Visitor
•
2 Messages
Ethernet Stopped Working
While WIFI remains fully functional, all of my wired devices have lost internet access. The wired devices include 3 Windows PC's and 1 Vonage VOIP unit. All three PC's show connected to the network but without internet access. The lights on the back of the gateway are green and sometimes orange. While 2 of the PC's and the VOIP are connected through switches, one PC is directly connected.
I have been using the wired connections for a couple of years (successfully) and there have been no physical changes to the set-up that precipitated the loss of internet connectivity.
I have tried powering down and restarting the gateway and all connected devices. I have also tried resetting using the reset switch on the back of the gateway.
Starting to sound like something is wrong with the gateway, since all wired connections appear to be affected. Thoughts?
Accepted Solution
flatlander3
Problem Solver
•
1.5K Messages
3 years ago
Test it one gateway port at a time. Unplug everything and try the PC directly connected. From a cmd prompt -- windows key, r then enter cmd on the line -- see if you have an IP address and a default gateway (ipconfig command). If you do, ping the gateway (ping 10.0.0.1 or whatever your default gateway is), then try a ping to xfinity.com. You've just tested a local and remote connection.
If that works, try the other port(s) on the gateway to make sure they work. I have seen a switch go insane and spam the network making other communication impossible. Cable can flake out too, but usually doesn't bring the network down, just a port. Kind of rare to lose an Ethernet port on a PC, but hardware can flake out on anything.
Plug one thing back in at a time to try to narrow it down after that, and test with a ping from your direct connect PC. See which thing takes out the network. If the first test didn't work, try another direct connect PC with a different cable. Maybe your gateway did partially fry.
Good luck!
0
0
zandor60657
Contributor
•
204 Messages
3 years ago
All of them at once sounds like a gateway problem assuming they're all connected directly to the gateway. Just losing one port is often a problem with the connected device (PC, etc.) or the cable, but all at once? Sounds like a partly dead gateway.
Did you try turning everything off all at once? It's a long shot, but once upon a time I had a cable crash. This was a long time ago (early-mid 1990s) and involved thinnet (10base2) Ethernet over coaxial. Thinnet didn't need a hub or switch. You just chained multiple machines together and they all shared the 10Mbps bandwidth. At any rate the network went down and I had to turn all the machines off at once to get it back up. So I crashed a cable, apparently. That's probably not it. I'm betting your gateway is partially fried.
0
0
user_1da2ff
Visitor
•
2 Messages
3 years ago
Thank you to both responders. I assumed that it was the gateway since everything died all at once, even the devices that were direct connected. However, following the suggestion above, we removed the switches (since we actually downsized our network and don't need them anymore) and one by one direct connected the remaining devices. This did work and everything is back up and running! Interestingly, this resulted in less cable being used. I think the failure was precipitated when I had to disconnect one switch momentarily to move it to a different spot on the shelf. Maybe overkill, but in the future, I'll turn everything off before disconnecting anything. Thanks again y'all.
0
0