… how did the nice lady at the 800 number manage to get me online so she could fix it?
Modem was down, called cust. svc., she said open the browser and type ###.##.## (don’t recall what the numbers were, this was a couple of weeks ago), which got me to a screen from which we did x, y, and z and got the modem functioning again.
At the time, I was so thrilled to have internet access back so quickly I didn’t think about it. (The last time there had been a problem, the modem was bad and it took almost a week and several very long conversations with people in India to get it resolved.) But now I’m wondering:
If we went in through the browser, presumably we were online. If the online connection was bad, which was the problem, where were we if we weren’t online?
Not sure this is correct, but I believe most router settings are accessed through an internet browser. Just because something opens in an internet browser doesn’t mean you’re online. Your computer was basically communicating with the router, which is plugged into the computer, and so not through the internet.
You weren’t online. That number was the modem’s IP. You were accessing the modem’s webpage, if you’d like, but you weren’t doing so via the internet. It was as if you had an HTML document saved to your computer. From that page you were able to mess with the modem’s settings. You could cut the cable cord and still be able to access that page provided your computer is connected to the modem.
Ah, okay, so she was having me mess with the *router *settings, and once those were sorted out we could get back online and do the rest of the mucking about?
Yup, the modem/router settings probably reset due to power fluctuation or something. Most likely they walked you through logging into it and resetting it to bridged or non bridged or some other settings the ISP requires on their network.
Also makes for a handy test. If you can access the router/modem configuration page, you know most of the networking aspects of the computer that allow it to function on the internet are working. I always explain it to customers as “there is a little web page that lives in that box”
(yes I know DNS can be borked and still access those pages, yadda yadda)
The explanation is almost certainly correct, but there is another possibility. Just because the northbound lane on a road is blocked, it does not follow that the southbound lane is.
I had the following experience. I could not connect to the i-net. Called the phone company. Guy asked my phone number and claimed he could connect to my computer, so the problem was my computer, probably IE (he claimed). I told him my wife couldn’t connect either. He said both copies of IE must have become damaged–at exactly the same time!
The next day, the problem was solved–but the phone company never admitted it was their problem. A couple more incidents like that (including tech support asking me, “What’s name server”) and switched to a cable modem (and cable telephone).
When support drones try to tell me things like that I usually tell them “and maybe you could be struck by lighting and win the lottery, at the same time.”
