How to fix an internet problem

When someone tells me their internet isn't working, I first check the cable. I always check the cable. 90% of the time, the cable has stopped working. When I say check the cable, I mean replace it with another one that you know is good. (AKA "a known good cable").

Then comes the other, more esoteric stuff. For example, is all the internet not working, or is it just your web browser?

If it is everything, and the cable is okay, what about up from the cable and down from the cable? What I mean by that is....what about the network interface card (NIC)? Does it have flashy lights? If so, your computer is getting signals. Then you know it's something wrong with the computer itself.

If you are getting no flashy lights, it's possible your NIC is broken. Replacing it with a "known good" nic is a good test, but I'd also check "down" from the cable, or the jack or cable modem, or whatever is the interface for your internet from whatever your provider is.

In a cable/DSL example, it comes out of the wall and goes into a cable modem. It might go out of the cable modem and into a router or wireless access point. The wireless access point can have problems, so you can test that by unplugging the cable that comes out from the cable modem and into the router and try plugging that directly into your network port. If that works, then you know the wireless access point/router is the problem. Sometimes, just unplugging it and replugging that in can fix it. Sometimes not.

Also, it pays to know how to log onto your Wireless Access Point/Router in an emergency. Depending on your type of router/wap, it may be a web address like

http://192.168.1.1
or
http://192.168.2.1
or
http://192.168.0.1

This information should be either in your documentation that came with your WAP or router, or might be available on the manufacturer website. That is also where you can find out the default passwords for your WAP or router, which might be helpful in configuring it to see if workes. Specifically, this can tell you if the WAN (Wide Area Network) is coming from the cable modem to the WAP/router. IF it isn't, try to "bounce" (unplug and replug the power) on the cable modem.

Also, if you can get some internet (like your email) and not others (like a specific web page), have you tried switching web browsers? If one works while the other one doesn't, I'd suggest upgrading your preferred web browser to see if that helps.

Fun stuff, internet problems. Luckily, one of these solutions almost always works.

Something Technical about DSL

Okay okay. Something technical.

A question I get asked a lot is how to get high speed internet. I don't know every possible thing about high-speed internet as we have a fabulous LAN at work that I don't have to do much to make work. Someone else takes care of that.

And I know about my own high-speed internet at home because I set it up and I fix it when it breaks.

I can't really answer questions about someone else's network.

But...

I can tell people how it looks and how it works....

For example: DSL.

DSL works over your existing phone lines. Your existing phone lines use 2 of the four wires in your phone cable. (Sure, take out a phone cable and look at it. I'll wait.)

The other two aren't used unless you have a DSL converter in the jack. Then all 4 are in use; two for your phone and two for your internet. And they don't interfere with each other, usually.

The cable from the phone jack with the converter plugs into the DSL converter box (aka cable or dsl modem) and the network cable that comes out can be plugged into the network connector on the back of your computer.

Or...you can plug it into a wireless access point to allow you to use your laptop without any cables. Or...you can attach it to a router to allow you to have multiple computers connected.

And that's DSL.