What could be easier than hopping online to check your email or watch some movie trailers? Our way of life seems to revolve around having almost instant connections to the internet, but when that connection is severed, things can look dark almost instantly – how do we live in this modern world without the internet!

Fortunately, you don’t need to spend more than a few minutes panicking before you’re able to start making progress on getting your internet back online and up to speed. You’ll know you have a problem when you’re trying to pull up a website and instead of your inbox you get a message: “Error 678: Cannot Connect to Internet”.

Error 678 can be caused by a few different things, and to find the problem behind your connectivity issues, you’ll need to work through a list of possibilities to eliminate some before you find the real answer to your problem.

Unlike other internet connection errors, you see Error 678 when you’re sending out a request to another server or website host, but nothing is being returned. Normally you send out a request when you type in a URL and the request brings back the website you want to see. With Error 678, you’re doing your part, but something is standing in the way of getting the results you want.

Some of the most common reasons you might be seeing Error 678 include:

• An unplugged or faulty internet cable
• Spyware or malware on your computer causing problems
• Your modem is disabled or the drivers are corrupted
• A part of your registry (such as the winsock.dll file) is corrupted
• An incorrectly configured firewall is standing between you and the Internet

There are several levels of ownership when it comes to your computer. There’s the default or generic setting. You also have your own profile where your background images are saved and you’re able to access all of your files and programs. If other members of your household use the same computer, they may have their own profiles on your machine as well.

Sometimes the computer gets a bit confused about all of these profiles and it chooses to load the wrong one. Or it can’t load anything but the default profile – the one that’s missing most of your stuff. When this happens, you’re faced with an error.

Info Center . . .

What is a User Profile?

When you first get your computer, you’re usually prompted to put in personal information and a password. Then, all of the things you change and set up preferences for are stored as part of your profile. For example, if you save Chrome as your preferred browser, or default browser, it will stay that way in your user profile.

• The user profile extends to many things including programs, images settings and files saved to the machine. The vast majority of the time when you log into your computer, you’re taken directly to your user profile without any trouble.

What is a Default Profile?

The default profile in Windows is simply the template that all profiles start from. Think back to the first time you turned on your brand new computer. The machine likely took you on a tour of Windows and had generic wallpaper.

• What you saw that very first time you booted up the machine is, in essence, the default profile. It’s a template or blueprint profile that the computer has saved deep in its memory. When a new user logs in, the default profile is copied to that user’s profile and then as the new user makes changes, they are saved. But the default template lives on in the background, and with certain errors, can suddenly show up unexpectedly.

What are the Main Causes of the Blue Screen of Death

Odds are that if you have used PCs for any length of time, you’ve seen the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). It’s what happens when it all goes wrong in one universally recognized sign: your screen turns solid blue, and it shows you nothing but error information. Whether the reaction is shock, fear or disgust, it’s not a pretty picture.

What we want to give you here is the crib-sheet for what to do when your PC suffers a critical error.  Get the steps needed to let you quickly and calmly troubleshoot problems and sniff out the major glitches that cause freeze-ups, lock-ups and blue screens.

First Step: Don't Panic

First off, write down all relevant information when you see a BSOD flash on to the screen. This includes the error number and name of the stop error, and any file names specified in the driver information section. Want a sense of what's happening?  Check out Microsoft's dedicated list of system errors to get a better grasp on what's going on with your computer.

If you don’t have time to do that, don’t feel bad. Try to restart Windows normally. If the BSOD occurred while your system was booting Windows, you may be taken to a troubleshooting menu and will have to select “Attempt to Start Windows Normally.”

If your system starts normally, and seems to be operating normally, thank your lucky stars and continue using it. Sometimes it is just a transient errors and you won’t see it again. If it happens again within a few days or a week, it’s time to do a little more error code writing down and digging.

If you have an iPhone, I sincerely hope you’ve never had a bit of trouble with it. Unfortunately, however, it is not uncommon for a particular error message to pop up, especially if you’re trying to download new updates for the phone or restore it to the factory settings. If you’ve run into Error 3194 on your iPhone or other Apple device – it’s not you. It’s the software that needs fixing.