Internet blocked after disconnecting VPN (Kill Switch residue)
A third-party VPN application left its virtual TAP/TUN interface or firewall kill-switch rules active upon exiting, blocking all standard network traffic.
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Common Symptoms & Tells
- Internet worked while VPN was active, but completely died after turning VPN off
- All browsers show connection refused or timeout
- Network status says connected but zero data flows
Interactive Fix Checklist
0 of 4 steps completedLaunch VPN and disable Kill Switch setting
Reopen your VPN client (NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Proton, etc.), navigate to Settings → Kill Switch → toggle Off, then disconnect cleanly.
Disable virtual TAP network adapters in ncpa.cpl
Press Win+R, type 'ncpa.cpl'. Right-click any adapters named 'TAP-Windows Adapter' or 'WireGuard Tunnel' and select 'Disable'.
Reset Windows Filtering Platform (Firewall rules)
Open Command Prompt as admin and run: 'netsh advfirewall reset' to clear custom IP drop rules created by VPN software.
Uninstall stale VPN virtual network adapters
In Device Manager, find Network Adapters, right-click leftover virtual VPN adapters, and select 'Uninstall device'.
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