5 Steps to Fix a Faulty Internet Connection
Whether it's one PC or many, the rules and techniques for
troubleshooting Internet problems are basically the same. All it takes is some
patience and a bit of common sense. I'll highlight the basic steps to take the
next time your small business network fails to connect to the Internet.
Step 1: Restart Your PC and Router
It might sound like the obvious starting point, but you'd be
surprised how many people don't try this before sounding the alarm. Yet a
simple reboot can actually resolve many of the everyday issues you run into,
including a flaky network connection.
Shut down all of the relevant hardware, which includes the
PC, the router and the ISP's modem. In some cases the router and modem are
integrated into a single unit. And obviously if none of the other PCs in your
environment are having this issue you don't need to reset the modem and router,
but always try rebooting the computer.
Once you shut down everything, wait at least 5 minutes and
restart the devices in this order:
The ISP's modem. Then wait 3 - 5 minutes.
Next restart the router. Again, wait 3 - 5 minutes.
Finally restart your PC, and try to get online.
In most cases, that will do the trick. If not, then you need
to search for other possibilities.
Step 2: Isolate the Network Problem
Isolating the problem is not just saying, "I can't get
onto the Internet." That's just a symptom or a result of the problem. To
resolve it, we need to discover the cause of the problem. How do we do that?
Like a good detective, we investigate and ask questions.
For instance, is your machine the only one having the
problem, or is it all of the PCs on the network? If it's just your machine then
it's probably not the Internet connection itself, but a problem exclusive to
your system. On the other hand, if the problem is affecting multiple PCs, then
you need to look for other factors, such as how those machines are connected to
the Internet. Are they using a wired or wireless connection?
If they all use a wireless connection, then it could be a
problem with the access point. If instead they all use a wired connection, then
it might be a problem with the switch. If both the wired and wireless PCs are
affected, then it could be a problem with the router or the ISP.
In some cases the problem might occur using Internet
Explorer, but not when using Google Chrome. This could indicate a problem with
the Internet Explorer application itself. In other cases you might not be able
to browse the Web, but you can still get email. That would indicate that your
Internet connection is fine, but something is blocking HTTP data traveling over
port 80, but not email traveling over port 25. This might lead me to suspect a
firewall issue or possible virus or malware infection. Once you identify the
potential problem area, you can begin troubleshooting.
Step 3: Follow the Network Path
When you have a problem establishing an Internet connection,
one of the ways to resolve it is to determine where the communication breakdown
is occurring. You can test this by using the Ping command to trace the data
path out of your network and to the Internet. To do this, you'll need to know
your PC and router/gateway IP addresses.
You find these by running IPCONFIG at the Command Prompt. Typically,
the IP address will start with a 192, but 172 and 10 would also be valid. If
you find your PC has an IP address beginning with 169, then it is invalid and
would explain why you can't get online. This could indicate either a problem
with TCP/IP or your router. You can learn more by reading this article about
the origin of the 169 address.
If you have a valid IP address, try using the Ping command
to verify that your computer can communicate with other systems. Go to the
Command Prompt and type ping x.x.x.x where x is the IP address of the device
you're trying to reach. You first want to try pinging devices on your network,
like other PCs or printers. If you can reach those, try Pinging the gateway.
If you can reach the gateway, try pinging and external site
like Google.com or Yahoo.com (example: ping google.com). If that fails, try
pinging a couple of public DNS servers such as 4.2.2.2 or 8.8.8.8. If you can
successfully ping the public DNS, but not the external site, you might be
dealing with a DNS issue. Should that be the case, you could try replacing your
current DNS with another one. Here's a list of public DNS servers you could
try. If you can't reach either, it could be a problem with your router or ISP
Restoring Internet Connections to Small Business Networks
Step 4: The "X" Factor
The "X" factor is that unknown variable you can't
easily identify. When trying to discover the "X" factor you need to
ask yourself "what changed on the system before this problem
started?" For instance, have you recently installed any new hardware or
software? When was the last time you ran a Windows Update? Did it install any
new drivers? Were you deleting or uninstalling any applications that might have
affected the system? The answers to these types of questions can provide you
with important clues for tracking down the source of your problem.
Another "X" factor candidate is a virus or malware
infection. In many cases where everything seems to be functioning correctly,
yet you still can't get the system online, you may be dealing with a virus.
I've seen infections change home pages, prevent certain search engines from
loading and even disable Internet Explorer entirely.
In these situations, your best bet is to run a virus scan
from outside of the operating system using a rescue CD such as the AVG Rescue CD
or the F-Secure Rescue CD. If you're system's infected, these applications
should help to expose and expel them.
As a last resort, using Windows built-in System Restore
program to revert the system back to an earlier configuration can sometimes be
the simplest and quickest way to restore conductivity.
Step 5: Minimize the Complexity
When it comes to troubleshooting, try to keep things as
simple as possible. For instance, if you're having problems establishing a
wireless connection, it's always best to disable all of the security encryption
while attempting to get online. Encryption only adds another layer of
complexity to an already complex problem. Get it working first, and then
protect it.
In a home-office environment, if you're having trouble
getting a PC online and its connected to a router and/or a switch, always
connect the modem directly to the PC and verify that the problem still exists.
If it does, then the problem lies with the modem or it's a backend problem with
your ISP. If however the PC can now get online, then it's most likely a problem
with your router. And if the ISP didn't provide it, they're not going to help
resolve it.
In this situation, you might just need to replace the
router; things do break from time to time. Or it might need updated firmware,
or perhaps a reset back to the factory settings. The point is, knowing where to
focus your troubleshooting efforts is the best way to get the situation
resolved, and the simpler the configuration, the easier it will be to spot the
culprit.
No comments:
Post a Comment