Basic Network Troubleshooting

Here you will learn network troubleshooting tips, fix tcp/ip errors, tcp/ip
settings, internet connectivity errors, how to fix pc errors, lan connectivity
issues, traceroute and ping commands. Whether your operating system is
Windows or Linux network problems are likely to arise. Many times the
network problems arisee due to improperly configured TCP/IP settings.
Following is the basic checklist to identify and troubleshoot the basic
networking errors.
1. First of all you should learn what stopped working server or client computer
also see if the outage affecting the other computers or only one.

2. If you server stopped working you should inform the users of the server and you should start working
on fixing the error.
3. If a single client computer stopped working or disconnected from the network, ask the user of that
computer that what recent changes cause the server to stop working such as newly installed software or
games, service pakcs, internet software, new hardware or any other thing.
4. Check the physical network connectivity. The most network problems arise due to the physical layers
failure.
5. Check all the network cable connections. You can start at the NIC and check if the green light is
blinking then check the hub and see if the computer is getting the link across the cable.
6. Get a cable tester to check the connectivity of the cables.
7. Finally start pinging the network both Windows and Linux have the PING command. You can use
ping command in this way start > Run > cmd > type "ping" then IP

How to Troubleshoot Connectivity problems

1. Use the ping command to test the basic connectivity. By using the ping command you can isolate
network hardware problems and incompatible configurations. By using the path ping you can detect
packet loss.
2. If you want to see the Ping's statistics then you ping -t command and press enter to continue and if
you want to stop then press CTRL+BREAKTo watch Ping statistics, use the ping -t command. To see
statistics and continue, press CTRL+BREAK. To stop, press CTRL+C.
3. If you remote system is across the delay link, such as satellite link responses may take longer.
4. Check the event logs for network card and other hardware and software configurations and
connectivity related entries.
5. Check whether the NIC card is on the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
6. Check other computers that use the same gateway and are plugged into the same hub or switch and if
these computers do not show any network connectivity problem then the problem is on the only one
computer.
7. Contact the vendor of each NIC and motherboard and update the BIOS.
8. Replace the network adapter of the system with the good configured system and see if the same error
arise again.
SOME BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS
Make sure that you have the same IP address schme, same subnet mask, same default gateway, same
DNS and DHCP settings for all the computers in a network. Also make sure that you can ping the other
computers by their IP address as well as by their name. Make sure that you have the same workgroup or
domain name for all the computers. For troubleshooting and administrative purposes turn off all the
firewalls. Use the same administrative password for troubleshooting on all the computers. Try pinging
the other computers this will test the TCP/IP connectivity. You can use the ping command in this format
ping 10.100.100.1 and if you can get the reply from the other computer then the connectivity is ok and if
get the time out error then there must me some error in the connectivity or error in configurations.
Issues in Finding websites
If you find any problem in finding the websites then ping the website name rather than the IP address
and this will determine if your DNS entry is corret or working for example ping www.google.com. If
this works then problem must be in your web browser due to misconfigurations. You should check the
proxy server settings of your browsers and clear the cache and temporary internet files.
Issues in Pinging a computer
If you can't ping the computer by its name then check the DNS IP address in your network or dial-up
setup.
Issues in connecting to the other device on Local Area Network
If you can ping all the other computers but are not allowed access then make sure that you are using the
same user name and password assigned by the same domain controller. Try connecting to the computer
using start > run > server name where serve name is the name of the server you want to connect to. Also
add the computer name and it's IP address in the LMHOSTS file, which resides at
Windows\System32\Drivers directory for Windows 2000 or XP.
Issues in Network Connectivity.
If a computer is unable to connect to a network or see other computers in a network it may be necessary
to troubleshoot the network. Due to the following reasons you network may not work.
1. Network card not connected properly
2. Bad NIC card drive's settings
3. Firewall preventing computers from seeing each other.
4. Connection related issues.
5. Bad network hardware.
Solution:
Because of the large variety of the network configurations, setup, software, hardware operating systems
etc not all the information may apply to your network or operating system. First of all verify that the
network cable of each computer is properly connected, one end to the NIC card, which is plugged into
the computer and one end to the Hub or switch. Ensure that the green light is blinking on the NIC, this
shows that the NIC is either receiving or sending the data. On the other hand if the card does not have
any lights or has orange or red lights, then is possible that either the NIC adapter is bad or not connected
properly.
Make sure that the cables are properly connected to the hub or swtich. Make sure that the newly
installed NIC adapter is not conflicting with the other NIC cards on the network and a unique IP address
is assigned to each NIC card. If there is some conflict then the device manager may identify the
conflicting card. Furthermore, make sure that the NIC is capable of pinging or seeing itself by the ping
command. If you are on the TCP/IP network, make sure that the correct protocols are installed. If you
are using a firewall, ensure all the ports required are open. While troubleshooting you can close the
firewall program so that they there should not occur any conflict.
TCP/IP Configuraitons Checking
The first step in the troubleshooting process is to check the TCP/IP settings. You can check it by using
the IPCONFIG/All command on the command prompt. You will see the configuration results. If you see
a blank configuration for a card this means then the card is not assigned any IP address. You can assign
the IP address manually or via DHCP server. If you are using the DHCP server for assigning the IP
addresses then you can use the following commands to get and release the IP address.
IPConfig/Release
IPConfig/Renew
IPConfig/All

