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In Settings -> Wi-Fi, there's a connection listed that says "Connected, no internet".
What does it mean to be connected? What does it mean for a device to be connected but without internet access? I'm not trying to fix this state: my goal strictly is to find out more about it.
The status Connected, no Internet in Android's WiFi settings strictly means that:
This does not mean that you don't have an internet connection, it just can't reach the Google servers (google.com/generate_204) to determine this.
This often appears shortly after connecting to a WiFi access point when the device is still checking the connectivity.
This can also appear if the network you are connected to is using a captive portal and you haven't authenticated with it, yet.
It is also possible that there isn't any internet connectivity on the WiFi AP, for instance when connecting to a drone or digital camera.
Connected generally means the devices in question have successfully established communication between each other. In other words, they are able to sent data packets between each other.
Connected no internet means communication is established between the devices, but this communication is not established with other interconnection of "outside servers" (internet) or outside world. In this way, data packets are still sent and received between devices and not "outside server".
One of the devices e.g router, mobile (mobile APNs) provide this gateway in order to allow sending and receiving of these packets to "outside servers".
Several factors prevent this connection to the "outside servers":
