Summary: Home networks or other small LAN can stop working for various reasons, but there's a simple reason home networks stop working that's often overlooked.
I'm not able to reach some websites, and the list seems to be growing. I've checked your other articles on the topic, but nothing seems to help. Now, all of a sudden, I can't reach anything. Even my email doesn't work. What's going on?
There are so many reasons that things can go wrong, sometimes it's a wonder things work at all. However, once configured properly LANs tend to be fairly stable.
That is, until they're not.
This might be a problem that I keep forgetting about myself. If it is, it has a trivially simple solution. Until it happens again.
•
Reboot your router.
Seriously - pull the plug on it, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in. If you have a separate broadband modem, reboot it at the same time.
You might have to reboot your PC at this point as well, to force it to get a new IP address.
If everything suddenly starts working more quickly and more reliably - the problem was the router.
It's not a bad router, per so, it's just that, well ... these things happen. It's one of the many reasons that "Reboot" is one of the first steps in diagnosing computer problems. It puts the computer - or in this case the router - in a known clean initial state.
Routers are really small computers. As such they have to do things like manage memory and run programs - which can sometimes bog down, and even halt, after a lot of use due to software design issues - most typically internal memory management and memory fragmentation within the device. When that happens, they stop functioning, or they function erratically. For example, some websites work, others don't. Maybe some are slow, or maybe everything is slow.
Routers are also electronic devices - and are sensitive to power surges, even cosmic rays, than can sometimes cause erratic behavior.
A reboot is a quick, and easy solution to try.
Every month or so I find that things aren't operating as smoothly as I like, or something stops working on my own home network. So, I trek down the basement and pull the plug for a few seconds. After powering it back on, by the time I've walked back up to my office, everything is working smoothly once again.
(Actually, I usually grumble and wonder "ok, what's happening now?" for a while before I suddenly remember, slap my forehead, and head downstairs for the reboot. You'd think I'd remember.)
Related:
Ask Leo! - Why do so many tech support solutions start with "reboot" or "turn it off"? - why "reboot" is such a common first step.
Ask Leo! - Why can I not access certain web sites? - spyware and other software related reasons.
Ask Leo! - I can't access some websites ... why? - a network configuration tweak.
Article C2793 - September 21, 2006
Hello Leo,
Posted by: Giovanna at September 20, 2007 10:54 AMMaybe you can help, can't access my internet on my home computer I have Comcast, they even sent a tech to look at it, and now he is saying its the computer, the local connection is gone and the back of the computer there are two lights, the top one is yellow and the bottom is green, don't know what to do, please help. My husband is thinking of wiping everything and start new??? we can't afford it to take it to a computer tech.
thank you, I'll be waiting for your response, anyone knows what could be wrong? I have been reading your articles but so far I've seen nothing on this problem. oh I have AVG firewall.
Hey! Thank you! very useful. There is one problem though. I am rebooting my router like every 3 days. It is getting annoying. Is there anyway I can clear up the memory? Is there something on my computer I can to clear traffic. I would appriciate it is you e-mail me as soon as possible. Thank you for your time.
Posted by: Daniel at January 20, 2008 7:27 PM-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Not that I'm aware of. Sorry.
Leo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)
iD8DBQFHlpseCMEe9B/8oqERAq2HAKCL8eHwUV4+vD5J1eYx6yNl7vor6gCgjSHw
Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at January 22, 2008 5:40 PMu+a+U62z9RQyGGmAxUJMbnA=
=kpoB
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
maybe you can help me, while using a P2P network like bittorrent, I lose my internet signal, but I am still connected to my router. I have tried a router swap just to make sure that it wasn't the problem.
Posted by: Adam at February 20, 2008 7:39 PMLeo, THANK YOU! I, too, tend to forget these most fundamental rules: Keep It Simple, and Start From The Beginning. This is not the first time I've come here for advice on what to do when all my network connections suddenly "disappear". And -- just like the last time -- a simple router reboot took care of the problem. Maybe I'll remember to START with the reboot the next time this happens! And, hopefully, I don't spend a full day testing OTHER theories -- to no avail -- before remembering to reboot.
Posted by: Julie at February 23, 2008 1:44 PMThank you, again, for the reminder. :)
Hello, I hope you can help. I have a new internet connection, and to the router 2 computers are connected: mine and that of my neighbor. We have both winXP, The internet is working fine on my neighbor's computer, mine was working fine at the beginning, then i started facing a problem: after about 10 to 30 minutes after i turn on the computer, i receive a notification telling me that the connectivity is limited, and the ip address changes from 172.24.97.* to a private one 169.... I have to shutdown and then turn on my computer for the connection to work again. I tried setting a static ip address, and it didn't work. The problem is not whith the physical connections, since the same network cable works fine when i plugs it in the laptop. I connected the computer to a different interface of the router and i had the same problem. Firewall is off. (all the settings are the same as that of my neighbour). Any suggestions please?
Posted by: Michel at June 19, 2008 3:06 PMIhave a D- Link Router WBR-2310
Connected to my dektop Comp. My laptop works great.and very happy with perfomance.
My son when visiting one day plugged in his laptop. Indications were excellent signal,however
Posted by: Bill at July 23, 2008 12:48 PMwhen we tried to access internet, message shows up this page cannot be displayed no internet connection
Any help or advice appreciated
i kinda have the same problem but with mine im on my pc and if i open up just any page my internet just stops working i gotta go into my network connections disable my current connection then re enable it for it to work again this is starting to get worse and worse some times i click my internet exploreer and it dosnt even load the home page... could u help me thnx
Posted by: Jason at January 4, 2009 2:19 AMI have windows vista. I have a At@t for ISP. I have a belkin wireless router,along with my regular DSL router AT@t gave me. I only get local internet at home but at work it picks up both local and internet with no problem. I also tried connecting straight to DSL wire and have the same problem local only access. Could it be my router from AT&T or maybe my Belkin wireless router???
Posted by: Nelson at April 15, 2009 6:23 PMmy desktop does not work in my house neither does anyone la[tops? the work on the porch, but not anywhere in the house. why doesn't it work?
Posted by: jeanette at May 8, 2009 1:42 PM