What does it mean when it says your gateway seems to be offline?

Question

Hi i have just downloaded msn for a friend and when i sign in sometimes it says error and says your gateway seems to be offline, i click repair then it will usually sign in then.

Can someone tell me what this means please. Thankyyou.

Answer 1

It means your connections is off line, just click repair and thats it.

Michael...

Answer 2

The device that is acting as the gateway to the Internet (likely your router) is "offline" (not visible).

Answer 3

It would help markedly if you described your set up.

I presume you have a broadband connection, terminated by a modem.  I do not know if you have a separate router, with a network switch after that or if you have only one pc directly connected to the modem.  

I will assume you have a separate router and integrated 4 port switch and you have 2 pcs connected to the switch and share the internet link.

If the gateway seems off line it means that the pc does not connect to the internet.  The cause can be the LAN port of the pc, the network switch, or the router being off line or that the modem is faulty.  

Having said all that, the next question is which of these is failing.  Answering this requires troubleshooting and testing which is beyond the scope of this question.

The short answer is that a gateway being off line is a failure to connect to the internet.