Can I know when a computer last successfully connected to Internet?

Frank15 · 28 Apr 2021

When diagnosing computers (Windows or Macs), I sometimes would like to know when it last successfully connected to the internet (not just to the LAN). Such as "google drive starts to sync or Outlook checks the mail servers or anything that indicates that the computer connected to the ISP".
Much better if I can know when it last connected or disconnected.

I found that Event Viewer can tell me the last connection/disconnection to the LAN (such as WIFI or Ethernet) in Applications and Service Logs > Microsoft/Windows/NetworkProfile/Operational: 10000 is a successful connection, 10001 a disconnection. But this doesn't seem to show if there was a connection or disconnection to the internet/ISP.

Any help much appreciated.

Samuria · 28 Apr 2021

Any service that is designed for the net will connect when it loads ie OneDrive, windows update

NMI · 28 Apr 2021

Samuria said:

Any service that is designed for the net will connect when it loads ie OneDrive, windows update

The question was where is the date/time logged.

LMiller7 · 28 Apr 2021

Assuming you access the network through the LAN.

At system level there is nothing special about the Internet. It is just a part of the network. Windows makes no distinction between network access and Internet access. It is all one and the same. Typically the connection to the Internet is provided by the router and occurs at system startup. But Windows doesn't know or care.

Individual services or applications will require Internet access and they may log when access occurs.

Frank15 · 29 Apr 2021

LMiller7 said:

Assuming you access the network through the LAN.

At system level there is nothing special about the Internet. It is just a part of the network. Windows makes no distinction between network access and Internet access. It is all one and the same. Typically the connection to the Internet is provided by the router and occurs at system startup. But Windows doesn't know or care.

Individual services or applications will require Internet access and they may log when access occurs.

Well, you're right, just to elaborate on what you said, sometimes you may have LAN connection but no internet, so your computer can access other computers in the same LAN but then there's no internet due to an issue between the router and the ISP, so I guess some services will be trying to connect to the Internet such as mail onedrive/clients/Google drive /Windows update, etc and they may be logging these connection failures in event viewer I guess

Berton · 29 Apr 2021

antonio3535 said:

Well, you're right, just to elaborate on what you said, sometimes you may have LAN connection but no internet, so your computer can access other computers in the same LAN but then there's no internet due to an issue between the router and the ISP, so I guess some services will be trying to connect to the Internet such as mail onedrive/clients/Google drive /Windows update, etc and they may be logging these connection failures in event viewer I guess

That's correct. I normally have full Network Wired and Wireless access to 2 printers and 2 NAS drives and can see other computers but have no Internet access. I use a Wireless Router and Switch arrangement for the Network access connected to a PoE Modem for Wireless DSL service. My system is not a Server-based arrangement, commonly called a LAN/Local Area Network while the Internet is known as a WAN/Wide Area Network.