The Complete Guide to Ethernet and How to Fix it When the Internet is Down

In the first place, I would check if your computer or phone is getting a signal.

Go to: Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections

If the network cable is unplugged, then there’s something physically wrong with the cable.

Most other devices will say there is no Internet connection, and offer to connect to a WiFi one.

Check the physical connections on the computer, router and any switches you use

If the cable is unplugged, it may be that the input connection isn’t aligned properly or another physical problem. To identify this, look at the plug to see if it has become detached from its socket. If not, then check for other types of damage by visually inspecting any obvious wear and tear along with light or loose connections within the power source and cables.

Even though your laptop is showing as plugged in, it’s worth checking all the other cables around your house.

The Ethernet port on my Nvidia Shield is broken, so it doesn’t make the correct connection and I can sometimes see the cable getting loose. It happened to me before too when I tried to run Ethernet cable around my home—I had lots of them looped together and cables running in every. We encountered a problem with the retaining clip when it popped out of the switch from time to time.

I recommend checking the cables and make sure they’re clicked in. This is usually a problem with ethernet cables, but it may be worth checking all connections.

Check your WiFi

Can you try to see if your WiFi is working, or call your ISP? If that’s up running – the Internet must be too.

If you are having trouble connecting to the Internet, make sure you’re in a WiFi area. If your device has WiFi capability, try connecting to that first and see if it works. Otherwise, use your phone as a tester to see if the overall internet connection is working correctly.

Check if another computer can work via a wired connection

If you have another device or computer nearby, go ahead and check to see if it has an Ethernet port.

Use the diagnose and fix function & reboot

If you right click a network connection and select Diagnose. Windows will test the connection and try and determine if there is a problem. From my experience, this rarely solves the issue.

If the problem persists you might want to disable then reenable your network card. To do this, right click on it and go to properties, find the disable option and move it all the way to the left before clicking OK.

Yeah, we know this sounds like a joke and it can’t be THAT simple but trust us. Try switching your PC and router ON/OFF and see if that fixes the problem.

Check your DNS / Scan your network [If your WiFi works but wired Internet doesn’t]

Sometimes the computer has an Ethernet connection but, for some reason, isn’t connecting to the router properly. This will thus cause difficulties with DHCP and DNS

This is the quickest way to open up the command prompt: Windows + R, type cmd, hit enter. From there it’s just typing “ipconfig”.

This should show your IP address and the router (gateway). The format is typically 192.168.x.x.

A common router/gateway IP is 192.168.1.254, but it may be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1.

If it’s something that the PC should be doing, there may be a problem with your PC connecting to or getting an IP address from the router.

One issue might be that you have a static IP set and/or predefined DNS.

To configure your Net ID, simply go to the Control Panel and select Network and Internet. Under network connections, if you have a right-click then it will show the option to select Properties. Once on this window, scroll down and under Internet Protocol Version 4 look for “properties.” For IP address configuration, you would want both IP address (IP), Subnet mask .Recently, I manually set an IP and for some reason, I changed my router. Now my static IP address isn’t reaching the device it was initially intended for. The culprit could be a wrong route on the router or a simple mistake in the manual IP settings.

Check your router registers an Internet connection

Wired internet is the preferred way to connect at home, but if you have a strong WiFi connection and your routers says it has an internet connection but nothing seems to work, try resetting your router and then waiting for a few minutes before restarting.

If you are using a modem supplied/rented by your ISP (or a third party VDSL router), then it should let you know if your internet is working. If it reports that there is an error, then the problem can either be related to the ISP’s server or to your router.

No Internet at all

If your Internet doesn’t work, the issue is either with the router or your ISP. To troubleshoot this problem: reboot your router and check to see if your ISP is having any outages on its website–if so, wait until they fix it before trying again.

I am sorry to hear of your issues. First, it may be worth checking the cables that run into your house. You should have already checked the cable inside the house, but it is possible that something has caused damage outside. Virgin Media has my electrical cables pinned down a wall and I’ve heard reports of correspons.

A router can be a central point for slow internet, especially if your ISP-supplied one is outdated. If you have an issue with your ISP, try resetting the router to see if this will help—I have written a couple of guides on how to resolve these problems. This includes a guide for slow Virgin Fibre, Sky Broadband and BT Broadband.

If following setup directions on your router didn’t work, you may need to do it again and make sure you used the correct username and password.

You should also check any parental controls or block lists within the router.