Is the internet down or is it just me? A step-by-step check
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The show is about to start and the spinner just keeps going. You check your phone, and Instagram will not load either. You want to type "is the internet down or is it just me?" into a search bar, but of course you have no internet. This post is for exactly that moment: a short checklist that tells you whether the problem is the whole country, your provider, your home, or one single website.
First question: is everything gone, or one thing?
"The internet is down" can mean three different things, and which one you have decides half of what to do next.
| What you see | Most likely |
|---|---|
| Only one site or app fails, the rest work | That service itself has a problem (or is blocked) |
| Many sites fail but mobile data on your phone works | Your home connection: modem, line or provider |
| Mobile data is dead too, nothing works | A wider outage or a regional network problem |
| Pages load but very slowly | Not an outage, just slowness: see why is my internet slow |
Switch your phone to mobile data
Turn Wi-Fi off and open a few different sites over mobile data. If they load, suspect your home connection. If they do not, the problem may be outside your home. This one step answers most of the "is it me?" question.
One caveat: mobile data working does not prove your line is healthy. It only tells you that something on the home side is broken.
Read the modem lights
A modem tells you what is wrong through its lights. Names and colours differ between models, so check the manual for exact meanings, but the logic is usually this:
- Line, DSL or fibre light is off or blinking: the modem cannot reach the exchange or the fibre network. Usually a line or provider problem.
- Line light is fine but the "internet" light is off or red: the modem is connected to the line but cannot get out to the internet. This can be login credentials, a provider-side fault or a temporary outage.
- All lights look normal but there is no internet: the problem may be inside the modem or on your devices (DNS, Wi-Fi). Keep going.
For deeper isolation tests, see is it the modem or the line.
Restart the modem the right way
Unplug it, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in and give the lights a few minutes to settle. Repeatedly touching the plug before it finishes only prolongs things. It works surprisingly often because the modem may be stuck or have received a bad session from the provider.
Other device, cable, DNS: narrow it down at home
- A different device: if only one computer fails, the modem and line are cleared.
- An Ethernet cable: works by cable but not on Wi-Fi? The problem is wireless.
- Sites will not open but apps still work: suspect DNS. Temporarily changing the DNS setting on the device may fix it.
- Open an IP address directly: if typing an IP such as 1.1.1.1 into the address bar loads, you have a connection and the problem is DNS.
Could the provider or a big service be down?
In large outages (a provider's network, a cloud or CDN company) millions of people see the same thing at once. To check:
- Look at your provider's official accounts and website for announcements. You will need mobile data to do this.
- Check outage-tracker sites that collect user reports. They are not official confirmation, but a sudden spike in complaints is a strong hint.
- Ask a neighbour. If someone in your building on the same provider is offline too, it is not you.
Sometimes the failure of a single large infrastructure company makes dozens of unrelated sites unreachable at once. If the picture is "some sites are down, others are fine", an outside failure like that is more likely than your home line.
Still nothing: keep records and complain
If it is the provider, the path is clear: open a fault ticket and note the ticket number and time. If outages repeat, write down the date and duration every time. When the connection comes back, run the speed test and let the results build up in your history. For repeated problems in Türkiye, the process, your rights and the BTK step are covered in I am not getting the speed I pay for.
Summary
- Work out the scope first: one site, your home connection, or everything?
- Switch to mobile data. If it works there, the problem is your home connection.
- Read the modem lights and restart it with a 30-second unplug.
- Narrow it down at home with another device, a cable and DNS.
- If you suspect a wide outage, check provider announcements and record dates and times.