seconds before rebooting the system.
To change your DNS server, you need to open Network Settings, right-click on your network connection and then click on Properties (you might need administrator permissions). Now, you need to double-click on Internet protocol version 4. Now select ‘use the following DNS server address’ and then set the Preferred and Alternate DNS server address as follows to use Google Public DNS:
Click on the Start button and then ‘Network Connection’. Right-click on your network connection > Properties. Double click on Internet Protocol version 4 and select the radio button at ‘Use the following IP address’. Change the IP address settings, click Ok and save the settings.
You need to open a Command prompt from Search bar. Next, run these commands and restart the system. These commands will renew the IP address, reset Winsock, flush the DNS cache and reset TCP/IP. So, type these commands one by one and hit enter after each.