How to Disable Internet Connection

Want to block the internet connection of one or more programs? Do you want to block a certain user’s internet connection, or do you want to temporarily disable your own access to avoid distractions? The simplest way to disable network access on any operating system is to remove the network hardware interface from the computer, or disconnect the computer from the LAN cable or wireless network. However, you can use some software to disable the connection right in the user’s computer interface.

Table of Contents

Disable Firewall Access for Windows Programs

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Open the Control Panel. Press the “Windows” key or the “Start” icon, then select “Contrp Panel”.

If using Windows 8, you can drag your mouse to the upper right corner of the screen to display “charm bar”, then click “Contrp Panel”. Alternatively, you can hold down the Windows key and press the C key, then select “Settings”. ^{[1] X Research Source}

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Open Security Center.

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Open Windows Firewall settings.

Open the “Exceptions” tab.
Uncheck the program you want to block internet connection.
Click “OK” when prompted.

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Open the program and try to connect to the Internet. The program you just unchecked cannot penetrate the Windows security firewall, which means it cannot access the Internet. You can still access the Internet with other programs. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Disable a specific connection on Windows

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Open the Control Panel. Press the “Windows” key or the “Start” icon, then select “Contrp Panel”.

If you are using Windows 8, you can hover your mouse over the upper right corner of the screen to display the “charm bar”, then click on “Contrp Panel”. Alternatively, you can hold down the Windows key and press the C key, then select “Settings”.

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Navigate to “Network and Sharing Center”. In the Network and Internet section — if displayed by category — click on “Network settings, network adapters” and then select “View network status and tasks”. network status and tasks). If displayed by icons instead of categories, click “Network and Sharing Center”.

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Left click to highlight and select WiFi connection. Now right click to highlight the WiFi connection and click “Disable”. This is to block the computer from connecting to a specific WiFi network. However, the machine can still connect to other networks, unless you also disable them. This setting will not block other computers from connecting to WiFi networks.

You can completely reverse this process. If you want to enable the network again, simply right-click on the WiFi connection and select “Enable”.
You must be logged in as an administrator or a member of the admin group to complete this process. If the computer is connected to a network, the network policy setting may block the computer from connecting to the network.

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Disable the entire network. When you want to turn off more advanced networking on Windows, you will open Start>All Programs>Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator. issue a command prompt if needed, type “mmc compmgmt.msc” (without quotes) and press enter. Wait for it to load and then click on Device Manager in the left pane. Open the Network Adapters subtree, right click on all devices and select Disable, then reboot for good effect (optional).

To undo, simply repeat the process above but instead of choosing Disable, select Enable.

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Consider using parental control software. You can disable the network connection using third party software. These software allow to restrict the websites that the computer can access or block the computer from connecting to the Internet. You need to install the software directly on the computer that needs to be blocked from the network. Depending on the software, you will have to pay or not, but you can rest assured that your children will not use the internet against you.

On Apple OS X, you can configure built-in parental controls to disable internet access for certain accounts.

Set up a fake Proxy server

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Open Internet Options in the Contrp Panel.

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Open the Connections tab and click on LAN settings.

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Uncheck “Automatically detect settings”. You will then select “Use proxy server” and enter the settings of a non-existent proxy server. The web browser will get a timeout error when the user tries to access the website.

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This method is not guaranteed. A computer-savvy user can access the proxy settings and edits. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Internet-toggling app

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Consider using an internet-toggling app. You can use these programs if you want to temporarily disable your computer’s internet access but don’t want to open the firewall settings every time you need to block the network. When you want to work offline but don’t want to stop the Internet completely, you can choose to disable all or some specific websites.

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Try the Toggle Internet script. This application “forces” you to disconnect from the Internet by temporarily disabling your computer’s network access. This small script allows you to completely disable networking on your Windows computer with just one click. You can restore the connection anytime you need. To get started, download Toggle-Internet.bat to your computer.

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Turn off the Internet. Right click on the Toggle icon on the desktop. Select “Run as Administrator”, you will be disconnected from the network. Then when you reconnect, just right-click on the file and open it as administrator as before.

Actually, this small script only turns off the status of the Network Adapter (also known as the LAN adapter or Ethernet cable) so it turns off the internet. If you want to manually enable or disable the Network Adapter, open Contrp Panel -> Network and Internet -> View Network Status -> Change Adapter Settings.

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Try Let Me Work. Toggle Internet will temporarily block all websites, but you want to block the network with some distracting websites, and still be able to connect to Google Docs or email. Load the Let Me Work script. You can create a list of websites you want to block and this script will modify the Windows HOSTS file to temporarily block those websites. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Advice

Always check Firewall exceptions for unlicensed programs.
Disabling the Internet means that the program cannot connect to the Internet, whether it is posting or downloading data. Make sure that no programs need an Internet connection.
Make sure you want to turn off the network completely. Consider though that the methods are all undoable.
On Linux, you can easily disable Internet access by configuring the firewall element to block network connections. Ubuntu platform distros often use the “ufw” package as a firewall.

Warning

If you install an anti-virus program, you must adjust the exception at the program’s interface.

Steps