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Internet Connection Troubleshooting for Remote Support

A list of common steps for troubleshooting internet connectivity. This does not seek to cover every possibility, only the most common causes of connectivity complications encountered in remote-access support.

Barring non-customer-side issues and the customer's own intracranial issues, most common things to check are:

• Do we have a valid IP address from the router? If not, why?
  • ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew, possibly a temporary problem.
  • Check DHCP settings in local connection settings.
  • Check DHCP Client service is started.
  • Check devmgmt, is the NIC OK?
• If we have a local address, check other reasons:
  • Browser proxy set by malware or otherwise
  • Proxy set in LAN connection settings
  • Firewall
  • hosts, but not common anymore
  • `netsh i i r log.txt` and `netsh winsock reset` in case something (malware, old firewall etc.) killed the stack [These are "last resort" not because they ever hurt anything, but because you can spend the better part of an hour getting someone to open cmd and type them in]
  • If we determine that none of these common issues exist on the client computer and we're getting a local IP, we may try checking the router. Asking if cust has other computers which can currently access the 'net (make them check now) is an easy way to rule this one out. There are a lot of router settings to check, usually easier to reset because no one who calls tech support has done anything special and irreplaceable with their router, I assure you. ;)

That's pretty much all I ever run into. By the time I've tried all the clientside things and checked the router, I've either got a connection or found a reason that it isn't my problem.