Your internet is out, and devices connected by WIFI and ethernet will not connect. You check several

Your internet is out, and devices connected by WiFi and ethernet will not connect. You check several websites, and all your packets fail. You then ping a website with an IP address, and to your surprise, it’s a success. Which would you do next?

a) Open the DNS settings on your router and try using a different DNS

b) Open the DHCP settings on your router and try using a different pool of private IP addresses

c) Open the Port Forwarding settings on your router and try turning on UPnP

d) Open the Network settings on your router and try adjusting the default gateway

e) Open the Network settings on your router and try turning off your firewall

Answer

The correct answer is (a) Open the DNS settings on your router and try using a different DNS

Explanation:-

If I was facing a situation whereby I can connect to an IP address directly alright but could not load any website, the first thing that would come into my mind will be changing DNS server settings on the router. This is because if I am able to ping an IP address that means I have some basic network connectivity but the inability to load any website indicates a problem with DNS resolution. DNS (Domain Name System) is the one that translates human-readable website names such as www.google into numerical IP addresses which computers use to direct traffic via IP routing. But although there is connectivity, something wrong with translating site names to IPs. I would log on to my router’s admin interface, navigate through the DNS settings and switch out the default DNS servers provided by my ISP with alternate public ones such as Google or Cloudflare. Using DNS servers other than the ones I am currently using can help resolve whatever problem is happening with my current configuration and make web pages load properly once more. Changing other settings such as the DHCP pool, port forwarding or default gateway are not likely to resolve this specific issue. Changing the DNS servers is where I would begin investigating, since it is responsible for mapping site names to IPs. In conclusion, since if I could ping IPs but not load sites, the most likely solution is to modify DNS server settings on router for using alternate public DNS providers.