The internet is everywhere.  In our offices, homes and even on our cellphones. Over 700 million of us use it on a daily basis.  So, being able to troubleshoot a connectivity issue is a valuable skill.  But where do you start? How do you know when to call for IT help? What if you are home and don’t have any IT help? Let’s explore a few simple tips that can help troubleshoot why you can’t connect to the internet.

The first step is always the same. Once you realize you can not connect to the internet find out if those around you are having the same issue. If you are at work, ask your coworkers, if you are at home, ask your neighbors or call your ISP (the company providing you the internet) and ask if there are any outages in your area.

If the connectivity issue is only effecting you we can try  to test where the connection may be dropping.  If you are running Windows XP click on Start > Run and type:  cmd and hit Enter (In Vista click Start and in the Search bar type: cmd and hit Enter).  A black window will appear, click the cursor and type: ipconfig and hit Enter. You should see an IP address, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway. Write the Default gateway down on a piece of paper (it should look something like 192.168.1.1).

If you do not have a default gateway listed (it will show “Default Gateway……….” with no IP address after it) try typing: ipconfig /renew and hit Enter. Do you see a gateway now? If so, continue to the steps below. If you still do not see a default gateway and you are a CTN client at work, call our helpdesk. In the same black window as we were using before, click on the flashing cursor again and type: ping default_gateway where default_gateway is the IP address you just wrote down – now click Enter.

You will see four lines appear on your screen. Did they say Reply or Request timed out? If they say Request timed out your PC can’t connect to your local firewall. If you are a home user, try and reboot your firewall (usually its a LinkSys, DLink or SMC device). If you can not locate it, call your ISP and they will walk you through rebooting it.  If you are at work and a CTN client, call our helpdesk.

If you get four Replies that means your PC can talk to your firewall. So now lets try and connect to the internet. In the same black box, type the blinking cursor again and type: ping google.com and hit Enter. If you get more Replies  then you are connected to the internet. If you still can not browse the internet and are a home user, contact your ISP and tell them what you have already tried. If you are a CTN client and are at work, call our helpdesk and we can walk you through some more advanced troubleshooting.