Unit of 1 - Working from Home - Troubleshooting Internet Connectivity Problems

Last week, I heard a fellow home based business owner say, "The WORST part of working from home, is having to do all your own IT." I couldn't agree more.

Your computer breaks, your internet connectivity is sporatic, your printer stops printing, your software keeps crashing, and who do you have to call. Most times - no one.

Even though I'm a "techie", the last thing I want to spend an afternoon doing is troubleshooting an IT glitch. But, for better or worse, we don't have an "IT department" we can call.

I've been having a terrible month for internet connectivity. Rumor has it that Comcast (my cable modem provider) is upgrading their systems to be able to provide phone service. What this has meant is that there are long periods where my entire neighborhood has terrible service.

To help troubleshoot (and prove that it is in fact a connectivity issue) - here are some tools you can use:

To check the speed of your internet connection, the best free tool I've found is from speakeasy. Access it here: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest. Just select the server closed to your location and go.
Also, you can easily check for "dropped packets" to your internet provider by opening up a Command Window
(on Windows click Start-->Run, then type cmd).
Once the window is open type:
ping -t www.comcast.net
When things are functioning normally, the screen will keep refreshing with the amount of time it takes to connect to Comcast's web server. (The time typically ranges from 12ms - 80 ms.) when things are not working, you'll get error messages like "Reply timed out."
If you hit "Ctrl-C", it will stop the test and give you a summary of how many packets were dropped, the min/max speeds, etc. You should have 0 dropped packets when things are working properly.

May your computers all run flawlessly!

Andrea Michalek