Most people don’t realise this, but your Wi-Fi can work without the Internet.
Think about it. Have you ever seen the message “Wi-Fi connected, no Internet” pop up on your phone or laptop screen? That’s because Wi-Fi, whether from your home router or even a phone’s hotspot, is simply a local network linking devices to each other. The internet only comes into play when that network connects to the worldwide online network.
So if you unplug the Internet or simply forget to renew your fibre internet subscription, what can Wi-Fi still do? Quite a lot, actually.
Even without an Internet connection, you can share files between an iPhone and a Windows laptop. How? Create a shared folder on your PC, then on your iPhone or iPad open the Files app, select Browse → Connect to Server, and type smb://[your PC’s local IP address]. You can find the IP by tapping the i next to your Wi-Fi network name. Once signed in with your Windows username and password, the shared folder appears on your iPhone, allowing you to move files back and forth without needing the internet. For a visual walkthrough, check out the video at the bottom.
And it’s not just phones and laptops, your game console can still connect to controllers or link up with nearby consoles, while your printer will keep working over the same Wi-Fi even without an internet connection.
That’s not all, you can cast movies from your phone to your smart TV, stream music to Wi-Fi speakers, or even play multiplayer games on a local network. All this happens inside your Wi-Fi’s local network without touching the wider Internet—more like Bluetooth, just faster and more reliable.
Here’s what you really need to remember: Wi-Fi is your local radio link connecting devices within your home or office, while the Internet is the online global network that lets those devices access websites, apps, and services.
This answers why you sometimes see “Wi-Fi connected, no Internet” on your phone. The bars just show you’re connected locally, which means you can still share files, print, or play games on your devices even without an Internet connection.
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