Internet connection issue

[Songbird]

Hi everyone ..

Couple of days ago my computer just wouldn't connect to the internet with a yellow exclamation mark at the taskbar though everything was fine from the outside. Then at Network & Sharing Center I clicked at the disconnection sign for troubleshooting. It ran a check and said something to the effect that "a network plug was not properly connected" which has been "fixed." Thereafter it connected but left me utterly puzzled what may have been the issue and how to avoid it in future for it may happen again any time and I may not be fortunate enough to get it resolved as quickly. Does this refer to a configuration problem or the need to power-cycle the modem & router by unplugging and plugging, etc.? Any feedback to educate me a bit would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[1etherer]

Seems your NIC just mis-configured and the troubleshoot restarted / reset it. This can happen to any NIC at any time.

You can check eventlog at the time it happened and post the log on here, I can have a look at the issue, it may be something else and I can help you prevent it next time.

 

[Songbird]

What is "NIC"? And how do I check the eventlog? So sorry for my load of ignorance

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Network Interface Controller, it controls the port that you plug your ethernet cable into.

 

[Songbird]

Thanks Soulphire.

 

[MidnightShadow]

Was your computer sleeping and you woke it up when this happened? Was it a fresh boot? The logs may help like i2 said. Ultimately, though, it could just be a ghost in the system that you'll never see again. If it continues, then we can troubleshoot.

 

[Songbird]

No, not sleeping. It was fresh boot and I restarted 3 or 4 times yet it wouldn't connect until I clicked on troubleshoot. Btw, how do I locate the logs?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Press the windows key and type "Event Viewer", then click the arrow next to "Windows Logs" to expand, then select "System" to view system-related logs. You'd just browse to the Date and Time at which you experienced the error, then see if there's any error or crash logs in there around the same time.

 

[MidnightShadow]

What Soul said. In addition, on the right side of the Event Viewer is a filter. You can filter to only see certain types of events. Click "Filter Current Log..." and then choose "Critical," "Warning," and "Error." Those three should contain any problems that caused the connection issue.

Don't freak out if you've never looked at this before. Yes, there are probably a ton of errors in there. Most of them are quite common and will not be causing any issues that you'll notice. Every machine has them. The filter simply gets past all of the informational garbage that there is tons of and allows you to more easily find an issue.

 

[Songbird]

Many thanks for all the useful info, Soul and MidnightShadow. I will try this.