How To Fix Ethernet Doesn’t Have A Valid IP Configuration?

If you are browsing the internet on your system, using Ethernet, you might have encountered the Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration issue on Windows 10.

This problem indicates that due to some issue with the NIC (Network Interface Card) and the system was unable to get a valid IP address to browse the internet.

After running the network troubleshooter from the taskbar, you will find the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” issue.

This irritating issue is one of the most common and widely spread issues, which people face while using the Ethernet.

As annoying as this issue can get, the workarounds to bypass this issue, are relatively easy and straightforward.

The computer connects to the internet via NIC. The NIC connects to the router or modem through the Ethernet cable. If it is unable to get the IP address, you will most likely experience this issue on your system.

There is not a specific cause for this issue as there is a big list of reasons that can cause the Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration error. From faulty routers or modems to faulty NIC cards and invalid network configuration.

With the help of this article, if you are experiencing the invalid IP configuration issue through Ethernet cable, you can fix the problem in a matter of few minutes. Before that, we will need to understand the cause of the error, which might take some time.

Without wasting any precious time, let us get to the guide to fix the Ethernet doesn’t have valid IP configuration on Windows 10.

How To Fix Ethernet Doesn’t Have A Valid Ip Configuration?

The computer requires a valid IP address to browse the internet without any issue. An IP address is a unique string of characters that acts like a real-life address used by the router to identify the computer on the internet.

Without a valid IP address, it is impossible to browse the web, and you will most likely face the Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration.

However, the fixes to this error are straightforward, and let us get to the solutions without any further ado:

1- Restart Your Modem, Router, And Computer

The easiest and the simplest troubleshooting steps that can try to fix invalid IP configuration issues is by restarting your modem, router, and your computer. I know it sounds simple and not-so-convincing, but many times, especially in computers, a simple restart does wonders.

This issue is not an exception. Some people have reported on the internet that restarting their modem, router, and the computer has fixed the exasperating issue.

If you have important ongoing work on your system and you do not want to restart your system, in such a case, you can simply restart your modem or router.

Plug out the power cable from the router or modem and leave it unplugged for a couple of minutes, at least 5-10 minutes, to give it a proper restart. Plug back the power cable in the router or modem and wait for it to start.

After giving your network devices a restart, you can try accessing the internet on your system again and checking whether the issue has been resolved or not. If the issue persists, you might want to restart your computer.

To restart your computer:

• Press the Start button on the taskbar and select “Power”.
• Select “Restart” and wait for your system to restart.

The reason behind restarting your devices is that sometimes due to bad files in the RAM or cache memory, the computer often faces issues one way or another, especially on Windows 10.

Restarting the modem and router will clear the cache and RAM, and it can potentially fix the issue, sometimes. If the issue continues to bother you, do not worry, as I have a long list of fixes that you can try.

2- Run The Network Adapter Troubleshooter

In this step, you can try running the network adapter troubleshooter in Windows 10. The troubleshooter will find and fix the issues related to the network adapter driver.

There is a chance that due to a newer Windows 10 update, the driver got outdated and becomes unable to run as intended. These issues caused by the driver outdating can cause the Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration issue on your computer.

The driver can also get corrupted due to several reasons. The file corruption can also cause the driver to behave abnormally and have issues connecting to the internet.

If your network adapter files have some issue, you can try running the network adapter troubleshooter to fix the issues with the network adapter.

If running the network adapter troubleshooter fixes the issue, that will be great, and you will not have to troubleshoot any further.

However, if it does not, it will at least rule out the possibility of a network adapter as the main culprit behind the issue. To run the network adapter troubleshooter, follow the steps down below:

• Open Settings from Start button on the taskbar.
• Find and select “Update & Security”.
• On the left side of the Settings window, select the “Troubleshoot” tab, then select “Additional troubleshooters”.
• Find and select “Internet Connections”, then select “Run the troubleshooter”.
• A new popup window will appear, select “Troubleshoot my connection to the Internet”.
• If the troubleshooter will find any issue with the configuration or any fixable issue, it will find and automatically fix any issue with your network adapter.
• If the troubleshooter does not find any issues, then select “Help me connect to a specific web page” and then type the website you wish to connect to.
• The troubleshooter will try to connect to the specific website.

