Windows 7 Incorrectly reports "No Internet Access"

Problem DESCRIPTION

Windows 7 May sometimes report the it has "No Internet Access"; This was visible via the System Tray icon showing a yellow exclamation mark, and also if you go to the Network and Sharin  G Center. I had this problem recently in my work laptop and spent some time researching possible causes.

Discussion/analysis

After searching via Google, I learned that one common cause is the Bonjour service and that the recommended fix is to de  Lay its starting (setting, the Startup type on the service to "Automatic (Delayed Start"). Unfortunately for me, I didn ' t has this service installed.

Eventually I focused on the Microsoft Network Location Awareness (NLA) service provider, which are the component that CONTR OLS How the computer handles multiple network connections, such as multiple network interface cards (NIC) connected to DIF Ferent networks, or a physical network connection and a dial-up connection.

I also learned that at system startup (and every time to change NIC settings?) a Little-known sub-system of Windows kicks  Into action. Its called Microsoft NCSI and the Network Location Awareness service tries to access the following URL: www.msftncsi. Com/ncsi.txt

That URL returns a simple text string: Microsoft NCSI

This is how Windows 7 (and Vista?) determines whether it's connected to the Internet or not ... if it gets the string, it s connected; If it doesn ' t, it assumes it is not connected to the Internet.

Since I knew that I is connected to the Internet, why is the URL not working and causing the service to reach a false co Nclusion?

I eventually made the connection that I had recently put a new fortigate-200b to production and had integrated it with O  ur activedirectory database. All outbound Web traffic (HTTP/80) is being processed by an identity-based policy which required (transparent) user valid ation against ActiveDirectory before approving the request ... and if the Network Location Awareness service started D tried to reach this URL before a user logged on to the computer, it would fail the identity-based policy user Authentica tion Challenge/response and then conclude that it is not connected to the Internet.

Solution

I changed the startup settings for the Network Location Awareness service from "Automatic" to "Automatic (Delayed Start)"  But this is only partially corrected the problem. Eventually I wrote the following batch file and set it to run in my Startup folder:

echo off Echo. echo Restart "Network Location Awareness" service echo. net stop "network List Service" ping localhost-n 5 > nul net stop "network location Awareness" Ping Localhost-n 5 ; Nul net start "Network Location Awareness" Ping Localhost-n 5 > nul net start "network List Service" exit

copyright©2011 Stephen Frost