PC Network Troubleshooting

PCs & Laptops For Dummies

The Internet is such a big part of using a computer that when you run into network trouble, you'll want to pull out your hair (assuming you have hair).

Run a firewall.
Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software to ensure that whatever comes in over the Internet won't mess up your computer.
It's better to use Advanced Sharing options to share folders over the network than to use Homegroups. You'll find the Advanced Sharing button on the Sharing tab in the folder's Properties dialog box.
Most Internet connection woes are fixed by restarting the modem.
To restart the network, turn everything off. Then turn on the modem, the router, any switches, and, finally, the PCs attached to the network.
Ensure that the wireless NIC has been enabled on your laptop; check for a hardware switch, which could be a key combination or a physical button.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.