3- Check The Network Adapter Settings

If you are using manual IP settings for your network adapter, due to some issue, it can prevent your system from connecting to the web. You can reset your network adapter settings. You can change your IP address from manual to automatic.

By setting it to automatic, Windows will get the IP address automatically from the router. It is also possible that you might have entered the wrong IP address in the adapter settings, which might be the culprit behind the invalid IP configuration.

To check your network adapter settings:

• Open Control Panel from the search box on the taskbar or by the Run utility. To open the control panel from the Run utility, press “Win + R” on your keyboard and type “control panel”.
• Find and select “Network and Sharing Center”.
• Then select “Change adapter settings” from left side of the window.
• Select the connection that you are using on your system, right-click and select “Properties”.
• From the new popup window, you can easily access the network adapter settings. If you want to reset your DNS and IP settings, keep following the below steps.
• In the Ethernet Properties window, find and select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” and then select “Properties”.
• In the new popup window, select the “Obtain an IP address automatically” and “Obtain DNS server address automatically”.
• Repeat from step 6, and this time find and select “Internet Protocol version 6 (TCP/IPv6)”.

Try running the Windows Network Diagnostic troubleshooter to check whether you are still facing the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” or not.

4- Reset TCP/IP

One of the troubleshooting steps that you can perform to fix the internet connectivity issues is by resetting the TCP/IP settings on your system. Netsh, also known as Network Shell (Netsh), commands are used to modify the network and its settings. With the help of these commands, you can reconfigure your network by basically resetting your IP settings.

There are two netsh commands that you can use. Using netsh, a user can reset the Windows socket program (also known as Winsock). Winsock is a Windows specification that defines how Windows network software should handle the requests in the form of input/output from Internet applications.

You can reset the TCP/IP by using the Netsh commands to do that:

• From your desktop, write “Command prompt” in the search bar on the taskbar.
• Right-click the first result you will see upon searching and click “Run as administrator”.
• After opening the command prompt, type in the following commands in order:
  • netsh winsock reset
  • netsh int ip reset
• You will get a successful message after entering each command.
  Restart your computer.

Try accessing the internet again and running the Windows Network Diagnostics to check if you are still experiencing the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” error.

5- Resetting Your Internet Settings

Windows 10 is full of amazing features which are hidden for most parts, and the majority of the users do not need to use them at all. With one of these great futures, you can try fixing the invalid IP configuration issue.

The feature is called “Network reset” and can be found in the Settings. With this feature, you can reset your internet settings. If, due to any reason, your internet settings are not properly configured, resetting the network settings will fix things up.

To reset your internet settings:

• From the desktop, press the Start button and open “Settings”.
• From the new window, find and select “Network & Internet”.
• On the left side, select “Status”, then find and select “Network Reset”.
• In the new popup window, select “Reset Now”.
• Press “Yes” on the prompt, asking for confirmation.

After restarting, check if the invalid IP configuration issue has been resolved or not by running the Windows Network Diagnostic troubleshooter. If your internet connection is working fine on other devices, this circumvent should fix the issue, theoretically.

6- Disable IPV6

As of now, there are two versions of the Internet Protocol, which are used and implemented into computers IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 is a 32-bit address for its internet addresses. IPv6, on the other hand, is a 128-bit address supporting up to 2128 internet addresses.

There are no differences in speeds of these protocols, just IPv6 offering uncountable internet addresses compared to the small number of the address of IPv4. If you are wondering what these versions do, they are used to uniquely identify a network interface on a machine.

Using IPv6 might be behind the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” message that you are currently facing. Disabling IPv6 on your computer might be a potential fix and can be done in a few steps:

• Open Control Panel from the search box on the taskbar or from Run utility. To open control panel from Run utility, press “Win + R” on your keyboard and type “control panel”.
• Find and select “Network and Sharing Center”.
• Then select “Change adapter settings” from left side of the window.
• Select the connection that you are using on your system, right-click and select “Properties”.
• Find and uncheck the box with “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)”, then press “OK”.
• Open your browser and try connecting to the internet again.

