How would you determine if a user with no network connection is having a hardware problem vs. a configuration?

Question

Outline the steps you would use to determine what is needed.

Answer 1

For any problem:

Reboot, EVERYTHING. Then turn on in order of importance so to speak: modem first (wait for lights to settle), then router if you have one (wait for those lights to settle) then turn on the computer.

Otherwise:

Check all lights on modem/router, usually the lights will tell you a problem. I worked with UK modems for one company so dont know if it will be the same for you but usually online/ready is the light to watch. If that light is off or flashing, the theres something wrong with the network itself (from the ISP's end) or the modem/router.

Check the lights that signify whether a cable connection is being picked up (usually named cable/ethernet/usb) if flashing a h**l of a lot or off go to next step>

Check the cables making sure their all plugged in to everthing they need to be plugged into if they are, check that the computer doesn't say 'network cable unplugged' (if windows). If it does, try a different cable/s and/or a different computer. If the connection comes back after switching the cables, it was a cable fault. If you just switch the computer without switching cables, then its the connection port on the computer, if these still dont work, then it could still be a problem with the router/modem connection ports not sending a signal.

If when you check the ip address, its a 169.x.x.x.x then the computer isnt picking up an ip address properly or the modem/router isnt giving it one. best way to do this is to remove anything in between the modem and computer just having the modem and computer directly connected. Remove the power cable from the modem and the coaxial cable wait 10 seconds or so, then plug the power cable into the modem ONLY, if the ip changes to one beginning 192.x.x.x.x then plug the coax back in with the modem still on, you should get a valid ip address and hopefully can connect to the internet.

If your using USB connection on windows xp sp1 or earlier, chances are the usb drivers have 'dropped'. to check, right click on my computer>properties>device manager and check the usb drivers. if they have dropped they'll come up in 'unknown devices' with yellow triangles next to them and/or exclamation marks. Xp usually sorts this out once the usb/installation cd is entered, vista does everything automatically but anything earlier than xp is h**l to deal with when its usb drivers.

Sometimes the computer has just decided to not renew the ip address for whatever reason, so go to network connections and disable and enable the offending network adapter or go through start>run ipconfig /release hit enter and then type ipconfig /renew hit enter again.

If that still doesn't work make sure that the computer is set up to automatically configure the ip address and dns servers go to network connections>right click on the adapter>click on properties then highlight tcp/ip and click on properties and make sure the dots are next to obtain an ip address and dns server automatically.

If that doesnt work, close that box, disable tcp/ip apply and then enable it and reapply. Also make sure the DHCP service is running on the computer. go to services and make sure dhcp is enabled.

If those dont work (theres probably other things to check but i cant remember at the moment!!) and your using a router, then check the configuration of the router. Make sure that you have the right IP address setting (static, dynamic etc) make sure the dns servers are all correct. I use VPN for some things on my router but I have a dynamic IP that changes practically every week and when it does change i loose connection and i have to reboot everything.

Honestly thats all i can remember, but you cant really tell exactly whats going on with computers when a connection goes because computers have a way of having more than one thing go wrong with a connection! hope it helped anyway