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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Back in business

So, here I am again, online. Not being able to get online to browse, look up stuff, and play definitely took the light out of my day.  I am certainly a cybernaut; but not necessarily an internet addict. There's an interesting answer to the question "Most appropriate word for someone addicted to Internet" at english.stackexchange.

The tech from our ISP that answered my son's request for service installed a new cable modem and we upped our package. However, Son is still seeing some packet loss. All internet traffic uses packets to transfer the information. You can find a good article on packets and TCP/IP at HowStuffWorks.

If you're wondering how to find out if a site is down, experiencing problems, or if you've lost internet yourself, here's a simple test. Click on the Windows Start button (lower left corner for Windows XP and 7; for Windows 8 check here). Type "cmd" in the search box and press ENTER. In the window that opens type "ping www.google.com" to test your internet connection or "ping <URL>" (no braces) of the site you're having trouble with.  The Google request returns this for me:
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I use Google because it's reliable. But any large site like Facebook, Twitter, or Blizzard would work too. Another test for internet connectivity is using your phone instead of the PC.

But I'm rambling...it's good to be back.

-- Marge


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