The Ultimate Guide: Diagnosing & Fixing Connection Issues, Part II

Hello everyone and welcome to Part II - The Ultimate Guide: Diagnosing & Fixing Connection Issues.  In this tutorial we will discuss more advanced methods that I took in order to fix our home network.  I have also attached a link to download the FREE eBook - so feel free to download it to you can refer to this manual when you are experiencing connection issues.  I would also like to note that the manual has been loaded onto a free server - it will remain on the server until people stop downloading the document.  In saying this - after each download the link will remain active for an extra 60 days.  When the link expires, feel free to inbox me your email address. 

DNS Flush

So I have carried out most of the basic tasks.  It seems like the issue has something to do with the DNS server but we cannot be sure about that yet.  To see whether the connection problem had something to do with the DNS server I decided to flush the DNS cache with CMD.  Here is how you flush the DNS:

Start Menu -> search CMD then hit enter -> In the CMD type ipconfig /flushdns - it should look something like this: 

I thought this might fix the issue.  However flushing the DNS server didn't actually fix our internet connection problem.  The next step was to look into changing our default DNS address.  It might be that our internet providers DNS is having problems.  I then went  to NortonDNS and changed our configuration so we are using their DNS server instead the default one.  The big benefit to using NortonDNS is it is usually much faster and it is secure. 

Changing our default DNS

Navigate to the Network & Sharing Centre.  Start -> Control Panel -> Network & Internet -> Network & Sharing Centre.  I then want  you to click on connections then properties so that the Wireless Network Connection Status Page is up.  It should look like this. 

Click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then click properties again.  You should now see this page. 

Now click on "Use the following DNS server addresses" - enter the following numbers in:

- Preferred DNS server: 198.153.192.40

- Alternate DNS server: 198.153.194.40

Then click OK.  This has now changed the DNS address to the Norton DNS server - it is more secure and you may even see an increase in your internet speed. 

However - when I changed my DNS server my internet was still down.  I came to the conclusion that it is either (1) a hardware problem (2) an internal problem with our service provider or (3) it has something to do with our router. 

Checking out the router

This one is more behind the scenes.  It doesn't involve the physical side of the router but actually logging into it.  You will find many complicating settings in here so it is best to not fiddle around with the settings unless you know what you're doing. 

The first step is to open your browser and find out what your router IP address is.  It will either be 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1.  This must be entered into the browser URL bar - it doesn't matter that you have no connection - you can still access it.  This is an example of what the page will look like.

You must enter the username, password and you must validate the code below it.  Don't know what your username or password is?  Didn't set one?  You have three options here: find your routers manual and it will tell you what the default username and password is OR contact your IP.  It also isn't common for the default username to be admin and password admin again so give that a shot.  

OK - sweet.  So now we are in.  Here is an example shot again.

I then clicked on Maintenance which opened this page.

I then clicked on "Reboot" which took a few minutes to re-configured the router then guess what?  Walla!  The internet is back on.  I have no clue what was causing the internet to go down but whatever it was - this one little button fixed it all. 

To download your FREE eBook click here.  

You can also follow us on Facebook and Google+.  Feel free to also take part in our forums.