Ok, open the command prompt, CMD,
to do this click start, type cmd and the command promt should be on your screen, otherwise find CMDor command prompt in your computer. On a Mc search and open Network Utility -go to ping section
Type in the comand prompt window :- ping google.com
you should see the txt, pinging goole.com and an ip address next to it. If you do you will also see the result such as lines of txt ,
PING google.com (216.58.220.142): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.58.220.142: icmp_seq=0 ttl=52 time=35.493 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.220.142: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=34.000 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.220.142: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=36.135 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.220.142: icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=35.450 ms
--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 34.000/35.269/36.135/0.782 ms
if you do not see this the result may be:-
PING google.com : 56 data bytes
response timed out
response timed out
response timed out
response timed out
--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss
---------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to work out what is going on, you may want to do the ping so it is coninuos on the screen whilst you tinker.
To do this type :- ping google.com -t this tells the command to continue indefinitely
This will continuosly ping google while you serrch for problems, disconnected cables, modem rest etc.
Initiall you will see the no response message on the screen, when you fix the issue it will change to 64 bytes from 216.58.220.142: icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=35.450 ms
Once you see this response you know that whatever you did has resolved the issue.
Rather than going back and opening a web page , waiting for it to load and then realising nothing has changed..