Check Whether Your ISP Is Having an Outage

Check Whether Your ISP Is Having an Outage

Check Whether Your ISP Is Having an Outage

Overview

When the internet is completely down or many people are affected, the cause is often your internet service provider (ISP), not anything you can fix locally. This guide shows you how to check before opening a ticket.

Before You Begin

  • Your phone with mobile data (cellular). You will need it to look things up when the office internet is down.
  • The name of your office ISP. Common ones are Comcast Business, Spectrum Business, AT&T, Verizon, and local fiber providers. Your office manager or IT will know.
  • A coworker to compare notes with.

Steps

  1. Confirm the issue is widespread. Ask two or three coworkers if their internet is also down. If yes, it is likely an ISP issue.
  2. On your phone, turn off Wi-Fi so you are on cellular data.
  3. Check downdetector.com and search for your ISP's name. Reports spike during outages.
  4. Look at your ISP's status page. Search "[your ISP name] outage map" or go to their support site.
  5. Check your ISP's social media (X / Twitter). They often post outage updates faster than the official status page.
  6. Look at the lights on your office's modem and router, if you can see them. Solid lights are normal. Blinking red or off lights usually point to an ISP issue.
  7. If you confirm an outage, post a quick note in your team's chat so others stop troubleshooting.
  8. Open a ticket at support.bostonmit.com with the ISP name, the time it started, and any status page link. IT can coordinate with the ISP.

Troubleshooting

  • If only you are affected: it is not an ISP issue. See What to Do When the Internet Feels Slow or Fix Wi-Fi Connection Issues on Windows.
  • If your ISP says no outage but you are still down: the modem or router in your office may need a restart. Ask IT before restarting equipment yourself.
  • If you have urgent work to do during an outage: use your phone's hotspot. Connect your laptop to your phone's Wi-Fi sharing.
  • If outages happen often: mention the pattern in your ticket. IT can push your ISP for a permanent fix or recommend a backup connection.
  • If the office has a backup internet line: it may switch over automatically. If not, IT can fail over manually.

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Need More Help?

Submit a ticket at support.bostonmit.com or email support@bostonmit.com.

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