Quick Internet Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Your Internet Connection

The following is a quick reference to help you troubleshoot your internet or LAN connections. This quick guide is only a general home based networking reference, specific issues may need more advanced troubleshooting techniques. This guide assumes that you have a broadband connection with a dynamically assigned ip address, if you are not sure if our ip address is dynamically or statically assigned please consult your ISP. This article addresses connection issues resulting from wired and wireless network problems.

1. Decide whether it is your wireless connection (router) or your internet connection (modem).

• on your wireless computer make sure your wireless signal notification icon has full signal

• on your desktop computer or a computer directly connected to your router, try to access the internet

2. If you cannot access the internet on both wireless and non-wireless machines you may have an internet (modem) problem.

• without turning anything off, unlplug the RJ45 (ethernet) cable running from your computer to your router (at the router end)

• now plug the cable in from your computer directly into your modem

• wait a few minutes (you may also need to restart your desktop computer or simply repair your internet connection), now try to access the internet

3. If you cannot access the internet directly connected to the modem, you could have a modem problem.

• unplug the power to your modem, wait 30sec and plug back in … try to access the internet

• if restarting your modem does not work, call your ISP, the network may be down

• at this point you may want to check your ip configuration, in a command prompt type “ipconfig”. If your ip address is (0.0.0.0 or starts with 169.x.x.x) then you do not have a valid ip. Your ISP will need to know this information.

4. You can access the internet directly connected to the modem OR you can access the internet from your desktop machine which is connected to the router.

• you could have a wireless communication problem between your router and your wireless enabled computer

• unplug your desktop machine from the modem and return the connection backto your router (your normal configuration)

• restart your wireless router by unpluggin it, waiting 30sec and plugging it back in, during this time restart your laptop

• try to access the internet from your laptop (through your wireless connection)

• if you are still not getting signal, you are not “associated” with the router and will need to make some changes

• navigate to Start> Control_Panel> Network_Connections> Wireless_Connection> Properties> Wireless_Networks> select your networks SSID (or name)> Properties>

• once their you will need to re-enter your password or key for the WPA-PSK/WEP encryption scheme, to Apply> hit “OK”

• wait a few moments … your connection should establish

5. You still cannot connect wirelessly.

• their maybe a problem with your wireless router configuration

• you will need to take approximately the same actions as step 4 but for your router

• from your desktop open an internet browser and type your wireless router’s IP address (i.e. 192.168.1.1) in the address bar

• you will need to login with your username and password, if you have never changed this option it will be the factory default username and password

• navigate to your wireless options where you are able to select “encryption”

• you should see options for WEP, WPA-PSK, or none, select the appropriate security method. You may now need to re-type your password or key (the same one you typed for your wireless enabled computer)

• save your settings and make sure your “SSID” is set.

Your wired and wireless network connection is now through the first and the most common steps of troubleshooting. If problems still exist at this point you may need to call a computer technician for more specialized troubleshooting.