Re: unplug and power up dsl modem and router

Tom H. wrote:
This is happening more to my wife's new Toshiba laptop running
Vista than to my Dell laptop running XP-SP2.
The computer will loose access to the internet, and the fix is to
unplug the power to the DSL modem and the wireless router, wait a
few seconds, re-power the modem and router, wait 3 minutes then
start Internet Explorer. This has always fixed the problem, but I
would like to better understand the underlying cause. This started
happening more often after my wife got a new Toshiba laptop. It
often happens that my Dell laptop is still connected to the
internet. At first I thought that since only her computer was
having a problem that there must have been some problem with her
computer and that turning power off and on to the modem and router
would not be the fix, but it was the fix after all. I guess there
is some part of networking here that does not make sense to me,
probably because I do not know a lot about networking.
Is there some other way to attack the problem to make it happen less
frequently?

Also, I looked for a Vista help newsgroup, but could not find one.

Tom H. wrote:
About as much as I can do to troubleshoot the modem and router is
to only turn one off and see if that fixes the problem. That would
tell me which piece of gear is causing problems, but beyond that I
would not know what to do. Maybe I could go to the router/modem
manufacturer website and look for troubleshooting guides.

You lose connectivity, here are things to try - in this order...

- Repair your network connection.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/maintain/repair.mspx
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-GB/help/33307acf-0698-41ba-b014-ea0a2eb8d0a81033.mspx

If that does not fix it...

- Unplug the router from power. Wait 30 seconds. Plug your router back in.
Wait 60 seconds.
(Leave everything else plugged in/untouched.)

If that does not fix it...

- Unplug the DSL modem from power. Wait 30 seconds. Plug your router back
in. Wait 60 seconds.
(Leave everything else plugged in/untouched.)

More information...

Essentially - this is how things are likely working in your environment:

Phone line --> DSL Modem --> Router --> Your computer(s).

Essentially your DSL modem gets an Internet connection from the ISP and
gives an IP to the device connected to it (in this case - the router.) Your
router gets an IP (public or private dependent on whether or not your DSL
Modem might be a router as well) and then your router hands out IPs to the
machines that connect to it.

Therefore - if, as you stated originally - you can fix things by unplugging
(from power) the DSL Modem and router - then something is wrong *likely*
with one of those two devices. Especially if you are seeing problems on TWO
different computers that connect to the system - even more so if the problem
occurs at the same time on the two computers.

The first solution above just causes the computer to look over its settings
and reset them - establish the connection, request a new IP and clear some
caches. The second tests to see if possibly your router is defective. At
the cost of them - you'd probably just want to purchase a new router instead
of trying to fix it - one with more features (unless your DSL Modem might
also be a router - then you could just use it - unless you got the other
router because you needed wireless - although many ISPs now offer modems
with wired and wireless routers built into it.) The last will test the
modem to see if it is losing connectivity with the ISP and then you should
call your ISP to troubleshoot it.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


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