Tips to Get Your DSL Service Back Online

Has your dsl service been acting up? Have you lost internet service altogether? Here are some tips that may get you going again.

There are three conditions that will prevent you from accessing the internet. The first is a walled garden. A walled garden is often a "preset redirect", that won't allow you onto the web until you have registered your presence with your isp provider and provided user names and passwords to the provider and the modem. The second one more often than not will require a service call to your home or some other sort of internal equipment repairs from your phone company on their equipment or transmission lines.

The condition is usually called a "no sync" condition. This means that your modem is no longer in communication with the phone company's internet equipment. Therefore, you are offline. No synchronization, no internet. You can usually take a look at your modem to determine if it is in sync with the phone company equipment. A modem will have one of it's status lights that will glow steadily if it is in sync. The ones that I am familiar with show this light is labeled as "dsl".

The third condition that will keep you off the web is called a "no route" condition. This means that while your modem has sync, there is an existing condition concerning the configuration of the modem or computer that is keeping you offline. And there are quite a few of them.

Is there a router between the modem and the computer? If there is you may want to bypass the router. This narrows the problem down by removing the router and any conflicts it may be causing. Having said this, you may need to configure the modem to operate without a router before you can continue troubleshooting.

The best way to troubleshoot a modem is to hard wire it directly to the computer with an ethernet cable. What configuration is the modem set to? Is it DHCP or something else such as PPPoE? You may have to get into the modem's graphic user interface to make sure it is set up correctly. This is done from the browser address bar.

Is the modem able to communicate with the computer? From the command prompt screen ask the computer what it's ip address is using the ipconfig command. This will usually be a string of numbers beginning with 192.168.etc. Then ping that address from the prompt screen using ping 192.168.etc., to test accuracy and response. The correct response is "packets sent 4, packets received 4, 0% loss. Any deviation from this or no response at all, could mean a defective n.i.c.

Ping the n.i.c to see if the device is working correctly. If the n.i.c. or network interface card is bad, you will have to have repairs on the computer. The address I use for the n.i.c is 27.127.0.0.1 and as this is a ping command, we are again looking for packets sent up and received.

Ping the modem to test accuracy and response. The modems address of 192.168.1.1 is the one I use. It may vary according to the manufacturer. The response will again be packets sent and received with 0% loss. A failed ping may indicate a defective modem. Reset the modem and try again. Ping a website to test accuracy and response.

If the modem is in sync, and the protocol is correct and you are able to ping the computer's ip address, ping the n.i.c., ping the modem and all seems to check out, it is time to move on to the computer configuration. You will want to check the tcp/ip configuration of the computer to determine that it is correctly set up to allow internet access. After this you want to release and renew the ip address, flush the dns and then register the dns and hard reset the browser.

Those commands executed from the command prompt screen are ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew, ipconfig /flushdns, and ipconfig /registerdns respectively. Hard resetting the browser is done from the browser tool bar area. Power down the computer and modem. Then power the modem back up and let it stabilize and then power up the computer. If after performing all of these steps and if everything checks out as good but you are still offline, you may want to take the machine to a technician. As an extreme fix, you can have them replace the operating system as there is still something keeping the machine from performing as it should. This step will insure the machine is returned to factory settings and any malicious software is removed.

These steps will fix a great percentage of all internet "no access" problems.

Some final thoughts to consider. Trouble shoot from the phone wall jack to the modem. There can be no filters in that line and if there are splitters present, it is best to remove them. Check for a dial tone. No dial tone, no phone service or internet. If the the service is a dry loop of course, there will be no dial tone.

Hard wire the modem to the computer and bypass any routers. It is not a good idea to try and trouble shoot using a computer configured for wireless operation and the computer is not connected directly to the modem

Test the modem for proper operation as described in this text before moving on to the computer configuration.

When all else has failed call tech support as you may need repairs on the lines at your home or the phone company equipment has developed problems.