My internets down help me!

Well if your Internets down you probably are not reading this. So you might want to save this page locally for a rainy day!

It will also give you a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes that make your net work… (Get it?)

I need to give you a brief introduction to how your internet connection works. You get a cable modem or DSL Modem from your provider (ISP) that connects to their network either via coax (thick cable) or your phone line. That modem establishes a connection with the ISP’s network. That network has a DHCP server that gives your modem an ip address. That address is accessible from the internet (public IP. If you don’t know what I am talking about read this article on IP addressing first)

Now either you connect your computer wired or wirelessly to that modem or connect a wired or wireless router so you can share your connection to multiple machines/devices.

Are you still with me?

So if you are plugged directly into the modem it will give you an private IP address that is NATed out to the public ip.

If this is your setup it is pretty easy until you want to swap computers. Do to security restrictions you will need to restart the modem to give then next machine an ip address. We recommended getting a router. The router will allow you to swap machines and share net with multiple machines. Now onto how to troubleshoot.

Deep breathe…

What do you mean the Internets down?

So after you go through the normal steps of denial, rebooting, laying blame at your isp, rebooting, cursing…. Check out these steps:

1. Before you do anything else restart your modem wait for it to come back online and then restart your router.

2. If you don’t have a router reboot your computer and then the cable modem.

3.once all the modems lights are lit up and the activity lights are blinking you should have net. If all the lights do not come on, check that all your cables are secure and then call your isp.

4.open a new browser window and try to get to http://www.askTheAdmin.com. If it comes up your good if not continue reading for the command line nitty gritty.

5. Go to Start run and type in CMD

6. Type Ipconfig /all

7. Make note of your default gateway and dns servers.

8. Ping your default gateway. Do you get a response?

9 Ping one of the DNS servers. Do you get a response?

10 type ping www.asktheadmin.com. Do you get a response?

Using traceroute to see where you are getting stuck. We see a lot of network issues when there are two dhcp servers giving out ip addresses. If you have a router you want to make sure it is in the same internal range as the cable mode. If my isp router is 192.168.1.1 i make my router .2. I disable dhcp if possible on the original.

_TheTroubleshootingAdmiN_