Internet not working, things to check for ?

[Darkst4r]

Hi my Mum called me today to tell me her internet isnt working and could I pop round to have a look and see if I can fix it. Now being the doting son I am , I wouldn't want to let her down so thought I'd ask a bit of advice on basics to check when trying to sort out a connectivity problem.

She is with Sky broadband and has had a new modem/router sent but is still unable to connect to the internet.

Are there any basic steps I should go though when setting up a new router or should all the settings still be ok in theory ?

I'm fairly PC competent when it comes to software and installation but the internet really isn't my forte , although I am happy to have a go to try and save my old dear from being fleeced by the purple shirt brigade.

Any help would be very much appreciated,

Thanks in advance.

 

[mjd]

Check the PC has acquired an IP.
Try and ping the router.
If the router responds, connect to the routers web interface through your browser and check the router status. This will indicate a number of things, adsl status, whether the router has picked up its IP, DNS addresses etc etc....
Start with this and report back if you get stuck. Sadly I dont have the time to go through the entire guide to network troubleshooting.

 

[HangTime]

Yep first thing I would do is check the internal network, don't worry about the internet just yet. If it's connected OK to the router than check on the router stats to see if it's connected OK to the DSL line. Assuming that's OK then see if it's a DNS issue (i.e. can you ping IP addresses but not hostnames).

Don't forget physical wiring as well, try plugging the router directly into the master phone socket, and connect via ethernet rather than wireless (laptops are good for this to save lugging computers around the place).

 

[Gogl]

Surrey is a long way from Bedford, but our Sky broadband was playing up yesterday, same with a neighbour who lives about ten doors down.

It went funky a week or two back also, so I'd make sure the problem is not with Sky, or you could be in for a lot of head-scratching. It's generally been quite solid.

 

[Mantaray]

 

[tolien]

adsl has be down in parts of uk

No it has not. Certain ISPs might well have been having issues but every ADSL ISP has by no means been out of action.

The owner of the machine you looked at was clearly with a crap ISP. They're by no means restricted to ADSL nor are there only poor ISPs who use ADSL.