Broadband Troubleshooting

Sometimes I hate computers!

My broadband connection has been getting slower and slower over the past few days and eventually ground to a halt last night… Couldn’t do anything, not even retrieve e-mails. I’ve been on the phone to my ISP and submitting support tickets etc. but with no solution. In the end this morning I got an old computer, old router and loads of old cables out from the loft. Switched all my other computers, routers etc. off and decided to try with a completely different set of hardware, cables and even different BT outlet socket in the wall.

Connected it all up, switched on and would you believe it, it worked… I didn’t expect that, but now it seemed as though there was a problem with my hardware somewhere.

So, I connected the new (old) computer to the BT socket I was using before. That worked. Next step was to connect the new (old) hardware through the surge protector and splitter I was using before. That worked.

Next step in the chain was the cable between the splitter a the router. That worked. Could it be the router? I swapped the routers back and that worked OK… Now, the only difference between the initial (not working) set-up and the new set-up was the ethernet cable, the computer itself and the fact that the phone wasn’t connected… I connected the phone and all was well. Changed the ethernet cable back to the one I was using before. All fine. So, I connected the computer that were originally connected back to the router. Started them up and connected at a decent speed (Well, decent for this neck of the woods anyway… A crawl for most people!).

Basically everything was exactly the same as it had been before. Not one component has changed, but now it works and before it didn’t… Maybe it was just a fluke and my ISP fixed the problem whilst I was swapping hardware around? Maybe its just a temporary fix and I’ll be back to pulling my hair out again in 10 minutes. But at the moment, fingers crossed, touch wood an any other superstitious things I should do I seem to have an internet connection again and can get on with some work.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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