23

I have a Wifi AP without internet access that allows me to access some devices at home. I want my Windows 10 to keep connected to that wifi network, but once Windows detects there is no internet, it insists on disconnecting from it.

I disabled "Connect Automatically" from all networks, but once Windows detects there is no internet it insists on disconnecting from it.

How can I keep Windows 10 connected to a network without internet access?

Edit: Looking at event viewer, I see this event every time it disconnects:

WLAN AutoConfig detected limited connectivity, attempting automatic recovery.

Recovery Type: 4
Error Code: 0x0
Trigger Reason: 3
IP Family: 0

Tried netsh wlan set autoconfig disable but this turns off the wifi network list.

Albin
  • 11,950
Natan
  • 381

3 Answers3

14

My favorite way: just add a registry value to the following key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\NetworkConnectivityStatusIndicator:

  • Name: NoActiveProbe
  • Type: DWORD (32bit)
  • Value: 1

Alternatively, expanding on Batuhan's last idea, this is how I implemented it:

  • I remapped both URLs to 127.0.0.1 via the hosts file, by adding those lines:

    127.0.0.1 www.msftconnecttest.com

    127.0.0.1 www.msftncsi.com

  • And installed a local webserver (XAMPP). There you just need to add a ncsi.txt to the (in my case C:\xampp\htdocs)

I had to wait a minute or so for the icon to change, but then it worked like a charm...

Albin
  • 11,950
9

There may be some possible workarounds for this. You may disable the internet test and captive portal detection or make Windows believe there is an Internet connection.

After connecting to a network Windows tries to resolve the www.msftconnecttest.com address. If the query returns a response, it tries to fetch the contents of the http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt file. If this action fails Windows determines that there is no internet connectivity, or the ncsi.txt request returns different content then it concludes that there may be a captive portal.

You may disable this "probing" with a group policy, see the following page for further info: https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_10_2016&Policy=Microsoft.Policies.InternetCommunicationManagement::NoActiveProbe

I will also quote it here in case of information on the website is lost:

Registry Hive   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Registry Path   Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\NetworkConnectivityStatusIndicator
Value Name  NoActiveProbe
Value Type  REG_DWORD
Enabled Value   1
Disabled Value  0

It may be also possible to return the localhost IP for said domain name using hosts file and serve the same txt file but it's not that trivial to do so and may not work as desired.

Batuhan
  • 241
-1

As a last resort you may try :

netsh.exe wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface=*

Solution in detail here : https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/stop-windows-from-automatically-disconnecting-from/2af1012d-b8de-44d3-900e-dba03ca8f696

For more : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1047476/what-is-the-cause-of-wlan-autoconfig-detected-limi The respective search for solution and scripts were written before ChatGPT became famous. ;) In my case I had a number of W8 and W10 tablets connected to a Wireless network that had no access to the Internet by design. Yes, no Internet access. Tablets kept disconnecting in a matter of seconds.

Boris V
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