Only Chrome-YouTube Gets Internet Access on Laptop

This is too crazy. Laptop with Windows 10 Pro, 22H2, OS Build 19045.3324. Using an ethernet connection.

The only thing that gets an internet connection is YouTube on Chrome. No other website works. No other browser works. No other application gets a connection. Rebooting makes no difference.

Anyone have a suggestion? Ever seen something like this? I'm totally stumped.

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Could really use some suuport. Such a strange situation.
Gratitude...

The most obvious to try is to clear the DNS cache. To do that type cmd into Windows search. Now right click the Command Prompt and launch that as Admin. Now in the DOS-like black box enter the following: ipconfig /flushdns

See if your browsers now work.

Do you use an anti-virus or firewall? Those can mess up your TCP/IP stack. For one, anti-virus software now-a-days acts like a man in the middle of all your Internet requests so the anti-virus software has a potential to mess things up. First try to disable any Internet protection in the anti-virus software and see if that fixes anything. Or temp fully uninstall the anti-virus software, but some anti-virus software needs to use an uninstall utility from their website. So research how to uninstall the anti-virus software first.

After doing these we can go further if the issue still persists.

F22 Simpilot and Paul Black, thank you both. Will try those out shortly!

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Thanks, everyone. The flushes didn't get it there, but I did find this solution, to change the DNS servers to google servers, instead of "automatic" ones. No idea what caused this. Wasn't firewall or AV related. But this workaround fixed it for me... and apparently a ton of other people. At some point I'll switch it back to automatic to see if it still works and maybe this will have gotten rid of a hiccup. We'll see. But thanks!
Solution: How to Fix My Computer That Only Connects to YouTube or Google Simple Fix Solved - YouTube

Sounds like your router or modem or ISP's DNS servers are messed up. Thus why Google's DNS servers work. Just to let you know. There are many others besides Google. You'd typically add the DNS server IP addresses in your router or modem... That way you cover all devices on the network. You can force devices to use these DNS servers with third-party firmware such as Asus Merlin's DNS Director. Though, DNS Director may be a default Asus router stock firmware feature. I'm not sure.

NextDNS - The new firewall for the modern Internet

Cloudflare DNS

Quad9 | A public and free DNS service for a better security and privacy

Cloud Delivered Enterprise Security by OpenDNS

Just to name a few.

I use NextDNS myself. I used to use OpenDNS since circa 2007, but NextDNS is like something called Pi-Hole, but Internet based.

F22 Simpilot said:

Sounds like your router or modem or ISP's DNS servers are messed up..

Thank you, that's great info you shared! Jeez, maybe all I needed to do was to reboot my modem and router!

Is your router connected to the modem? Is it in bridging mode? If not in bridging mode you'll get an eventual double NAT and bad things happen then...

Lets test for a double NAT.

Go to Windows search and enter cmd.

In command prompt enter the following: tracert 8.8.8.8

What are the first two hop IPs? Are they internal IPs? Like 192.168.1.1 in that range. If you see the first two hops as a private IP address then you have a double NAT. Which means the modem needs to be placed into bridging mode which is the right way to add a router to a modem. Again, if not an eventful double NAT will happen.

Other private IP addresses may be in the 10.x.x.x or 172.16.x.x or 172.31.x.x range... 192.168.x.x is very common with consumer electronics...

F22 Simpilot said:

Is your router connected to the modem? Is it in bridging mode? If not in bridging mode you'll get an eventual double NAT and bad things happen then...

Thank you!

The results were:
10.x.x.x
185.xxx.xxx.x

chamlin said:

Thank you, that's great info you shared! Jeez, maybe all I needed to do was to reboot my modem and router!

or unplug both the modem and router for a few minutes, then plug their power cords back in (same as a hard reset or reboot)
I have to do that on some occasions, especially after a brief power outage that sometimes messes them up

erpster4 said:

or unplug both the modem and router for a few minutes, then plug their power cords back in (same as a hard reset or reboot)
I have to do that on some occasions, especially after a brief power outage that sometimes messes them up

Yes, thanks! It's possible the whole madness started after a power outage!