In Response to your question, I wrote a blog about this specific problem(hope you don't mind) and how to go about troubleshooting the problem.. The Original article can be found on our website, here: Internet Connectivity Problems.. DIY fix - Central Florida Geek- Computer Repair, Web-Design, Home Theater, iPhone repair, and More!
I included some images on how to do some of the steps on our site.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Connectivity Problems.. DIY fix
Written by: Eddie Boscana Technician at CflGeek.com
Date: 12/19/2012
This problem could be a result of The Speed of your Internet Connection, and/or the reliability of it...
A Little Back Story
Think of our internet connections like interstates.. Each interstate is designed to manage a maximum amount of vehicles. Exceed that amount and you get what we call; Congestion, Traffic Jams, and occasionally accidents. Thankfully, eventually, if given enough time congestion lightens up, and we are on our way again.
However, when it comes to the internet, it works a little differently. Our data connections, are a ONE way street as it appears. There are only two ways that these one way streets can function.. Send, or recieve. In this way, our data connections world more like railways than they do interstates. Computers don't send out streams of information, that would be useless because you would have to wait until the entire stream was sent before anything else could be sent or received. And don't forget, outside of your home, everyone else in the world needs to use the same one way railway as well, which complicates things futher!
So instead, we have designed our data streams to break apart the streams of data that we send and/or recieve and send that data out as small bits of information (AKA packets) and reassemble them on the other end. By doing this we are able to accommodate everyone in the world on one giant network. This works great, because our system are designed to further route and reroute this information to get the data packet their safely! However, even this system has it's limitations. The question is; how big is your railway, and how fast can your train go?
In contrast to the interstate, if unexpected traffic congestion happens with a train, that train usually doesn't make it to the other end, and usually someone ends up dead (hypothetically speaking of course!) The same is true with data. If our connection speed or reliability destabilizes, even for a millisecond, our data can collide and be lost forever. So when our computer attempts to reassemble all the packets, something will be missing.. hence the dreaded 'website cannot be found'.
In Most cases, of your experiencing VERY intermittent connection losses or disruptions, it is likely a problem with either;
A. Your internet Speed(How fast your train can go) and/or
B. Your internet reliability(problem with your hardware and/or your internet service provider(ISP)'s hardware.
The Solution
I always start with the first option, mainly because it's the most likely, and secondly, it's the cheapest/easiest to diagnose and repair. The next time the issue occurs follow these steps, and see if you can't resolve the issue, or at the very lease discover the problem.
The Speed Test
A Speed test can tell you alot about your connection, and can be preformed at ANY TIME! But for the sake of this article, we recommend to run this test any time you are experiencing this problem.
1. Go to
Speakeasy Speed Test or a similar website. We recommend this one, because it is tried, tested, and true. And best of all, its FREE!
2. Click on one of the Cities that are listed. I always choose, SEATTLE, WA., not for any particular reason, but I just like Seattle, and it happens to be first on the list! The Test will automatically run. It will show you how much speed your currently getting. There are two numbers to look at. First the Download Speed, and secondly, the Upload Speed.
Download Speed- This is used to RECEIVE INFORMATION. Every-time you visit a website, you must download that site and all it's content, so that you computer can view it. If you are viewing a website or video that is 100 Mb(mega bytes) in size, and your internet speed is 20Mbps(mega bytes per second), than it should take you roughly 5 seconds to download and subsequently view that data, depending on your computers performance.
Upload- This is used to SEND information. It is typical for this number to be much lower than your download speed, because we rarely, if ever Send, nearly as much as receive An exception to this would be the popular program, Skype. If you are web chatting with a friend, assuming that you both are using the same equipment, you both will be sending just as much as you are receiving.
3. Compare the speeds that you are getting to the speeds that you have been sold by your ISP.
Option A: The Speeds are much lower than the speeds that I'm paying for.
If they are significantly lower, there is probably a hardware problem that needs to be addressed, probably by them in their network, somewhere between you and their towers. This could be in the form or an outage, or damaged cable line, or you internet provider may be simply 'throttling'(intentionally lowering) your speeds because of usage.. Regardless of the reason, you should contact your ISP, and tell them that you want the speeds that you are paying for. You will be transfered to tech support and if necessary, they will send a technician out to your home.
Option B: The Speeds are low, but that is what I'm paying for.
If this is the case, you are probably paying for basic cable/internet, or worse; DSL. As time goes on, internet content, will continue to raise speed and bandwidth demands. You will eventually be forced to upgrade, why not now?! For just a few dollars more a month you can often times increase your speed by exponential amounts! If you want to increase your internet speed, all you have to do is contact your ISP, and ask them to upgrade you to the second lowest tier highest speed that they offer. The second lowest tier of any highspeed internet service provider is usually the best bang for your buck and is more than enough bandwidth for what you will need.
If none of this solves your problem, there could be a number of things wrong, including but not limited to malfunctioning router/modem, Switch, or wireless connectivity errors. In most cases you may need a trained professional to come out and help you in person..
Hey... Why not us?!?! CflGeek.com is a great local Technology company that has built it's business around mobile and remote technology help. Give us a call, and let us take the NO out of Technology for you!