Troubleshooting Your Network

Networking for Home and Small Businesses – Chapter 9

Copyleft 2012 Vincenzo Bruno (www.vincenzobruno.it)

Released under Crative Commons License 3.0 By-Sa
Cisco name, logo and materials are Copyright Cisco Systems Inc.
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The Troubleshooting Process
 Most people rely on instinct
to help troubleshoot
 Important to maintain
documentation to help in
the process
– record problems
encountered
– what steps were taken
to determine the cause
– what steps have been
taken to make sure it
doesn’t occur again.

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The Troubleshooting Process
 Step 1 – Gather information
– Question the individual who has
the problem
• end user experiences
• observation by the user
• error messages

 Step 2 – Collect information

about affected equipment
– look at log files
– changes
– warranty information
– network monitoring tools
• used for larger networks
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Troubleshooting Techniques
 Use OSI layered approach
 Top-down
– start at application layer
– work down until faulty error occurs
 Bottom-up
– start at physical layer and work up
– hardware, cabling, etc problems
– more complex
 Divide and Conquer
– begins in the middle layers
– based on experience

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Top Down

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Divide and conquer

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Bottom UP

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Approaches to Troubleshooting
 Trial and Error
– relies on an individual’s knowledge
– educated guess based on past experiences
– if it doesn’t work, try, try again

 Substitution
– problem assumed to be caused by a specific part
– the solution – replace the part
– used for inexpensive items
• cables, etc

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Utilities Used to Detect Physical Problems
 Use your senses
 Sight
 Smell
 Touch
 Hearing

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Utilities Used to Verify TCP/IP Connectivity
 Use CLI
 IP Config / ifconfig
– checks to make sure correct IP and subnet mask

 Ping
– verifies connectivity to other hosts

 Tracert / traceroute
– traces the route of the packet

 Netstat
– show what networks are active

 Nslookup or dig
– asks the name server for information
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IP CONFIG / ifconfig commands
 Ipconfig - displays current IP configuration
– IP address
– Subnet Mask
– Default Gateway

 Ipconfig /all – displays additional information

– DHCP (/etc/resolv.conf on Linux)
– DNS information

 Ipconfig /release – used with DHCP

– release IP address

 Ipconfig /renew – used with DHCP

– refreshes IP (dhclient on Linux)

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The Ping Command
 Used to determine whether or not the host is reachable
 Can be used with either an IP address of name of
destination
 Echo request – ping sent
 Echo reply – destination host responds
 Ping issues
– able to ping both IP and name, but unable to access
application
• problem likely at destination host
–Unable to ping both IP and name
• network connectivity problem
• if able to ping default gateway, problem not at local level

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The Tracert / traceroute Command
 Shows each hop along the way
 Tells how long it takes for the packet to be sent and get
a response (round trip time)
 30 hops – network/user deemed unreachable
– default settings
– can be changed

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The Netstat Command
 Views open connections on a host
 Informs user about:
– protocols
– local address
– port numbers
– connection state

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The Nslookup / dig Command
 Allows end user to look up information about DNS
name and DNS server
 Used as a troubleshooting tool to see if DNS server has
the correct IP with the correct name

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Hardware and Connection Issues in Wired &
Wireless Networks
 Use divide-and-
conquer technique
 To determine where the
problem exists:
– ping from wireless client
to default gateway
– ping from wired client to
default gateway
– ping wireless client to
wired client

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LED Indicators
 Used to show activity
 Security LED
– solid green = security enabled

 Link Lights
– solid green = plugged in with no traffic
– flashing green = plugged in with traffic
– amber = making adjustments

 Power LED
– solid green = operational

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Cable Issues
 One of the most common problems
 Check for:
– correct cable type
– improper cable termination
– too long of cable runs
– verify correct ports
– protect cables from damage

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Radio Problems with a Wireless Network
 What if . . .
– the wireless client is unable to connect to the access point

 Possible fixes:
– check wireless standards being used
– check channels
– check signal strength
• may be too far away from AP
– check for outside interference
– check available bandwidth
• too many clients on one channel

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Association and Authentication Issues
 SSID
– make sure client is
configured with the correct
SSID

 Check Authentication
– open (by default)
– might have be changed
• check to make sure the
correct key is being used

 Encryption
– key needed by the client

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 DHCP Problems
 Make sure the IP address of the client is on the same network
as the ISR
 If both client and access point are not on the same network,
use release and renew

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 ISR Router to the ISP Problems

 Wired and Wireless devices

can connect to each other,
but not the Internet . . .
Why??
 May be a connection
between the access point
and the ISP
– check out the router status
page
– check physical connections
(including indicator lights)
– verify passwords
– may be that the Internet site
is just down
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 Documentation
 Set a performance baseline
– do this just after the network is installed and running efficiently

 When documenting a problem, include the following

– initial problem
– steps taken
– result of the steps
– determined cause of problem
– how the problem was resolved
– preventive measures taken

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Using the Helpdesk
 Provides assistance for the end user to help fix a problem
– via email
– via live chat
– via phone
 Use of remote access
– help desk takes control of your machine
 Inform the help desk of the following:
– symptoms
– who had the problem
– when it happened
– steps taken
– results of steps taken

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Summary
 Effective troubleshooting combines instinct, experience, and
structured techniques to identify, locate, and correct network or
computer problems.
 Documentation is essential in effective troubleshooting, and
should contain baseline information about the network.
 A large proportion of networking problems relate to physical
components.
 Many networking problems can be identified with software utilities
such as ping, tracert, and netstat.
 In a network containing both wired and wireless connections, it is
important to isolate the problem to either the wired or wireless
network.

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