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After a recent lighting storm, my computer's wired internet connection and my local network which both run off my cable modem/WIFI router stopped working. There's a blinking amber light and the computer never gets an IP address.
On the television side, I got "Signal not found" with the set-top box connected any of my TV's HDMI ports. I carefully tested my TV ports and my computer ports to ensure they weren't damaged. My neighbors are all experiencing the same symptom.
My cable company suggested I pickup a new cable modem and set-top box, which hasn't solved the issue. I discovered the modem's WIFI works, albeit slower than usual, and the set-top also works if connected using composite or S-video.
As a bizarre turn of events, I connected my computer to an old N600 WIFI router using a ethernet cable and then connected the N600 to one of my cable modem's LAN port. Mysteriously, I was able to make a wired connection indirectly, but not directly to the cable modem. Adding to the bizarre behavior, the wired connection is a fraction of the WIFI speed.
Anyway, the problem is clearly outside of my home and the cable company claims to be working on it. What I want to know is how can HDMI and Ethernet fail in such an odd way. Could it be the firmware failed some check and refuses to assign an IP address or send a video signal to the HDMI port? If so, why not at least an error message?
user148298
Posted 2019-07-21T20:52:56.970
Reputation: 121
Sounds like your devices were hit my a lighting strike. – Ramhound – 2019-07-21T21:18:52.127
“the problem is clearly outside of my home” — this surprised me. I was not following all of what you were saying, but at this point I was seeing that some configuration were working. I guess that you did not re-configure the stuff in the street. – ctrl-alt-delor – 2019-07-21T23:19:28.620
I turns out this is a node issue for my neighborhood. What I find interesting is how the network is configured remotely. My machine wasn't given an IP address, but my router was.
Perhaps, there's remote software to detect wether the device requesting an IP address is a computer or a router. I suspect this is a way of managing the number of clients on the network. – user148298 – 2019-07-25T16:45:11.243