a friend's internet won't work

[Fish]

Okay, so one of the other folks in my apartment building is having trouble getting her internet to work. Having just watched through the entire 4th season of House MD, I now feel obligated to get to the root of the mystery.

So, the symptoms are:



The patient CAN connect to the internet when using a connection in a different location
the patient uses wireless, and can SEE the connection listed, but it does not actually function - similarly, a physical, non-wireless connection shows up as present, but does not function
Internet box DOES light up, and seems to work (but doesn't actually)
When a different internet box is connected in her apartment, it also seems to work (but also, doesn't)



So I'm pretty sure that this has to do with actual wiring of the network in the apartment - the wires in the walls, but I'm not sure why the devices would DETECT and REPORT a connection as healthy when it doesn't even function.

Ideas?

[Zok]

The connection detection only tells if it's plugged in and both devices have power. When you say "internet box" do you mean the router or the modem? Or is it both in one? Better yet: what's the brand/model number? I assume it's a windows machine, so: start -> run -> "cmd" (or "cmd.exe" if that doesn't work) -> "ipconfig /all"

Check to see if the network device is able to get an IP address from the router/modem. If not, it might be a hardware problem. If you have an IP address and you see a "default gateway" for the device as well, go to the default gateway's address in your web browser (should be something like 192.168.(number).1 - usuall 0.1 or 1.1). That'll open up the router config. You'll need the password/login. Try all the defaults: admin/admin, admin/password, root/password, admin/default, etc. If you can't get hte password, I'll look it up via the model number.

Once inside of the router's config... browse until you find a problem, I suppose. Check the connected/attached devices. Check to see if it is able to get an inbound connection from the cable company/modem.

If the modem and router are separate entities, you'll want to check the router first. If the router seems ok, try connecting to the modem in a similar fashion. Instead of looking for the modem's IP in ipconfig, look for it inside of the router config. Connect to it via web browser and see what it says about its status. You should not need a login/password for the modem's status page or config page. The modem address (for motorola devices) is usually 192.168.100.1.

[comedy247]

If you don't fix it, or still have the problem pm me.

[Th0r]

If you don't fix it, or still have the problem pm me.

How about sharing your knowledge with the rest of the community?

Is your friend using a dongle or an internal Wireless card?

[reidy-]

check DNS settings i.e. if auto manually configure if manual switch back to auto

[MartialShot]

check DNS settings i.e. if auto manually configure if manual switch back to auto

-.- This happpened to me, and took me 2 hours to fix, never been so embarrased at my own stupidity in years

[NeonMonkeys]

Tell the "patient" to pay their internet bill, then try.