Ask that nice man...
| It Doesn't Work, Daddy! | |||
| If your system doesn't work like the one described elsewhere, at least you know now what you're
trying for. Trouble-shooting modem and Internet connections can be complicated, but be patient and have faith. You will once again surf the Big E-Kahuna. |
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| I was using the Internet just fine yesterday, but today I can't connect. | |||
| How quickly we become dependent on the Internet! We
have e-mail to return! We can't buy that stock we have a hot tip
on!
It is tempting to immediately start changing things around in your computer to "fix" the problem so you can get back online right away. Don't. First, consider the possibility that your Internet Service Provider may be at fault. It happens. In fact, it happens a lot. Even the best ISPs have outages. (When AOL has an eight-hour outage, it makes headlines. When mom&pop.com goes down for a day, it doesn't.) Many ISPs maintain automated "status line" phone numbers you can call, to hear a recorded message advising you if they are having problems in your region. If they don't, and you don't feel like waiting on hold for their tech support, then take my advice: be patient. Change nothing. Wait half an hour or so and try again. If you still can't connect, wait another hour and try again. If you can bear it, wait a whole day. Still no connection? OK, now go ahead and call tech support. If the problem is on their end, the wait on hold will now be shorter, and the person you talk to will have more complete information for you. Plus you will have better justification for your indignation. And if they tell you that everything is fine at their end, you'll have reason to believe them, and can move on to more invasive diagnostic remedies. |
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| I can't send e-mail, and I don't seem to be receiving any either. | |||
| This is a classic situation when it is vitally important to "parse"
the problem -- that is, to determine where the problem is, to
identify which of the many critical elements involved is letting you
down.
This means first being certain whether (a) you are not connecting properly to the Internet or (b) you are solidly connecting to the Internet, but your e-mail software is nonetheless unable to send or receive. I like to test my Internet connection by opening my Web browser, and going to a Web page I haven't been to before (at least recently), or a favorite News site or Portal page that is being constantly updated. If all is well, I'll know it right away, and I can focus on my mail problem. You may not realize it, but you are probably dealing with a different computer at your ISP when you send e-mail than when you receive it. The computers may even have different names, like pop.isp.com (for receiving mail) and smtp.isp.com (for sending). (Of course, the actual names may be nothing like this at all.) So if you know your Internet connection is solid, you can still "parse" the problem by sending yourself an e-mail message. Does it stick in your out-box? Or disappear into thin air? Do you get an error message? Does some phantom "administrator" send you an auto-reply that your message is undeliverable as addressed? Armed with this info, your ISP tech support person should be quickly able to get your mail working again -- once you get through to talk to them! If all is not well -- if you discover you can't browse the Web either -- then set your e-mail program aside for the moment, and focus on your ability to connect to the 'Net. |
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| I think the problem may be with my modem. | |||
| As it happens, I have an entire page about modem problems, here. | |||
| No, the modem is dialing, I can hear it. I just never get connected to my ISP! | |||
| First, you should carefully review the information provided to you by your
ISP, and compare it carefully with the settings within the properties of the Connectoid. Check to see if it is dialing improperly, such as dialing a 9 of *70 when you don't need one, or including the area code even though you are making a local call. Double-check your username and password. I guarantee that if you fill in the wrong username or password, you will not get connected no matter how many times you try, and no matter how many other settings you play with. At this point, you really should call the technical support line of your ISP. Remember, you are going to be paying them something like $20 per month. Here is where they will earn it. (If you are paying less than $20 per month, you should expect the tech support you receive to be inadequate... Console yourself with all the money you will save over the months to come.)
If you frequently fail to make a connection, but sometimes do with the same settings, you should complain to the ISP, but the blame may also be your local phone company's. Likewise if the connection often breaks off suddenly in mid-download. But also double-check that your modem is properly identified to Windows. Check for new drivers from your modem manufacturer. |
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| OK, Windows tells me I am connected to the Internet, but nothing actually works. | |||
| Here again, your ISP should be responsive. They will want to confirm
that your Network settings (see Control Panel /Network) are right for them.
Be sure to confirm your DNS settings with them.
If you change ISPs or have ever been connected to a Local Area Network (that is, if your computer was formerly connected via a data cable to other computers) there could very well be leftover settings that need to be removed. |
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| OK, the Internet software works, but it doesn't work right! | |||
| If Internet programs you are using do not behave properly, first look in
the Tools Options to see if there is a relevant setting you can change. Do not go blindly
changing the options -- the default settings are optimal for most users, and changing them
randomly may create new problems. But reading through the options can be an excellent way
to discover what the software is capable of, and making it suit your needs. If the software starts working OK, then suddenly stops working, sometimes with an error message, and stops responding to your commands, we say it has "crashed". This is unpleasant, but you need not immediately panic and give away your computer. (Try my Exit Mantra first.) If software crashes frequently, it is clearly broken. The first line of defense is usually to re-install it. (Therefore do not erase IE4setup.exe or similar files immediately after you use them once.) The second line of defense is to check for most current device drivers to work with your hardware (especially your video card, sound board, modem, printer, etc.). If this concept is new to you, you may wish to defer this process to whoever sold you your computer, or other competent technician. You way also want to check for an updated version of the software itself. Sometimes bugs are actually fixed by the programmers! Check to make sure you have plenty of space on your hard disk, too. My e-mail reader crashed all the time until I realized I had over 150 Mb in e-mail files, and less than 100 Mb free on my hard disk. Microsoft provides very limited phone support for IE4, but (if you can get to it), the knowledge base on their Web site http://support.microsoft.com/support/ contains all the information that would be available to a Microsoft phone tech support person (if you could talk to one). |
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| Are there any diagnostic tools I can use to tell me more? | |||
| There are indeed, and several of them are free and already
on your computer. My favorite is hidden on your hard disk, but you
can run it by clicking on Start, then Run, and typing in "winipcfg"
and pressing Enter. For each "adapter" in your computer,
you can view its current IP address and other useful info. If all of
these IP addresses are currently 0.0.0.0, then it is hardly surprising
that you are not seeing the Internet.
Even if you don't understand all the settings, this utility can be handy. With the program up and running on your computer, press Ctrl-C, then right-click in the body of an e-mail message or text document and press Ctrl-V. This will paste the entire contents of the configuration details into the message, so you can e-mail it to your ISP. (OK, then, so you can print it out and fax it to your ISP.) Another handy testing tool is called "ping", a quick way to test whether there exists an Ethernet path between your computer and any other computer in the world. Try it: Click on Start | Programs | MS-DOS Prompt. In the black window that opens up, enter the following:
That is the numeric IP address of the Intel Web site. If all is well, you should get a reply from that site -- four replies actually -- including specific info on how fast the reply came back. If not, you'll get an error-type message: "destination host unreachable" or "request timed out", etc. That means that either Intel's Web site is down or your computer is not properly connected to the Internet (guess which). Next try entering:
If that doesn't give you a valid reply, but the previous ping did, then I would strong suggest a problem with your Domain Name Server -- either you have told your computer to use the wrong DNS server address, or your ISP's DNS server is down. There's a lot of troubleshooting you can do with these two tools, but alas I can't cover all the possibilities here. |
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| This has been very helpful and all, but it still doesn't work! | |||
| If none of this avails... gosh, what could you do? You could look in the
yellow pages for a computer software repair person, or call a local PC User group to
recommend a mentor, or throw the whole thing out the window. Or, of course, you could Ask That Nice Man!
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OK, the Internet works, |