'Connected - No Internet'

[REGISTERW]

I am having a lot of trouble lately with my wifi - it sporadically every few days drops giving me the message 'Connected-No Internet' (see attachment) I know this happens to people every so often but the last few weeks it has really upped in terms of amount of times it is happening - I have tried all the usual techniques - plugging in and out, resetting router etc etc but have not been able to pinpoint the problem - the situation usually resolves it self, sometimes hours after I have done all the resetiing etc and thats why I am struggling to find the root cause of the issue. If I bring this to the providers attention, do you think it is possible for them to see on there side all the times it dropped or not?

Because I want to avoid the situation where I ring them and they just tell me reset the router- at least if they can see how many times it has dropped aka had 'no internet' I hopefully will avoid unnecessary going around in circles.

 

[ChatGPT]

Hi REGISTERW — sorry you’re dealing with this. Short answer: yes, your ISP can usually see many types of disconnects on their side (modem/line/session drops), but they may not see client-side Wi‑Fi problems where the router thinks it still has an upstream connection. To get them to take it seriously, collect simple, time-stamped evidence you can hand them. Below are quick explanations, what to collect, exact commands/tools to run, and what to ask the provider.

• What the ISP can see vs what they can’t
• They usually can see modem/gateway events: PPPoE/DHCP session drops, modem reboots, signal levels, upstream/downstream errors and event timestamps.
• They may not see intermittent Wi‑Fi failures inside your router (e.g., wireless driver crashes, radio interference) if the router’s WAN stays connected.
• So first check whether the outage affects wired devices too — if wired devices lose internet at the same time, it’s much more likely an ISP/line or modem problem.
• Collecting useful evidence (priorities)
• Exact date/time (include timezone) when the problem happened.
• Whether wired devices lost Internet at the same time.
• Router/modem event log (export/save it) for the same time period.
• Continuous ping or WinMTR trace covering the period of the outage (this is very persuasive to support).
• A screenshot of the Windows “Connected, no internet” message (you already did — good).
• Quick diagnostics to run now (step-by-step)
  A. Check if it’s Wi‑Fi only
• When the problem happens, plug a laptop into the router with Ethernet. If Ethernet also loses internet, the problem is upstream (ISP/modem/router). If Ethernet stays up but Wi‑Fi fails, it’s local Wi‑Fi.

B. Immediate checks (useful during a drop)

• On Windows, open Command Prompt and run:
• ping the gateway: ping 192.168.0.1 (replace with your router IP)
• ping an external IP: ping 8.8.8.8
• ping a hostname: ping google.com
  If ping to 8.8.8.8 fails but ping to gateway succeeds → WAN problem. If gateway ping fails → local router issue.

C. Continuous ping with timestamps (Windows PowerShell — saves to file)

• Open PowerShell as your user and run this (stops with Ctrl+C):
  while ($true) {
  $ts = (Get-Date).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")
  try {
  $r = Test-Connection -ComputerName 8.8.8.8 -Count 1 -ErrorAction Stop
  "$ts Reply $($r.ResponseTime)ms"
  } catch {
  "$ts Request timed out"
  }
  Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
  } | Out-File "$env:USERPROFILE\pinglog.txt" -Append
• This creates C:\Users\<you>\pinglog.txt. Keep it running (or run overnight) and when a drop happens you’ll have second-by-second timestamps of successes/failures to give to the ISP.

D. Use WinMTR (recommended)

• Run WinMTR or PingPlotter during normal operation and while a drop occurs. Save the report and give it to the ISP — it shows where packets are lost along the path and timestamps. (If you want, tell me and I’ll post exact WinMTR steps.
• Router/modem logs and settings to check
• Log in to your Tenda router admin page (often 192.168.0.1). Look for System Log / Event Log / Status and export it. If logs are sparse, enable more detailed logging or enable remote syslog if available.
• Check the modem (if you have a separate ISP modem) status: uptime, SNR, power levels, any “link down” messages and timestamps.
• Enable NTP/time sync on the router so logs have accurate timestamps.
• Save or export logs covering multiple days if possible — these will show repeated disconnects.
• What to say / ask the ISP when you call
• Give exact timestamps (e.g., “Dec 29, 2025 14:23–14:41 UTC-5” — use your local time) when you experienced the problem and say whether wired devices were affected.
• Ask them to check the modem’s session history, SNR/power levels, and if their network shows your modem losing sync or restarting at those times.
• Tell them you have logs/traces and you can send them a WinMTR/ping log — ask for a ticket escalation if they keep asking you to reboot the router without checking their side.
• Other troubleshooting steps to try (short list)
• Update router firmware (Tenda often updates firmware for stability).
• Temporarily bypass your Tenda (if you have separate ISP modem) — connect a PC directly to the ISP modem for 24–48 hours. If drops stop, it’s the Tenda.
• Try another router temporarily if you can borrow one.
• Change Wi‑Fi channel (2.4 GHz is crowded) or test with 5 GHz. Use a Wi‑Fi analyzer app to check interference.
• Factory-reset router as a last resort (make a note of settings first).
• If you want, I can:
• Give a short WinMTR how-to and exact host to test (e.g., 8.8.8.8 or a site you use).
• Help interpret router logs or a pinglog you capture.
• Draft a short script/message to send to your ISP with timestamps and attach the logs.

Next step suggestion: start the PowerShell continuous ping (above) and let it run until the next drop, then post the pinglog and the router log (copy/paste lines around the time of the drop) and I’ll help read them and draft what to send to your ISP.