Internet connection

[UnquietDad]

My connection went down this morning - by clicking various icons I was able to establish that the computer couldn't 'repair' the LAN connection and I had to 'contact my network'.

The call-centre chap from Virgin said he was going to talk me through some troubleshooting, and my eart sank. HOWEVER - the first thing he suggested worked - for now.

It was this:
turn PC off
unplug modem
reverse modem cable so that the end which was in modem is in PC and vice-versa. This apparently gives it a kick-start.

I have no idea why this has worked - or how long it will last... but people may like to know and save this info for if they have the same problem!!

Thank you.
I get this all the time.
And shouting at the PC doesn'e seem to make much diference.

How have you dealt with it before?
Has it eventualy just sorted itself out?

swapping the cable around.. now that is a new one .... must pass that onto a few people in my group!!

Generally simply powering down the modem and PC.. and then powering up the modem (until all the the 'ready' light are on) and then powering up the PC will do..

The cable is the same both ends,, so if it was working already swapping the ends around will make no difference

You know, it did occur to me that it was a pointless exercise. The Ethernet cable is indeed exactly the same at both ends.

But once you get on to one of those "troubleshooting" lines there is no way, unless you stand your ground almost rudely, of getting them to deviate from the set list of tasks.

Having had 23 fruitless calls last year to BT's "helpline" when our connection gave out, I didn't hold out much hope for the one at Virgin - but I'd already tried powering down and back up again with no effect, so who am I to argue??

Maybe it reverses the polarity of the neutron flow UQD?

This forum suggests that solution, and also suggests that magnetism may be a problem - if the cable has been affected by a magnetic field, maybe reversing it might work?
This is probably total rubbish, I don't know enough about electronics to guess - must ask my brother sometime...