7- Clean-Up All The Network Cached Files

You can try clearing the temporary network cached files on your system. Network cache files are often called DNS cache, and it store temporary DNS files, which makes accessing the internet a breeze.

The DNS is the phonebook of the Internet. Web browsers interact with other browsers through IP addresses. DNS translates the domain names to IP addresses so that the browser loads up internet resources.

Flushing DNS is a process that can clear out incorrect addresses stored in the DNS cache. If the information in the DNS cache is outdated or corrupted, it might cause issues for you to access the internet and might be the culprit behind the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” error on Windows 10.

Flushing DNS will remove all data stored in the DNS cache, and the computer will re-fetches all of the necessary information and store it in the local cache. If you want to flush DNS and have never done it before, no need to worry, the procedure to flush DNS is very straightforward. Here is how you can do that:

• Right-click Start button on the taskbar and select “Command Prompt” (make sure to open it as administrator) / alternatively, from the search button, type “CMD or Command Prompt”, right-click and select “Run as administrator”.
• After the Command Prompt opens, type in the following commands without quotations “ipconfig /flushdns”
• Upon pressing the enter key on the keyboard, you will see “Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.” message on the screen.
• Restart your computer, and the DNS will be flushed and reset.

After flushing your DNS cache, try accessing the internet or the specific website which you were trying to access but was unable to do so.

8- Check Your Ethernet Cable

Sometimes the simplest solutions work the best. This fix is one of the simplest troubleshooting steps that you can check, which might be behind the abnormal behavior of NIC. You might not be able to access the internet due to a faulty Ethernet cable.

The first thing that you can try checking is the Ethernet cable plugs due to a thorough check of your Ethernet plugs. Due to loose or faulty plugs, you might not be connected to your router.

You can try connecting the Ethernet to another computer or laptop to check whether they are the problem or not.

If the cable is working fine on other computers, it means your computer’s network settings are not configured, and the issue is not the Ethernet cable. If the cable is not working correctly on other systems as well, try using a new Ethernet cable.

There is a chance your cable might get damaged, which might be due to any pet if you have them in your house.

9- Enable DHCP

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the main protocols of the internet, which is used to exchange messages between computing devices. It works together with Internet protocol to enable the computer for accessing the internet.

Together they are often referred to as TCP/IP. TCP keeps track of the units of data, while IP handles the actual delivery of the data. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is the widely used settings to automate the process of configuring devices on IP networks.

If your system does not have DHCP enabled, this could be the reason you might be facing the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” error. You can enable DHCP by:

• From the desktop, press the Start button and open “Settings”.
• From the new window, find and select “Network & Internet”.
• As you are using Ethernet, select “Ethernet” and then choose the Ethernet connection which you are using.
• Now in the new windows of your respective network, find and select “Edit” under the “IP settings” section.
• Select “Automatic (DHCP)” and press “Save”.
• Close the Settings window when done.

10- Reinstall Or Update Network Adapter Driver

Are you using the latest network adapter driver on your system? If no, when was the last time you have updated them? You might be getting the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” due to outdated drivers. Updating to the latest version might fix the issue.

If you have Windows updates paused or stopped completely, there is a higher chance that your network adapter driver is not updated to the latest version. You can easily update the driver in a couple of ways.

One way is updating it manually, which you can do after following the steps mentioned down below.

Method 1 – Updating Driver Manually

To update your network adapter driver manually, you will have to:

• Open Device Manager by searching “Device Manager” in the search box on the taskbar.
• Find and expand “Network adapters”.
• From the expanded list, find, right-click the adapter driver, and select “Properties”.
• Under the “Driver” tab, find and press the “Update Driver” button.
• From the new window, press “Search automatically for drivers”.
• Windows will search for the latest version of the driver from the internet.

