Have you fired up your computer to start your day, only to discover that the Internet is not working? If so, it will help to know some tips to troubleshoot the problem so that you can start being productive. 

Check For Known Outages

It is possible that the problem is not with your equipment at home, but with your Internet service provider having a known problem that they are working on. That's why it is always worth starting the troubleshooting process by calling your Internet service provider to see if they are aware of the problem. If so, there is not much that you can do other than wait it out and be notified that the service is back up and running against. 

Check Your Modem Health

If there are no known outages when you call your Internet service provider, you can have them run a modem health check to see if the ISP can communicate with your modem. If not, this tells you that there is a problem between the modem and the connection point where the coax cable is connected to a nearby service pole. It may require bringing in a technician to figure out what is wrong with the line or replace your modem. 

Restart Your Equipment

The next step should be to restart all your equipment, but the key is to do it in the right order. Start by unplugging your modem and router for about a minute, then plug in the modem so that it can get up and running and has the flashing lights indicating that it has an Internet signal. Then plug in the router, which should take that signal and start distributing it to the devices in your home. You can then restart individual devices to see if they are getting an Internet connection. 

Connect Directly To The Modem

Is your Internet still not working? The next step will be to eliminate the equipment in your home, such as the router and Ethernet cables. Try plugging a device in directly to the modem, or connect directly to the WiFi network that is broadcast from your modem rather than your router. If things work when connected directly to the ISP supplied hardware, then you know it is a problem with your router or other equipment that connects to the modem.

Reach out to a local ISP if you can't figure out why you're not getting an Internet connection.