What to do when Broadband fails
April 2009
Losing your company’s connection to the Internet can be frustrating, to say the least. No web, no email and, in some cases, limited telephone lines – maybe it’s a case of no Internet… no work; that can be costly.
Establishing where the problem may be can save precious time and hopefully help you get back up and surfing sooner rather than later. These pointers may hold the key, but the real trick is to have a plan.
Is it just one PC or all of them? If some PCs are working, then it’s most likely an internal network glitch, dodgy cable or wrong settings on the PC. Check the cables; it’s not uncommon for people to check these last.
Do some power cycling. It’s a cliché in the IT world, “switch it off and back on again”, but it does work – PCs often get their network settings during start up so try the following:
- Turn the power off on the router and network switches, count to 10, switch them all back on again
- Wait a minute or two for everything to restart (broadband needs to synchronise with the exchange)
- Check to see if you have a connection using reliable sites like Google or the BBC. If not, reboot your PC to ensure the network settings are reloaded then recheck.
- A faster alternative is to click Start, then Run, type “ipconfig /renew” and then OK.
Hopefully by now it’s all up and running. This reset and restart method usually works for the simpler local issues, but what about a major outage?
Click Start, then Run and type “cmd” and then OK. This will start a command window. Type “ping 217.112.90.45” and press enter – this is a signal to and from Diamond’s web server. You will get four responses and what you do next depends on the result:
- If the response says “Reply from…” then the actual broadband connection is working OK. Contact your IT support company or, if a member of Diamond’s support club, give us a call.
- If the response says “Request timed out” or “Destination unreachable” then it is possible an issue with the broadband connection and it will be necessary to contact your ISP, such as BT Connect, Plusnet, Tiscali, etc.
There are any number of points at which the broadband can fail and this quick guide is barely touching the surface. However, getting a quick plan together of what to do and who to contact will make the loss of Internet and email just marginally less troublesome.
For more information contact Richard Morgan on 0845 223 2170 or email john@diamond-discovery.com