How To Disable Ethernet Hardware Components To Prevent Internet Use

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Trouble:

One of our readers submitted a problem saying that he has got a laptop which he shares with someone. He does not want others to use internet on that laptop. Now in order to restrict Internet usage, there are several ways, utilities and tricks, but we are going to share a very simple method that requires no installation or tool.

Today we are going to tell you a trick by which you can simply stop the Internet connectivity by disabling the Ethernet Controller. See the steps to disable it.

Fix:

Disable Ethernet Adaptor

To disable any hardware component, open Device manager. For this, goto Start > Run , and type

devmgmg.msc and press enter. This will open the device manager as shown below:

Now locate the Network adapter under the list shown and click on the “+” sign to expand this list.

Here you need to locate your Ethernet adapter. for wireless connection, it will be some WLAN connection, as it is in  my case, and for wired, it will be PCI-Ethernet adapter, as highlighted in the image above.

Now just right click on the Ethernet adapter that you use, and click on Disable as shown below, that is it, now the Ethernet device will turn off, which means no Internet connectivity.

I may show a warning like this, press yes button to disable it.

The icon of the Device in this list will change like the one below:

Enable Ethernet Adaptor

Now, when you want to use it again, you need to enable it back. To enable it, you need to again open the Device manager as mentioned above. Now locate the disabled Ethernet adaptor and right click on it. And click Enable as shown below.

The icon of the icon will change back to normal again when you enable the Ethernet Adaptor.

You now get the Internet connectivity back.

You can disable any hardware device this way, but be careful, as disabling some device that is critical for working of computer, may result in crashing the Windows. So be sure of what you disable.

Author + Admin: Abhishek Bhatnagar
Hi, I am a Software Engineer by profession and blogger by passion, I write about computer tips and tricks and solutions for computer problems. You can connect with me at twitter or know more about me on www.abhishekbhatnagar.com.