Problem

Windows is falsely reporting that there is limited or no connection to the Internet. This is indicated in the system tray by a yellow exclamation point on the Internet connection.

Synopsis

This occurs because certain websites and addresses were being blocked by their Internet content filters and firewalls. This erroneous error message was causing users to assume something was wrong with the Internet. The information is supplied to the user by NCSI (Network Connectivity Status Indicator), also known as Network Awareness.

Network Awareness queries DNS for a host name, and then connects to that host name via HTTP. Content filters are designed to block web traffic that has not been permitted. This is the root cause of the erroneous error message.

The computer will query DNS for “dns.msftncsi.com” and ensure that it resolves to “131.107.255.255”. If DNS is functioning, Windows will request the following web address “http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt” to ensure that it results predefined text: ”Microsoft NCSI”.

Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft added a service called:

Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI) service NCSI does not log anything into Event Viewer

Resolution

There are two possible resolutions to this problem: 1) ensure the computer can query the DNS records and Windows can access the website; 2) use a registry entry to disable this feature in Windows.

Disable Via Registry Entry

To disable this feature you will have to modify the registry with this value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters\Internet

Under the “Internet” key, double-click “EnableActiveProbing”, and then in “Value data”, type “0”.

The default for this value is 1. Setting the value to 0 prevents NCSI from connecting to a site on the Internet connectivity checks.