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Having troubles getting to the Internet? Got a broadband connection?
The first thing your cable company's tech support geek
is going to ask you to do when you call is to "power-cycle
your cable modem." Don't be miffed by the geek-speak. It
means turning off your broadband equipment and turning it back
on again and it's something you can do yourself.
The first thing to do is find the power cords running
to your cable modem and router. There are other (data) wires
to watch out for. These you leave alone. Power cables run to
the wall and often have a black power supply "brick"
somewhere on the wire before it gets to the wall.
Data wires always have rectangular plugs. Those are
the ones you ignore. Power wires often have round plugs,
but not always.
Fig. 1. - A one-computer setup
Fig. 2. - A multiple-computer setup
To turn things off:
- Shut down your computer first.
- Pull the plug on your router next. The
lights on the router will go off.
- Pull the plug on your cable modem last.
Its lights will go off.
Count slowly to 20 so everything has a chance to go completely
off.
To turn things back on:
- Plug in the cable modem first. Wait for
the lights to stop flashing. This will usually take 60 - 90 seconds
or more. It is very important that you wait.
- When the cable modem lights are stable,
plug the router in again. The router will be up and ready in
15 seconds or less. Routers often have a red "Diag"
light. This means "Diagnostic." If the "Diag"
light stays on, that means your router is dead and needs replacing.
- Restart your computer.
If this procedure doesn't work, now you call the cable
modem tech support people.
Remember: Turn off from the computer out to
the outside. Turn on from the outside in to the computer.
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