Basic network troubleshooting.

Issue
Basic network troubleshooting.

Cause
If a computer is unable to connect to a network or see other computers on a
network, it may be necessary to troubleshoot the network. A network may
not work because of any of the below reasons.
1. Network card not connected properly.
2. Bad network card drivers or software settings.
3. Firewall preventing computers from seeing each other.
4. Connection related issues.
5. Bad network hardware.

Solution
Because of the large variety of network configurations, operating systems, setup,
etc... not all of the below information may apply to your network or operating
system. If your computer is connected to a company or large network, or you are
not the administrator of the network, it is recommended that if you are unable
to resolve your issues after following the below recommendations that you
contact the network administrator or company representative.
Note: If you are being prompted for a Network password and do not know the
password, Computer Hope is unable to assist users with obtaining a new or
finding out the old password.
Verify connections / LEDs
Verify that the network cable is properly connected to the back of the
computer. In addition, when checking the connection of the network cable,
 ensure that the LEDs on the network are properly illuminated. For example,
a network card with a solid green LED or light usually indicates that the
card is either connected or receiving a signal. Note: generally, when the
green light is flashing, this is an indication of data being sent or received.
If, however, the card does not have any lights or has orange or red lights, it
is possible that either the card is bad, the card is not connected properly,
or that the card is not receiving a signal from the network.
If you are on a small or local network and have the capability of checking a
hub or switch, verify that the cables are properly connected and that the
hub or switch has power.
Adapter resources
Ensure that if this is a new network card being installed into the computer
that the card's resources are properly set and not conflicting with any
hardware in the computer.
Users who are using Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 or XP, verify that Device
Manager has no conflicts or errors. Additional help and information about
Device Manager and resources can be found on our Device Manager page.
Adapter functionality
Verify that the network card is capable of pinging or seeing itself by using
the ping command. Windows / MS-DOS users ping the computer from a MS-
DOS prompt. Unix / Linux variant users ping the computer from the shell.
To ping the card or the localhost, type either
ping 127.0.0.1
or
ping localhost
This should show a listing of replies from the network card. If you receive an
error or if the transmission failed, it is likely that either the network card is
not physically installed into the computer correctly, or that the card is bad.
Protocol
Verify that the correct protocols are installed on the computer. Most
networks today will utilize TCP/IP, but may also utilize or require IPX/SPX
and NetBEUI.
• Additional information and help with installing and reinstalling a network
protocol.
When the TCP/IP protocol is installed, unless a DNS server or other
computer assigns the IPX address, the user must specify an IP address as
well as a Subnet Mask. To do this, follow the below instructions.
1. Click Start / Settings / Control Panel
2. Double-click the Network icon
 3. Within the configuration tab double-click the TCP/IP protocol icon.
Note: Do not click on the PPP or Dial-Up adapter, click on the network
card adapter.
4. In the TCP/IP properties click the IP address tab
5. Select the option to specify an IP address
6. Enter the IP address and Subnet Mask address, an example of such an
address could be:

