• Shut down your computer and turn it off.
• Turn off your DSL modem or router. Most DSL modems do not have power switches, to turn off the modem remove its power cord from the electrical outlet.
  Important! If you are using an ActionTec DSL Gateway you should not attempt to reset the DSL router by using the reset button. Using the reset button on an ActionTec DSL Gateway can cause permanent damage to your router! The safest method to reboot the router is to remove its power cord from the electrical outlet.
• If you have any other network devices (hubs, switches, routers, etc) connected to your DSL modem or your computer, turn those off as well.
• Wait for 60 seconds.
• Turn on your DSL modem or router and wait for the DSL or Internet light to stop flashing and stay on and steady. This usually takes between 30 and 60 seconds. If the DSL or Internet light does not stop blinking it means that your modem is not able to receive or train on the DSL signal from the phone company. Verify that:
• Your DSL modem is connected directly to the phone jack on the wall and is not going through any splitters, surge supressors or other devices.
• You have DSL Microfilters connected to all other phones that share the same phone number as your DSL line.
• You do not have your DSL modem plugged into a DSL Microfilter.
• Your DSL modem is not in close proximity to other electrical devices that could interfere with the DSL signal such as monitors, speakers, halogen lamps, cordless phones or cordless phone base stations.
  After you have verified these things if your DSL modem is still not training you should call either Qwest repair at 888.234.9375 option 2. (Verizon circuits should contact our office)
• If you have any other network devices turn those on and wait for at least 15 seconds for them to become ready.
• Turn on your computer.

• If you are a Qwest DSL customer and have recently changed your password you will need to reconfigure the password in your modem as well. For more information see our Qwest DSL Support pages.
• Disable any personal firewall software that may be running on your computer and reboot. Make sure that you have set the software to not automatically start when you reboot.
• If you have another network device (hub, switch, router, etc.) connected in between your computer and your DSL modem you should bypass this device and connect your computer directly to the DSL modem. After connecting your computer to the modem you should reboot your computer before attempting to connect.
• Disable any other Internet related software that may be running. This includes popup blockers, web "accelerators", spyware detection software and any antivirus software that uses "active scanning".

Choosing between a Hub or a Switch

The primary difference between the two types of devices is in how they handle packet flow. With a Hub, data coming from the DSL Modem destined for your computer(s) is routed to all ports on the Hub simultaneously. This is inefficient as the packets are only intended for one computer yet are broadcast to all computers plugged into the hub, causing collisions and wasted bandwidth on the ports that don't need the data. The advantage is that hubs, because they are relatively "dumb", are very inexpensive.

A Switch on the other hand is "smart" - data coming from the DSL modem destined for one of the ports on the switch is directed to only that one port. This eliminates collisions and makes for a more efficient use of available bandwidth. Switches are also more secure. All packets on a hub are delivered to all ports on that hub, which means all of those packets can be viewed by all computers connected to that hub. In a home environment this is largely irrelevant. For business environments switches should be used exclusively to both improve network performance and provide an extra layer of security.