Troubleshooting guide to know whom to call when you do not seem to have Internet.
In the same way you cannot get the guys at tire shop to fix your air-conditioner, you need to know a little bit about your Internet services to know whom to call for repairs.
Your ISP is the company, the Internet Service Provider, that is responsible for getting the world wide web to your location, your house or office. But once it comes through the wall into your house, much of the responsibility falls back on you and your network setup inside the house or office. The ISP usually covers up to the point of the router.
Router (noun): A network device that forwards data packets between devices within a local network and an internet service provider (ISP). In a home setting, an ISP-provided router assigns local IP addresses, manages wireless connections, and ensures efficient data transmission between connected devices and the broader internet.
Or maybe you prefer this everyday definition better: A router is the person in school you can depend on to pass the messages around to everyone else when you decide to have a party. It makes sure it only goes to the correct places, and doesn’t confuse sending a print job to a tablet, or your email to the wireless television. If your “router” is down, everything stops, not only for you, but for everybody else trying to have a different party or school event too. Nobody gets any messages.
So lets get to the troubleshooting
First thing to check is probably not the router, unless everything in your house seems dead. The first thing to check is the device that you are on. Is it connected? The way to test this quickly is to check other already connected devices.
- Is another laptop, tablet, or computer able to browse the Internet? Open a web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc) and type in “What is my Ip address” for example. Does it come back with something sensible? If it sits there thinking on it for 2 minutes, something is definitely wrong.
The process is quite similar to checking for electricity. If you walk into a room, and its dark, the first thing to do is try the light switch. The next think is possibly check to be sure the bulb is working. After that, you go to another room and see if lights work there. Then you check all the other rooms and when you find out there is no electricity anywhere in the house, then it might be a matter of the breaker box (the router). But if as you go to check the breaker box, you see your street lights and neighbors are all dark too, then it is time to call the company that provides the services.
In networking, your device might say, “Connected, without Internet”. That means the internal router is doing its job connecting to devices inside your home, but it cannot get messages out to the ISP. If you find that a neighbor has the same problem, then the ISP may be having what is called an “upstream” problem. Not much you can do inside your house about that, except merely wait for them to fix it. Calling them will only slow them down.
- If it seems like it is only something inside, then one of the things you can do is unplug your router, wait 10 seconds, and plug it back in. This will cause it to reattempt connection, and many times resolve the situation. Routers take time to settle communications with other routers. You should wait a good 5 minutes before concluding it worked or failed. In most cases, you do not need to restart all of your devices, but it usually does not hurt to do so, while the router is also restarting.
Finally, if after doing a router reset, you still have trouble connecting, but only on your particular device, try restarting your device–by device I mean any electronic that can connect to the Internet–a smart phone, tablet, a TV or streaming device, or a computer. If you finally determine Internet seems to work everywhere except with the device you are using, then it likely is something wrong with the device you are using. One thing that happens on laptops is the wifi radio fails — the electronic chips that permit wireless broadcast can wear out and simply stop working. Fortunately USB alternatives exist that can allow your laptop to receive signals again without major repair.
The idea overall is to identify the problem and not ask the tire man to fix your muffler, that is, it is not a good idea to call the ISP and tell them your Internet is down, when in fact what is wrong is your tablet is misconfigured or you did not enter the right wifi password to connect. You don’t have to be a wizard to check some basics. Check with other devices in the house first, and if they are working right, then go back to your device and fix it. If that turns out to be too much to handle, then call a computer repair shop–B.A. Computer Services might be exactly who you need.