IP Address: 102.55.92.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.192

7. When specifying these values, the computers on the network must all
have the same Subnet Mask and have a different IP Address. For
example, when using the above values on one computer you would
want to use an IP address of 102.55.92.2 on another computer and then
specify the same Subnet Mask.
Firewall
If your computer network utilizes a firewall, ensure that all ports required
are open. If possible, close the firewall software program or disconnect the
computer from the firewall to ensure it is not causing the problem.
Additional time
In some cases it may take a computer some additional time to detect or see
the network. If after booting the computer you are unable to see the
network, give the computer 2-3 minutes to detect the network. Windows
users may also want to try pressing the F5 (refresh) key when in Network
Neighborhood to refresh the network connections and possibly detect the
network.
Additional troubleshooting
If after following or verifying the above recommendations you are still
unable to connect or see the network, attempt one or more of the below
recommendations.
If you have installed or are using TCP/IP as your protocol you can ping
another computer's IP address to verify if the computer is able to send and
receive data. To do this, Windows or MS-DOS users must be at a prompt and
Linux / Unix variant users must open or be at a shell.
Once at the prompt assuming, that the address of the computer you wish to
ping is 102.55.92.2, you would type:
ping 102.55.92.2
If you receive a response back from this address (and it is a different
computer), this demonstrates that the computer is communicating over the
network. If you are still unable to connect or see the network, it is possible
that other issues may be present.
 Another method of determining network issues is to use the tracert
command if you are a MS-DOS or Windows user or the traceroute command
if you are a Linux / Unix variant user. To use this command you must be at
the command prompt or shell.
Once at the prompt, assuming that the address is again 102.55.92.2, type:
tracert 102.55.92.2
or
traceroute 102.55.92.2
This should begin listing the hops between the computer and network
devices. When the connection fails, determine what device is causing the
issue by reviewing the traceroute listing

Troubleshooting
TCP/IP Networks
The purpose of this section is to give general tips
on troubleshooting your TCP/IP LAN or Internet Connection

The basics for troubleshooting are:

1. Make sure you have the same IP scheme (e.g. 192.168.0.x).

Make sure you have the same Subnet Mask, Gateway, and DNS IP
2.
addresses

3. Make sure you can ping the other computers by IP ADDRESS

4. Make sure you can ping the other computers by NAME

5. Make sure you have the same workgroup name (watch for trailing spaces)

For troubleshooting purposes, uninstall any 3rd party firewall software and
6. turn off XP's built in one. You can always add more complexity after you get
it working.

With Windows2000, XP and Vista, make sure you have the same username
and password as the person logging onto the other computers. The default
7.
setting for all but the Home Versions is to require a password for network
access.
 More details about how to network XP can be found at:
8.
WindowsXP Networking

More details about how to network Vista can be found at:

9.
Vista Networking

Basically keep things simple. Remove any unnecessary firewalls, protocols

10. or other configurations the complicate the troubleshooting process. You can
add them back in later after you get things working.

How to Determine Your IP Address

1. For Win9x ( Start / Run / Command )

2 For Windows2000, XP and Vista ( Start / Run / CMD )

3. Then run IPCONFIG /ALL

4. This will give a text display of all the IP information for any network adapters.

With Win98 you can also run WINIPCFG to get a graphic of your TCP/IP
5.
settings
 How to Ping
1. For Win9x ( Start / Run / Command )

