My Windows 11 PC has only partial connectivity on my home network through a FRITZ!Box. IPv6 works normally, but IPv4 does not. DHCP fails and Windows assigns an APIPA address in the 169.254.x.x range. If I configure a static IPv4 address, the PC can ping the router at 192.168.178.1, but IPv4 traffic to external addresses such as 8.8.8.8 and services like Steam times out. Other computers on the same network receive IPv4 leases and access the internet normally, and the same static configuration works on another laptop. The PC also works correctly with both IPv4 and IPv6 through a smartphone hotspot, so the basic Windows networking stack and hardware appear functional. I have tried an in-place Windows repair, Winsock and TCP/IP resets, and MAC address spoofing without success. What local networking issue or router behavior could allow gateway pings while dropping all WAN-bound IPv4 traffic from this particular PC?
3 Answers
On the PC, run `ipconfig /all` and `route print`. Look for a VPN or virtual adapter such as WireGuard, Tailscale, or an old corporate networking client, along with an incorrect or duplicate default route. A bad 0.0.0.0/0 route can allow local gateway access but send internet traffic somewhere unusable. Temporarily disable extra adapters and VPN software, then test again. It is also worth checking Windows Defender Firewall rules that apply specifically to the home network profile.
The fact that another device works with the same static settings makes a router-wide IPv4 failure unlikely. If removing the router profile and correcting routes does not help, test with a different physical network adapter, such as a USB Ethernet adapter. A driver or adapter-specific filtering problem can affect one connection while hotspot networking continues to work, even if the adapter still reaches the gateway.
Check the router for a stale device entry, parental-control profile, access restriction, or old lease associated with this computer. A router can still answer local gateway pings while blocking forwarding or NAT for that client. Remove the PC from the FRITZ!Box network-device list, disable any access profile for it, reboot the router and PC, and then reconnect using DHCP to obtain a fresh lease. Also check whether the device appears more than once under different names or MAC addresses.
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