Method 2 – Update Network Driver via Windows Update

If you have Windows update on pause on stop, reconsider turning it back on. Updates are necessary as they include fixes for vulnerability in the system security but also update the drivers along the way. It is the most convenient way to update the drivers if you ask me.

If you did not stop or pause the Windows update, you can still search for the latest version of drivers. Follow these steps:

• Open Settings from the Start button on the taskbar.
• Find and select “Update & Security”.
• Click “Check for updates”.
• Windows will check for updates, download and install, and pending updates.
• Right below the “Check for updates” button, click the “View optional updates”.
• Now find and expand the “Driver updates” section.
• Check any box with Network driver update which is pending and press “Download and install”.
• Windows will download the pending update and install it.

Once you have completed every step mentioned in the list, restart your PC.

11- Disable Your Antivirus

Some Antivirus software can reconfigure your network settings and prevents the browser from opening any website or even accessing the internet. If you have antivirus software installed on your system, you can try disabling it temporarily and then try to access the internet to check if it is accessible or not.

Open Antivirus software on your PC, and from their settings, disable them for a few minutes. You can also close the programs from Task Manager. You can do that by opening the task manager by right-clicking the taskbar and selecting “Task Manager”.

From the task manager, find the antivirus software, right-click and select “End Task”. Using End Task will forcefully close the program. In this case, you will manually have to open the programs again. Otherwise, they will remain closed till you restart your computer.

You can also disable the Antivirus software manually from the settings of the software. This method will also rule out the possibility of your antivirus being the root of the problem. If they are a problem, disabling the program will fix the issue for you.

• Related: Avast Cleanup Premium Review 2022 – Is It Worth It?

12- Disable The Fast Startup Feature

According to some users on the internet, disabling the fast startup feature fixed the Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration issue on their systems. This feature allows the computer to boot up quickly from hibernation or shut down.

It is a built-in feature of Windows 10 and is installed by default in most Windows 10 versions. Fortunately, Microsoft has provided an option to disable this feature. Disabling this feature might be the potential fix you are looking for all along.

To disable the feature, go to:

• Open Control Panel from the search box on the taskbar or from Run utility. To open the Control Panel by the Run utility, press “Win + R” on your keyboard and type “control panel”.
• Find and select “Power options”. To view all of the Control Panel items by selecting either Large icons or Small icons from the “View by:” option on the top right side.
• Now select the “Choose what the power buttons do” on the right side of the Power Options window.
• Now select “Change settings that are currently unavailable”.
• Selecting the “Change settings that are currently unavailable”, will make the unavailable options to available.
• Then uncheck the “Turn on fast startup (recommended)” and then select “Save Changes”.
• Close the System Settings window when done.
• Restart your computer and check if the issue persists.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1- How do I fix Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration?

Ans: There are many potential fixes for the Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration issue. Out of the most workarounds, the simplest and the easiest solution that you can try is by restarting your modem or router and computer altogether.

Sometimes restarting devices fixes most annoying issues, and this issue is not an exception.

Q2- How do I set my Ethernet IP configuration?

Ans: You can manually set your Ethernet IP configuration or let Windows get the settings for you. If you want to configure your IP manually, from Settings, select “Change adapter options,” and right-click the Ethernet adapter that you use, and select “Properties”.

From the Properties, find and select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)”, then select “Properties”. Enter your IP setting manually in the required fields, and you are done. Repeat for Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6).

Q3- How do I reset my Ethernet IP address?

Ans: You can reset your Ethernet IP address by going into Change adapter options from Settings. Then go to Properties > Interner Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) > Obtain an IP address automatically.

Repeat for Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6).

Q4- How do I know if my Ethernet port is broken?

Ans: You can check whether your Ethernet port is broken or not by using your current Ethernet cable with another computer or laptop. If the cable works fine with other computers, it means your Ethernet port might be damaged.

Q5- How do I reset my Ethernet adapter?

Ans: You can reset your Ethernet adapter by going into Settings > Click Network & Internet > Select Status > under Advanced network settings section, select Network Reset option > select Reset Now > Yes. That is how your Ethernet adapter settings will reset.