Connected means your phone is talking to the router. It says nothing about whether the router is talking to the internet. Almost always, the break is past the router and not on your phone.
Check in this order, because it goes from most likely to least.
Is it only your phone?
Try another phone or a laptop on the same Wi-Fi.
- Everything is broken: the problem is the router or the internet service. Skip to the router section.
- Only your phone is broken: the problem is your phone. Skip to the phone section.
Is there a login page waiting?
In a hotel, a cafe, a school or an office, the network often wants you to accept terms or sign in first, and until you do it looks exactly like broken internet.
Open your browser and try to visit a plain `http` address rather than a secure one. Typing `neverssl.com` is the usual trick, because most sites now force HTTPS and the login page cannot interrupt those. If a sign-in page appears, that was the whole problem.
The router
- Restart it properly. Unplug it from the wall, count to thirty, plug it back in, and wait two or three minutes for it to come fully up. Thirty seconds matters; a quick off and on often does not clear it.
- Look at the lights. Most routers have an internet or globe light separate from the Wi-Fi light. If that one is red, off, or flashing, the fault is with your internet service, not your equipment.
- Check whether the account is paid. With prepaid home internet in Ghana this is worth checking before you spend an hour on settings.
- Check the cable from the wall or the dish into the router, if there is one.
If the internet light is out and a restart did not fix it, call your provider. Nothing on your phone can help.
The phone
- Forget the network and rejoin. Hold the network name in your Wi-Fi list, choose Forget, then connect again with the password. This clears a bad saved configuration, which is the single most common phone-side cause.
- Turn off airplane mode, or switch it on and off once to reset both radios.
- Check the date and time. A phone with the wrong date cannot verify security certificates, and the result looks like a broken connection on every secure site. Set date and time to automatic.
- Turn off any VPN you have installed, including ones bundled inside antivirus and browser apps.
- Check for a private DNS setting. Android: Settings, Connections, More connection settings, Private DNS. If someone set this to a custom hostname that no longer works, nothing will load. Set it to Automatic.
- Reset network settings as the last resort. It clears every saved Wi-Fi password, so have yours ready.
When it works for some sites only
If messaging works and web pages do not, or one particular site fails everywhere, that is a DNS problem rather than a connection problem. Setting Private DNS to automatic, or restarting the router, usually clears it.
When it is slow rather than dead
That is a different problem: distance from the router, walls, too many people on the same line, or a neighbour's network on the same channel. Move closer and test again before blaming the phone.