The present invention pertains to the field of Internet technologies, and discloses a method for establishing a network connection. The method includes: establishing a user plane connection to a terminal, where the terminal accesses a first WLAN; receiving, by using the established user plane connection, a connection selection request sent by the terminal, where the connection selection request includes connection selection information; determining, according to the connection selection information in the connection selection request, a service network selected by the terminal; and establishing a connection between the terminal and the service network selected by the terminal. In this way, the terminal can connect to different service networks, so that a network connection manner becomes more flexible, interaction between the terminal and a gateway is simplified, and a network connection range is expanded.