The internet is down — is it you, the box, or them?

Tell in two minutes whether a broadband fault is inside your house or somewhere out in the town, and stop trying to mend the half that is not yours.

What people call "the internet" is a chain, and every link in it belongs to somebody different.

When nothing loads, the useful question is not "what did I do". It is "which of the three has stopped". The box tells you, out loud, with its lights — and there is one test that settles it entirely.

Restarting the box does fix a great many broadband faults. It is done badly more often than not.

And when you do ring: the number comes off the bill, or off the sticker on the box itself. Not from a search. There is a whole lesson on why at the end of this course, and it is the one worth waiting for.

Key points

Read the four lights on the box and say what each one is about
Use a phone with Wi-Fi turned off to separate your house from the whole town
Find a provider’s service status page and register for a text when it is mended
Restart the box properly, once, and then stop

What to remember

The internet light red, with the broadband light green, means the line is fine and the company is not answering.
When everything in the house is out at once, stop looking inside the house.

Try this

Go and look at your box tonight while everything is working. Note down which light is which, and what green looks like. Reading those lights for the first time in a crisis is much harder than reading them in an armchair.

Practice: The internet is down — is it you, the box, or them?. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.