2 For Windows2000, XP and Vista ( Start / Run / CMD )

3. The syntax is: PING IP or PING NAME

4. PING IP - An example would be PING 192.168.0.1

5. PING NAME - An example would be PING server or PING www.yahoo.com

If you do not get a reply, and there is no

 firewall software installed, your network
configuration, modem, Ethernet card, or
cabling is probably at fault
• Triple check all your network settings.
• If you have Win9x, you can run WINIPCFG to get a graphic of your TCP/IP
settings.
• Click on the More Info tab to bring up a screen similar to the one below.
• If you have Windows2000, XP or Vista, open up a command window
(Start / Run / CMD), then run IPCONFIG /ALL. This will give a text display
of all the IP information for any network adapters.
• If you have a network adapter, make sure that the adapter is set up
correctly.
• Also check to see if any link status lights on your adapter are lit.
• If you are on a local LAN, see if you can use another known working
computer's network drop, cabling, and network card.
• Make sure your Dial-Up Network settings are all correct. It is easy to miss
an item.

If your PING works but you are having

problems finding sites on the Internet
• Try PINGing a name rather than an IP address.
• This will determine if your DNS entry is correct or working.
• For example: PING www.yahoo.com
• If this works, then likely your web browser is misconfigured. Make sure you
do not have an incorrect proxy server setting in your Web Browser
• It could also be a corrupt winsock registry entry

If you can't Ping a Computer Name

• Check the DNS IP address in your Network or Dial-Up Icon's setup
• If you are only using an ISP and not connected to a local LAN, you only
need a DNS entry in the Dial-Up Icon.
 If you are on a LAN but cannot connect to any
other devices
• If you can ping all the other computers on your network but are not allowed
access:
• Make sure you have the same username and password defined on any NT
based computer (NT 4, Windows2000 and XP), that are logging into the
other computers.
• Try connecting to the computer using Start \ Run and enter \\Servername
where Servername is the name of the server you want to connect to.
• Add the Computer and it's IP address to the LMHOSTS file. This is a
straight text file that resides in the Windows directory (for Win9x) or the
Windows\System32\drivers\etc directory (for Windows2000 or XP) and has
the format IP_Address Computer_Name
• Don't rely on the Network Neighborhood to always show you a list of
computers. Browsing is fairly complicated issue and has a lot of places for
failure. If you need to have resources available, create shortcuts on your
desktop instead
• If you have Win95, make sure you get the Winsock update from Microsoft
before connecting to a Windows2000 or XP computer.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet

Protocol)
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TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication
language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in a
private network (either an intranet or anextranet). When you are set up with direct access to
the Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every
other computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of
TCP/IP.
TCP/IP is a two-layer program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages
the assembling of a message or file into smaller packets that are transmitted over the
Internet and received by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message.
The lower layer, Internet Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to
the right destination. Each gateway computer on the network checks this address to see
where to forward the message. Even though some packets from the same message
Learn More
• Topics Archive
• IP Networking
• Network Administration
are routed differently than others, they'll be reassembled at the destination.
TCP/IP uses the client/servermodel of communication in which a computer user (a client)
requests and is provided a service (such as sending a Web page) by another computer (a
server) in the network. TCP/IP communication is primarily point-to-point, meaning each
communication is from one point (or host computer) in the network to another point or host
computer. TCP/IP and the higher-level applications that use it are collectively said to be
"stateless" because each client request is considered a new request unrelated to any
previous one (unlike ordinary phone conversations that require a dedicated connection for
the call duration). Being stateless frees network paths so that everyone can use them
continuously. (Note that the TCP layer itself is not stateless as far as any one message is
concerned. Its connection remains in place until all packets in a message have been
received.)
Many Internet users are familiar with the even higher layer application protocols that use
TCP/IP to get to the Internet. These include the World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP), the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet (Telnet) which lets you logon to
remote computers, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). These and other
protocols are often packaged together with TCP/IP as a "suite."
Personal computer users with an analog phone modem connection to the Internet usually
get to the Internet through the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or the Point-to-Point
Protocol (PPP). These protocols encapsulate the IP packets so that they can be sent over the
dial-up phone connection to an access provider's modem.
Protocols related to TCP/IP include the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which is used
instead of TCP for special purposes. Other protocols are used by network host computers
for exchanging routerinformation. These include the Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP), the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), the Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP), and
the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).