5 Fixes to Most Common Connection Issues

The internet is a strange “creature” and you need to know about these 5 fixes to the most common connection issues.

You might think of it as a friend, business associate or an encyclopedia, but it can turn its back on you when you are least expecting it. All joking aside, nowadays we use the internet as a business tool, to connect with people and to get information – and the internet has a vast amount of information. 

5 Fixes to Most Common Connection Issues

It has penetrated to nearly all aspects of our lives, especially through the concept of “Internet of Things” – all devices and appliances (the “Things”) connected with us via the internet. From time to time mishaps occur and we find ourselves disconnected. When such situations happen, it is time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.

This guide will focus on helping Windows users get past some of the most common connection issues afflicting their computers in a not too complicated way.

1. WiFi/Local Area Connection doesn’t have a valid IP configuration
   

If your modem/router is operating normally and you don’t have internet access, there is a problem in communication between them and your computer. This common connection issue is easily solved by doing the following.

Open up network and sharing center and fire up the windows diagnostics tool. On rare occasions, it might fix your connection, but in most cases it will just state that your WiFi/Local Area Connection doesn’t have a valid IP configuration. The solution can be found over at this thread on Tom’s Hardware.

2. Drivers

To ensure proper communication between all levels of hardware and operating system, window requires certain software solutions supplied by hardware manufacturers. That software is called driver.

Sometimes outdated or misconfigured drivers can cause severe issues with your WiFi or ethernet adapter. In order to deal with this problem keep your devices updated. In rare cases, even newer driver fail – just roll back the installation from device manager to a previous version and you should be fine.

3. Malware

Not everything you find online is good. On the contrary, it is a place cluttered with unsafe content. That treacherous content is comprised of many different things, but for us the only one that is important is malware.

Malware can make a mess of your system, starting from deleting important drivers, assigning a proxy to your connection to downloading unwanted content, thus slowing down your internet speed and much more. You will easily recognize the presence of such “entity” – if your internet is working at all, your internet speed test scores will be far below average. Getting rid of malware is no easy task and can sometimes lead to a complete system refresh if antivirus and antimalware can’t deal with it.

4. Environment

Yes, it’s true!

Your environment can cause internet problems is one of the most common connection issues.

If you live in a densely populated building, yours and your neighbours’ wireless frequencies often overlap causing interference and low internet speeds or even random connection drops. Changing the broadcast channel of your WiFi will in most cases alleviate this issue.

5. ISP

This one is the easiest to fix, or rather notice, as fixing it doesn’t have much to do with you. Internet outages caused by your ISP are out of the reach of your influence – presuming you pay your bills on time. In such cases all you can do is contact your ISP to find out the reason behind the outage. You will recognize the problem by taking notice of your modem’s indicator lights:

•  blinking or turned off – no connection
•  always on – connection is present.

Relating to the modem light, in the end, what’s left is to quote Albus Dumbledore:

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light” – happiness being the internet of course.