So you have a laptop connected wirelessly to a mysterious box that a technician from your Internet Service Provider company came and installed, and ever since you’re able to check your email online or browse websites. Or perhaps a desktop computer with a wire that connects it to said box, with the same result. That’s all good and dandy but what if something goes wrong and your computer can no longer connect? here’s a couple of tips for what you can do yourself to attempt and solve the situation before you have to call for help from an expert. But first, some theory.

IP addresses, IP addresses. You might have heard that one before, maybe once, maybe many times, but what the bleep is an IP address? IP = Internet Protocol. Hence, think of an IP address like you’d think of a real world physical address. How does somebody send you a letter? they address it to 123 Main St. Anytown, Anystate 55555, and it gets to you. Well, in the computer networking world, that’s exactly what the IP address is – an address by which your computer can be reached. If there is more than one computer in your house, each one  has its own individual IP address. Also, every house with internet connectivity has an IP address, facing externally to the Internet universe, so to speak. Imagine you live in an apartment building. Now mail has to have the apartment number for it to reach you – simply addressing mail to your apartment building address is not enough. Same thing with IP addresses.

That box that the Internet Service Provider installed at your place has an IP address, but if there is more than one computer connected to that box, then each computer in turn has its own unique IP address, different than the box’s one. That box (for more information on what that box is see The Basics Elements of Your Internet Connection) is normally in charge of dishing out IP addresses to the computers at your place. The IP address assignment normally occurs when the computer is first connected to the box. The box says something like “I hereby give you the IP address of…  ” and it assigns it.

Alright, I know your fingers are itching to be able to do something with the above data, so let’s get to it. There are specific circumstances where Internet connectivity is lost because of problems related to IP addresses. Enumerating all the possible problems and their causes is beyond the scope of this article, but let’s say you’re trying to access the Internet, and you can’t.  Well, there is a method of resolving it by “renewing” the computer’s IP address – a repeat of the ceremony where the gateway/router says “I hereby give you the IP address of…”. There are 3 ways to do it, and I’m going to cover them going  from simple to complex. You can choose the method that best suits your level:

Method 1: Turn off your computer, turn off your router/gateway/modem, wait for a minute, and turn them back on in this sequence: First modem/gateway, wait a couple of minutes, then router if there is one, wait for a minute, then computer.

Method 2: Go to Start, Control Panel, Network Connections (may have slightly different name depending on which Windows operating system your computer has), locate the network connection that is being used to connect to the internet, right click on it with your mouse, select “Repair”. Wait for the repair to occur.

Method 3:

a. If your operating system is Windows XP, Go to Start, Run, type “cmd” (without the quotation marks) and press enter. At the command prompt, type “ipconfig  /release” (without the quotation marks) and press enter. Wait for the command to execute and then type “ipconfig  /renew”. Wait for the command to execute and then close that black window where you typed all that.

b. If your operating system is Windows Vista or 7, click on Start, type “cmd” in the search box, locate “cmd.exe” at the top of the start menu, right click on it, choose “Run as Administrator”. At the command prompt, type “ipconfig /release” (without the quotation marks) and press enter. Wait for the command to execute and then type “ipconfig /renew” (without the quotation marks). Wait for the command to execute and then close that black window where you typed all that.

If you have internet connectivity now, pat yourself in the back. You did it.