Since today, my laptop running Ubuntu 25.10 has been showing a “?” on the Wi‑Fi icon and opening the “Login to network” window, even though actual Internet access works normally.
Test environment:
device 1: Ubuntu 25.10 - the problem occurs
device 2: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - on the same Wi‑Fi network, the problem does not occur
Both devices use the same local network and the same Internet connection.
On Ubuntu 25.10, a manual test of the connectivity check endpoint returns errors:
a change in Ubuntu 25.10 / newer NetworkManager behavior, making it more aggressive in marking the connection as limited when the connectivity-check endpoint fails
Can anyone confirm similar behavior on Ubuntu 25.10?
Is this a global issue on Canonical’s side / with connectivity-check.ubuntu.com?
Looks like the server(s) behind that endpoint is/are offline. If you’re not bothered about the check and just want to get rid of the question mark: Settings → Privacy and Security → Connectivity → Connectivity Checking
$ host connectivity-check.ubuntu.com
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has address 185.125.190.98
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has address 185.125.190.97
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has address 91.189.91.96
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has address 91.189.91.98
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has address 185.125.190.96
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has address 91.189.91.97
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has IPv6 address 2620:2d:4000:1::98
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has IPv6 address 2620:2d:4002:1::196
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has IPv6 address 2620:2d:4002:1::197
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has IPv6 address 2620:2d:4002:1::198
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has IPv6 address 2620:2d:4000:1::96
connectivity-check.ubuntu.com has IPv6 address 2620:2d:4000:1::97
A few of these addresses are configured correctly and the rest don’t seem to be. Some give an error response of 502 bad gateway, or 503 no service, or 400 bad request if they give a response at all. If one of your machines happened to hit an address that returns the correct http response, then connectivity is affirmed at least as long as you are logged into a session.
Problem Description:
question mark icon in top bar for network and frequent popup as attached. nmcli shows:
corrado@corrado-n4-dang-0320:~$ nmcli connection show --active NAME UUID TYPE DEVICE netplan-enp2s0 7ea6f90b-3495-3533-948a-ef0035687c34 ethernet enp2s0 EOLO_181782 c1688365-dffc-4d70-afef-0dc287028f42 wifi wlx04bad667ffcb lo 0422f228-a41f-49fd-8b7a-a17fe8ffb835 loopback lo corrado@corrado-n4-dang-0320:~$
I’m connected to the same router with WiFi and ethernet cable.
Having the same issue on my MiniPC and it’s annoying. Sometimes the network is still working, sometimes not, and I’m even installing Ubuntu on my laptop and it’s destroying the installation.
I just started getting a similar message today. I have Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 setup and have been running this for years. My system has a wired connection that is primary, and I have a WiFi NIC that is disabled. No changes have been made in a while, and all of a sudden I keep getting this WiFi system message popping up stating sign in to network. and my network icon in the upper right now has a ? over the icon. I fully disabled the WiFi adapter now, and I even blacklisted the iwlwifi kernel module. then rebuilt initramfs and still the message shows in the notification area. very annoying.
yeah, I get a 503 error when trying that. Any way to disable that? I have tried just about everything even using dconf editor and cannot figure it out.
Same problem for me as of today. I get the ? on the WiFi connection icon but the connection is fine. I’m using Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS. The issue resolves when i enable my VPN. I have disabled the Connectivity Checking in the mean time
It also explains why one machine could look fine while another showed intermittent failures on the same network - the result seems to depend on which backend IP the connectivity check hits.
On my side, direct checks were returning intermittent 503 responses and occasional connection resets, so this looks more like a service/backend issue than a local client-side problem.
For anyone who wants a CLI workaround, the connectivity check can also be disabled with:
gsettings set org.gnome.system.networking connectivity-check false
and re-enabled later with:
gsettings set org.gnome.system.networking connectivity-check true
