Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Lost your internet connection?


A recent problem has occurred more frequently than usual so maybe it's something you should be aware of.  Over the last few days this problem has occurred several times so is Microsoft doing something strange? I don't know because it has been an issue that's been around for very many years - just not so frequent!

The problem is that your system says that it can't get at the internet, page not found, or similar, and it's all down to not getting a correct connection to your router.

Now be aware that not being able to get at the internet can be caused by a great many things and this is only one solution and, in fact, the first this always is to try rebooting (switching off and on again) your router.

In most cases people have confirmed that other devices; ipads, other computers, etc, have been able to connect OK so this is only a suggestion for one specific problem!

The first thing is to see whether this is the problem we're talking about so you need to open a command window with administrative privileges (!). Don't Panic! If you're running Windows 10 (or 8) press the keys windows+x and select 'Command Prompt (Admin)'. If you're running Windows 7 then press the windows key and type 'cmd' and when it comes up with the program cmd.exe, right click on it and select run as administrator. (Note: the 'windows' key is usually that one on the lower left of your keyboard between Ctrl and Alt)


So now what you've got is a scary black Windows box, but that's fine; it's where true computer professionals would rather be! Just type

ipconfig and press enter

What you should see is a screen of mostly incomprehensible data but if you scroll up you should see something that looks like

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::884:131c:c31c:1594%10
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 169.254.18.97
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.220


The important bit is where it says IPv4 Address and if you see it starting 169.254. as above then you have this particular problem. If it starts 192.168. (or 172. or 10.) then you have another, different problem so maybe you should call me!

If what you see is starting 169.254 then type 
     winsh int ip reset
And after that
     winsh winsock reset catalog

Don't worry about the messages it produces, including the one about 'Resetting , failed.', now just reboot your computer and with any luck your internet connection will be restored.

Just one last point, though. If you do have this problem, you may not be able to get at these instructions so maybe it's worthwhile making a note of the important bits?