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ADSL Quick Troubleshooting Guide



Have you tried turning it off and on?

In a world surrounded by high tech gadgets it doesn't take us very long to realize that they very seldom work perfectly. They heat up, run out of memory, have loose connections, have programming bugs and just generally get confused about things at times. So in all seriousness before you call tech support, switch the router off and on, reboot the pc, or the phone, or tablet you're connecting from, make sure the device is correctly connected to the router and give it a few minutes to settle down, it's quite likely it will sort itself out 


What do the lights say?

ADSL routers have a panel of flashing lights on the front, that may remind you of a cheesy old science fiction movie, but if you learn the purpose of these lights and how to interpret them they can often tell you exactly what the problem is with your Internet connection. Checking your router first is always a good idea when something is wrong with your connection. Below is a list of the lights on the front panel on the router and how you can use them to troubleshoot your connection.


So obvious we might miss it. If your Internet stop s working, make sure this one's on and someone hasn't accidently unplugged the router from the wall.

Ethernet / LAN

If your PC or laptop is connected via a cable to the router this light will be on, if it's flashing it means that there is data being sent between the PC and the router. Most routers these days have 4 LAN ports on the back, some routers may have a light for each port on the front, or on the back above the port. If this light is off check the cables between the router and the PC.

Wireless / WLAN / WiFi

Like the LAN light it will flash if there is data passing between the router and a wireless device. If the light is off your wifi devices won't get onto the Internet. Try restarting the router,or checking the wireless settings in the router setup. Some newer routers have an eco-friendly button that turns the wifi on and off – if your router has this button try pressing it!

DSL / Sync

Possibly the most important one of all. This light tells you if your ADSL line is working. If this light is solid green the line is working, if it's off make sure your cables are plugged in. If this light is flashing it means the line is trying to synchronize with the exchange, which shouldn't take more than a few seconds. If it keeps flashing, or goes a colour other than green then there might be an ADSL outage in your area, or you could have a line fault.

Internet / PPPoE / WAN

This light won't come on until the DSL light is solid. This is the light that tells you if your ADSL account has successfully logged into MWEB's servers. If it's solid green, or blinking you're fine, if it's off, or if it's red it means you haven't been able to log in. This might be because of a problem with your account, or the password saved on your router is wrong. There could be an outage on the Telkom network, or a problem with MWEB's network, or login server stopping you from connecting, but that hardly ever happens!.

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