Checking Cables First

I went by my Mom's house yesterday. She was had no connection to the Internet. She had called the SBC support line, and told them she couldn't access her Gmail account. The support person told her that she would have to use the SBC mail instead of Gmail. Not really a knowledgeable answer.

Mom's not technical, and the phone support was no help, so I stopped by on the way home from work. After trying a few things, including an IPCONFIG command, some PINGing, and a 'repair' of the network connection, I decided to talk a look at the router and DSL modem.

And once again, found that one of Dr. Jerry Pournelle's Laws was once again proven true: most of all computer problems are related to cables.

It seems that my brother (still living at home) had moved the cables around, disconnecting the router from the DSL modem, using the one network cable connection on the DSL modem for his computer.

A quick correction of the cabling (DSL modem to router, router to each of the two computers) fixed that problem. Since my brother was asleep (long story), I left a diagram of the proper cabling.

So if you are working with a problem, check the cabling first.