Network Icon Yellow Triangle - Windows 10 v1803

OS: Win10 x64 - v1803
Dell workstation Optiplex 780, 7010
Onboard network - Intel(R) 82567LM-3 Gigabit Network.

Problem: Yellow network icon but still able to surf the interent (webpages), but Internet icon shows the domain name but Not connected. Can ping out to external sites as well.

Started to have this issue with a few of our Dell workstations. The dreaded yellow triangle icon on the network icon has appeared, with users still able to surf the internet via websites and download applications.

All the workstations are within a domain, DHCP and DNS, and each Ethernet is connected via IPv4 to automatically get the IP address from the range, no static IP addresses are used, so with the Network & Sharing Centre - under the Properties of the Ethernet adapter, IPv4 properties has Obtain an IP Address automatically as well as the DNS server address.

When i click on the network icon (see image1) the NIC is connected to the Domain but No Internet is shown.
On a few workstations if i open a CMD window as Admin, and pinged a few sites the icon returned to the default (Connected to the domain and connected to the Interent). But some workstations refuse to clear the icon.

I have done the following.

1. Removed the network driver from within device manager - rebooted and reinstalled the driver from the Dell website.
2. CMD (as admin) - Pinged the following address ok BBC - Home, Microsoft Corporation.
2. Removed the workstation from the domain, removed the OU from AD and then rejoined the domain on the workstation - no change in the network icon.
3. On the workstation - ran the following commands in CMD. ipconfig /release , ipconfig /renew, ipconfig /flushdns - rebooted - no change in the network icon.
4. Within RegEdit deleted the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Nla\Cache
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Signatures\Managed\
5. within Local Security Policy - Network List Manager Policies - the Domain is listed.
6. Services - Disabled the following services - Network Location Awareness, Network List Services - rebooted - still no connection. Set these services to automatically to start again. These were already started before.
7. Rebooted into Safe mode - Network icon has cleared the yellow triangle and states connected to the Internet and the domain.

So racking my brain over this one any thoughts, thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum. If you take it off the domain does it solve the problems? If it can get out via CMD it suggests firewall or anti virus or corruption in the network stack. Often you can get out via CMD when firewall is blocking

Samuria said:

Welcome to the forum. If you take it off the domain does it solve the problems? If it can get out via CMD it suggests firewall or anti virus or corruption in the network stack. Often you can get out via CMD when firewall is blocking

Hi,

Ran the following cmd netsh winsock reset and netsh int ip reset, still no joy. Regarding the firewall do you mean the windows firewall as this is controlled by the Group policy.
I did take it off the domain (removed it from AD) and then replaced it, still no joy.

Thanks again.

You need to try it off the domain to identify if that is the problem

Samuria said:

You need to try it off the domain to identify if that is the problem

Hi Samuria,

I have removed it from the domain (within control panel/system/change settings/) and placed it in a workgroup.
Rebooted and still the same icon and can still get out to the internet and ping external IP and addresses.

Completed the following again.
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
netsh interface ipv4 reset
netsh interface ipv6 reset
netsh interface tcp reset
netsh int reset all
ipconfig /flushdns
nbtstat -R
nbtstat -RR
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
netsh advfirewall reset

Thanks again.

bro67 said:

If you are still connected to the LAN for the Domain, you are going to get limited connections. You need to look at the Smart Switch(es) and router to make sure the MAC for the NIC is allowed to be on the network. Who is in charge of IT for your employer, is this a new computer that just got placed on the Domain?

Hi Bro67,

We have several dell computers 7010, 790's on the domain network which are running win10 v1803, which have developed this problem. Running AD on the domain along with Sophos AV and XG firewall, the Group Policy dictates where the users can go etc once logged in to their accounts.

For some reason if i open a cmd window on a few workstations with this problem, after a few pings externally it clears the icon but some workstations are not playing??

Within Windows firewall - The domain Profile is Active with no set inbound or outbound rules (see screen shot).

bro67 said:

Again it has zero to do with the Policy, but with the actual Network needing to know what devices are to be trusted on the network, so that end users cannot just add their own network equipment or computer devices on it. Suggest having a consultant come in to help walk you through this problem, or contact Sophos to walk you through to make sure they are not banned in their equipment.

Hi Bro67,

Thanks for the info will continue to look into it.

So after some digging around I found the following solution.

Within Win10 registry it looks for a network connection either via the ethernet or Wifi at the following website
http://www.msftconnecttest.com
It checks this Network Connectivity Status Indicator site to see if it has a connection. Within our registry we had an old address (http://www.msftncsi.com) and thus couldn't resolve the address, so thought it didn't have a connection to the outside world.

open regedit and navigate to:-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/NlaSvc/Parameters/Internet

And update the
[B]ActiveWebProbeHost

With the following web address: http://www.msftconnecttest.com

And the IPv6 with the following address.
ipv6.msftconnecttest.com



Having changed the address and the IPv6 address along with it (within regedit), rebooted and now the icon has changed and we now have internet connection.

This only affected our Dell Optiplex 790 and 7010 workstations running the Intel(R)82579LM nics.

Information website: Windows 7 Network Awareness: How Windows knows it has an internet connection Super User Blog

Hope this helps someone else out there.