So, You’re Experiencing an Internet Outage

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The internet has been an important part of our lives for many years.  Like many things in life, nothing ever goes to plan, or works the way you wanted to… or at least for only an extended period of time.  So it may happen from time to time that you experience an internet outage.  Today, I’d like go over a few steps to see why it may be happening, and perhaps fix it.

Internet Outage 101

Whether you’re on Charter, T-Mobile, ComCast or even the upcoming StarLink, it is a complete possibility that you’ve had an internet outage.  This can be caused by a multitude from of reasons.  Anywhere from a mishap on the ISP side, to the cable your cat is chewing on as you read this article.  Now here you are; trying to figure out why your Netflix froze in the middle of your binge.  Let’s take it slow and walk through a few steps.

 

Step 1 – Safety

As goofy as it sounds, trying to troubleshoot anything related to IT and computers is the main reason male pattern baldness exists.  It is exhausting, frustrating, and absolutely terrible.   It can drive a person insane to the point of no return.  So for yours and everyone’s safety, please leave all sharp objects out of sight and out of reach.  This can include anything from scissors to a thumb-tac.  Failure to do so can cause the end of your precious electronics.  The become pretty ‘stabbable’ after about 30 minutes of troubleshooting.

Maybe watch some ‘The Office’ Bloopers to start off in a good mood?

 

Step 2 – Is It Actually Down?

Are you sure the internet is out?  If it is, then nothing in the house should have a connection.  Anything from your TV, phone, and even automation AI devices like Alexa will be dead in the water.  I’m not calling ya stupid or anything…  but for the sake of your sanity, just triple check that the internet is actually down.  No just the Wi-Fi, but the internet.  If it’s just the Wi-Fi, checkout Eric’s blog about troubleshooting a router here.

 

Step 3 – Troubleshooting Time (Yay)

The first thing I would do is make sure that your modem is powered.  If it’s off, well, turn it on.  If it’s already on, check the power of your router.  Dido for the power of that one too.  If they’re both on, and the internet outage is still occurring, trying restarting the modem.  You can do this by unplugging the modem power, waiting around 10-30 seconds, and plugging it back in.  Also make sure that all cables are plugged in properly (like the image below).  Did that fix your issue?  If so, awesome!  Leave.  If not, stick around.

 

Diagram

 

Step 4 – Call Your ISP

At this point, you’ve pretty much done all that you can do.  It’s time to throw in the towel and call your Internet Service Provider (ISP).  Most of the time, it boils down to something on their end, or at least something out of the users reach.  Try not to curse at them too much, because you never know who else had their Netflix freeze on them, just like you.  The majority of the time, the ISP can run what’s called a line test and tell you exactly what’s going on with the connection.

It could even boil down to something like the line being physically damaged outside.  Regardless, it happens, and the ISP should have a general idea of what the issue may be.  That said, depending on hewn you call, they may not be able to send a tech your way till the following day.

 

In Closing

Like previously mentioned, stuff happens.  Life doesn’t always go according to plan.  The internet drops.  Your Netflix freezes.  We’ve all been there.  Hopefully this helps you determine what the issues may be, or at least nudges you in the right direction.  If, like most people, you start to freak out or are in a hurry to figure out what in the world is going on… give us a holler, we’ll do what we can to help out.  Although it’ll probably just be a TL;DR of this entire post.

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