The default gateway is not available (Windows 10): how to fix it?
Many of those users who connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi networks sometimes have to deal with the problem that the system, in particular Windows 10, constantly writes: “The default gateway is not available.” Many people pay attention to the fact that mobile devices work fine, but computers and laptops do not want to connect to the network. Next, we will look at what a gateway is and how to fix connection problems using several simple methods. Please note that situations where connectivity is not possible for all intended devices will not be addressed at this time.
What is a gateway in Internet connections?
Before looking at problems with Wi-Fi-based Internet connections, it’s worth understanding what a gateway itself is.
Almost all reputable sources characterize a gateway (whether a hardware device or software) as a means of converting different Internet protocols to each other to achieve compatibility between them. Actually, even an ordinary router can be called a gateway.
And when a connection failure occurs, a legitimate question arises as to why the default gateway is unavailable and how to fix this situation? But first things first.
What does "The default gateway is unavailable" mean?
In the simplest sense, the appearance of such a system message during the connection process or when diagnosing a connection only means that for some reason, in this case with wireless networks, the computer device cannot connect to the router (router).
Windows 10, as well as systems 8 and 7, issue a notification that the default gateway is unavailable with enviable consistency, which most often indicates that the connection settings have failed or the parameters have been set incorrectly. But there could be many more reasons.
The main directions of troubleshooting techniques
So, it says that the default gateway is not available (Windows 10). What to do? Today, based on the reasons causing the failure, most experts suggest using the following options as the main methods for eliminating it:
- changing the power settings of a computer (laptop) or wireless adapter;
- updating or rolling back wireless module drivers;
- changing Internet protocol settings by specifying parameters manually;
- disabling programs that actively use traffic.
Computer power management
Consider the first case where a notification appears that the default gateway is unavailable. How can I fix the problem by changing the power supply?
To do this, you can first try to change the settings for the entire system by entering the corresponding section of the “Control Panel” or from the menu called up by clicking on the battery charge icon on laptops. Here you should set the high performance mode, then restart the device and see what the result is.
AC adapter power supply
But the above method may not work, and again a message will pop up saying that the default gateway is not available (Windows 10). What to do? You need to change the settings for the network adapter itself. There may be a shutdown circuit installed to save energy.
In this case, the “Device Manager” is called up. To do this, use either the “Control Panel” section, or the administration menu, or the devmgmt.msc command, which is entered in the “Run” menu. On the selected adapter, you should right-click, select the properties line in the context menu, and in the new settings window, go to the power management tab and uncheck the box for allowing the device to turn off.
If Windows 10 still displays the default gateway unavailable message, as an additional measure, you should use additional settings in the main power section for the entire system and make sure that the network adapter is also set to maximum performance.
Reinstallation and rollback of drivers
In some cases, this does not help either, since the problem may be due to incorrect operation of the installed wireless module drivers. In this case, the same message will appear stating that the default gateway is not available. Windows 10 can use either uninstalling the device driver and installing a fresh official driver downloaded from the hardware manufacturer’s website, or a rollback, as a remedy.
In the same “Device Manager” for the first option, an update is used indicating the location of the downloaded driver. Complete removal from the very beginning is also possible.
For the second case, select the properties section, where the rollback button is activated on the driver tab.
However, as practice shows, you can use another method, which not everyone knows about. When updating or reinstalling software for the adapter, you can choose to search for a driver on your computer, but do not specify displaying only compatible devices, but display them all and select the driver of the device of the same name yourself, and then activate the installation process. Windows will certainly issue a warning about incompatibility. We ignore it and confirm the installation. Perhaps after this, Windows 10 will no longer display a notification that the default gateway is unavailable. After all, the system installs only the most suitable drivers, and solely in its own opinion.
Setting parameters manually
In some cases, you can get rid of this problem by setting the gateway values manually. This is done in the settings of the current TCP/IP protocol (section for changing wireless adapter parameters in the network properties).
We use the IP task, enter the address (the subnet mask will be set automatically), and then enter the router address as the gateway, which can be found on the nameplate located on the back of the device. In this case, the entered IP must differ from the router address in the last field by several tens.
As an additional measure, you can also set DNS server addresses using combinations of eights and fours for Google services.
Enabling Compatibility Mode
Another drastic solution to the problem could be to enable compatibility mode for VPN connections.
To do this, use the same section as for the adapter, but for the network, view status and properties is selected, and on the security tab, you go to additional options, where you check the box to enable FIPS (Federal Compliance Services).
Diagnostics of programs using traffic
Finally, one of the reasons for such failures may be activated programs that consume too much traffic. Usually these are all kinds of torrent clients, various kinds of downloaders, network connection protectors, instant messengers, etc.
It is advisable to disable them at the first stage, not only by exiting the program, but also by ending all associated processes in the Task Manager. If this does not give any results, you will have to remove them all from the startup menu (so that they do not start up with the system in the future).
You may have to dig into your antivirus or firewall settings, disable them, or even change your antivirus (this is especially true if the problem appeared after installing antivirus software). But as a rule, such situations occur relatively infrequently, so such actions may be required only if all the methods described above turned out to be completely ineffective, which is unlikely.
Results
If we look at eliminating this problem from a purely practical point of view, the most widely used methods are to disable the adapter and reconfigure the TCP/IP parameters manually. By the way, the possible use of Google settings also gives a positive result. Everything else is just special cases of more general situations.
