7 Simple Fixes To Solve Network Problems

Often we encounter problems that occur on computers, but maybe for some people network problems are one of the worst. While our computers can do a lot of things offline, being cut off from the internet is no fun. Even worse, when you can't get online, it's not easy to come up with a fix for the problem. For that you can try 7 Simple Fixes to Solve Network Problems.

1. Make sure that it's a network problem

The first thing you can do to solve network problems is to make sure that the problem is indeed on the network. Because sometimes what looks like a network outage is actually a problem on a certain end of the website. If you can't use Twitter, for example, check a few other websites to make sure that the problem isn't just one site. You can use IsUp.me to easily check if a website is down for everyone or just you.

2. Reboot And Check Other Devices

There's no need to get upset right away, because the fix for your problem might be as easy as rebooting the equipment. A restart fixes a lot of problems, so make sure it's your first response to network issues too. Go ahead and reboot your PC, as well as your modem and router. To clear modem and router cache, wait 60 seconds before you turn it back on. When you plug everything back in, plug in your modem first and wait for the power to turn on before connecting your router.

Turning everything off and back on first ensures that it's not a temporary network issue. After you restart, if you have another computer (or mobile device), try going online with that machine. If you find that no devices can connect, there is likely a problem with your equipment or your ISP.

If you find that only one computer cannot get online, you can continue to narrow down the problem. On that device, make sure to run an antivirus scan to make sure you don't have any malware interfering with your connection. You have to make sure that your firewall settings are not blocking the connection. Finally, try using another browser to see if your browser is indeed broken.

3. Check the Physical Connection

Do your network problems persist after rebooting? Before you start stepping into setup and testing, the next step to check is that you are physically connected. If you are using an Ethernet cable to connect to your router, check to make sure that it is not unplugged or damaged. If your laptop has a physical wireless device, make sure it is not set to the off position.

Once you have verified proper connection, check your equipment. Is the light on your router or modem flashing green as usual? If no lights are on after rebooting, the device could be dead or not working. However, if you get a red light, or a power light but no connection light, your ISP is likely experiencing interference.

4. Run Windows Network Troubleshooter

Windows has several built-in troubleshooters that can automatically find and fix problems. To run the troubleshooter for network problems, right-click the network icon in your System Tray and select Troubleshoot Problems . Once the troubleshooter is running, it may fix the problem and find the problem but it can also fail to fix it and not find any errors.

5. Check Valid IP Address

At this point, you have verified that the problem is not temporary and that all of your hardware is working. Since Windows can't fix the problem on its own, we need to determine where along the connection the problem occurs. It's a good idea to make sure that you don't have strange IP settings selected. You can go to the ip settings on your adapter and make sure you have Obtain IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically checked.

After doing so, you can check to make sure the router gave you a valid IP address. Open a Command Prompt window by typing cmd into the Start Menu. Enter ipconfig and look for text under Ethernet adapter (for wired connections) or Wireless LAN Adapter (for wireless connections).

If the IPv4 Address starts with 169.xxx , your computer is not receiving a valid IP address from your router. You can try typing the following two commands to release your computer's current IP address and request a new one, which might solve this:

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

If you still have the 169.xxx address after typing the above command and ipconfig again, your machine still hasn't received an IP from the router. Try connecting your PC directly to the modem with an Ethernet cable and see if you can get online. If so, your router is the problem.

6. Ping And Trace The Route

If your IP address starts with anything other than 169 when you run ipconfig , you have a valid IP address from your router. At this point, you have confirmed that the problem is somewhere between your router and the internet.

Type this command to ping Google's DNS servers to see if you can get online (you can replace 8.8.8.8 with anything, such as google.com. If the packet fails while sending, you will see some basic info about the failure. You can pressing Ctrl + C to stop pinging at any time.For more information, type this command to trace the route between your computer and Google's DNS servers:

tracert 8.8.8.8

The command above gives you a step by step breakdown of the path the information takes to reach your specified destination. Keep an eye on it, and if that fails, check to see where the problem is occurring. If the error appears at the start of the route, this problem is likely with your local network

7. Contact the ISP

If all the steps above completed successfully, you have now verified that your equipment is working and confirmed you have a valid IP address from the router. Also, you guys believe that the problem is occurring outside the network for some devices. If this is the case, your best option for troubleshooting the network is to find out if your ISP is having problems.

Using your smartphone will prove useful here, as you can search outage maps (such as DownDetector.com ) for your provider or check Twitter to see if other people in your area are also having problems. If you don't see any logs on the internet, try contacting your ISP to see if there are any known issues. Maybe the line problem affects a small area.