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Fix ‘No internet’ USB Tethering in Windows 10

A USB tethered connection from an Android device will in some cases fail to share the internet to a Windows computer.

In such situations, the network icon in the taskbar will have a warning yellow exclamation indicating there is a problem with the connection.

A screenshot showing the network icon with an exclamation in Windows 10
Network Icon for a USB Tethered connection

Clicking this icon in Windows 10 will reveal the network notification area, where the message ‘No internet‘ can be seen.

This error usually resolves on its own after a few seconds once the network discovery notification pops up asking whether you want to allow your PC to be discoverable by other PCs and devices on the network.

A screenshot of the network discoverability pop up in Windows 10.
Network discoverability prompt

Choosing Yes or No doesn’t affect the internet connectivity.

Wi-Fi hotspot tethering from is often just as problematic sometimes, however I long found that changing the DNS server often fixes that. This simple trick however doesn’t seem to work with the USB tethered connection.

Instead, a restart seems to be the only sure way of resolving the error. After restarting, the network discovery pop up would eventually come up signalling the connection had internet.

It’s however impractical to restart one’s computer every times this occurs, especially if you’re in the middle of some work.

For that reason it occurred to me that I should instead just try resetting the network adapter. That should technically achieve the same thing.

A screenshot showing the no internet message in the notification area.
No Internet for a tethered connection

Now, there are some quick commands for doing that however they all require a restart to complete, something we want to avoid at all cost.

So rather than reset the adapter, I figured I might as well reinstall it. The adapter is plug and play since we connect it via USB. As such, it will be discovered and installed automatically without necessitating a reboot.

Guess what? That worked! Here’s what you need to do.

How to Reinstall USB Tethering Adapter

  1. Connect your Android phone to your computer and enable USB tethering as you normally do.
  2. On your computer, open the Device Manager by searching for it in Start menu or running devmgmt.msc in the Run window.
  3. In the list devices, expand the Network adapter section and find the Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device adapter.
  4. Right-click on it and select Uninstall device.
    A screnshot showing the Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device adapter in Window's 10 device manager.
  5. Click the Uninstall button in the confirmation window to begin the uninstallation.
  6. Once it is done, disconnect your phone then connect it back and enable USB tethering.
  7. The adapter will be installed afresh, and you should afterwards get the network discovery pop-up.

Your internet should now work. Should you happen to encounter this issue in the future as often as I do, just repeat the steps above. Cheers!

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8 Comments

    1. Kelvin Administrator

      After removing it, did you plug your device and enable USB tethering again? It should reinstall the driver automatically.

  1. Weirdly enough, but I fail to get tethering work correctly on Windows 7. Works perfectly on Windows 10 though.

  2. in same situation my wifi is managed by third party software using voucher code to sign in one device for one month. pc is connected via tethering but have no Internet access. any idea to fix?

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Kelvin Kathia

Kelvin Kathia is a writer that's passionate about sharing solutions to everyday tech problems. He's the founder and editor of Journey Bytes, a tech blog and web design agency. Feel free to leave him comments or questions regarding this post, or by leaving him a message on the contact page. If you found his content helpful, a donation is much appreciated.