Your internet is down.. again !  What can be the problem now? Before you get rattled and start ripping out cords and rebooting or … in dire traits, reformatting, ….. check your modem. This piece of essential equipment is susceptible to power surgers, storms, and general wear and tear.  It can often be so simple and you miss the obvious checks.

So what do you do first. 

1.  Most ISP’s will recommend you had an ADSL filter on the line you are using for the internet.  This can , from time to time, get damaged or full of dust.  To bypass this as a first measure of a process of elimination , inplug the filter and put the cable for your router directly into the wall socket for the Telkom connection.

 2.  Are any lights on your modem red or orange. ?  If there is a red or orange light on the internet label, you probably have a line fault.

 3. To test your modem properly you will have to log in to it . In order to do this you need to get into your default gateway on the modem. If you are not sure how to go about getting there , here are some helpful tips.

a) open up the command prompt by holding down the windows button and pressing the letter “R”. The RUN mentu should pop up asking you to type in something. Type in “CMD”  and press enter.

b) a black screen should now appear and you will need to type in : ipconfig .. and hit enter

c) scroll down the list until you see where it says default gateway.  Cope that IP address and paste it into your browser.  It will prompt you for a user name and password.

d) the user name and password should be admin, and admin. Enter. Each router interface is slightly different – so look for the setting that says : basic settings and then : wan configuration.

e) this will now enable you to see if your user name and password is  still listed in the fields required.

 Now if all this is correct there is another  option…

4. Try testing your modem at another location. .. alternatively you can try another router on your line.

5. Ensure all cables are securely plugged in .

6. If the modem is very hot to the touch, turn it off immediately.