I live in an area that (alleged) has the most lightning of any place in the world. Early this week we were enjoying some of these pyrotechnics. For whatever reason these always seem to come between 3 and 5 am when it’s really bad, but that’s neither here nor there.
Anyway, both my parents’ and our house have lost network capability since these events. I checked yesterday, and the cable modem is still fine, and even the routers look okay (lights lit in the right places, etc), but I can’t access the 'Net through the router, just if I connect directly.
FWIW, I have a similar set up in my work office which is fine, probably because of the surge/electrical protection that I have here, but also maybe just didn’t get hit. Also, there was never a power outage and our electric didn’t seem to take any hits. Just rattled nerves and routers not working.
So, looking for two things:
are the routers useless at this point? How can I check/troubleshoot them?
what’s the best strategy for protecting my network equipment from lightning?
Thanks,
First I’d try connecting to your router. Point your browser to 192.168.0.1 or 1.1 or whatever the router IP is to check on how it thinks it’s doing.
Next, there will be a small button on the back (you may have to break out the pens or paperclips). Usually you hold it down for 10 seconds or so to reset to factory defaults.
If that doesn’t work, I’d try swapping cables, then after that re-flashing the router BIOS. Download the package from the router manufacturer and run it. Takes 30 seconds to do and if that doesn’t fix it, nothing will.
I assume your computer is set up for DHCP and that your router serving it up. Also, I assume you are using one of these router/firewalls for cable modem/DSL (like a Linksys or such) you can buy at Circuit City or CompUSA.
If thats the case, does your machine have an IP address, correct subnet mask, a default gateway and at least one valid DNS address? If not then your router is probably having problems with its DHCP setup…if you can get into the router (usually via a web interface…you may have to put a static address on your computer to do this) then you can check it out. If you have a valid address on your computer then test your connection. Can you ping the router from the inside? If so, are you resolving DNS (i.e. if you type ping www.microsoft.com at a command prompt does it resolve to an address)? Basically if you can resolve DNS then you should be in business.
If you can’t ping the router or otherwise get into it, the last thing I’d try is to reset it to defaults (usually there is a little button you can push with a bent paperclip)…find your manual and see what it says about doing that. Once you have reset it to defaults, power down the cable modem and the router, power up the cable modem and then connect and power up the router. Then reboot your machine (or renew your DHCP address). If this still doesn’t work I’d just take it back to the vendor for a replacement.
Oh…and you might want to get a surge surpressor and maybe even a small UPS…to prevent future mishaps.
