How To Troubleshoot Network Issues


Of all troubles you can stumble upon with a computer, network issues might be one of the most frustrating. First instinct when an issue occurs is, “Oh’, let me Google that” and you’re opening the browser an find the message “This site can’t be reached” poking your eyes, and you feel kind of helpless.

Thought a give you an approach that may help when you’re facing a problem in the vast and complex area of networking.

Step 1

First thing you should do is to determine the scope of the problem. By figuring out how many is got the same problem or is affected, this can help you pin down possible causes.

Step 2

Second thing is to determine the IP configurations. Verify that the network configurations on the device is correct. Some possible issues with IP configurations might be:

  • If the computer is not assigned an IP configuration from the DHCP server, Windows 10 computers reverts to using an Automatic Private IP Address (APIPA), this address looks like this 169.254.x.y. An is an indicator that configurations is not correct.
  • Wrong DNS server
  • Wrong Gateway

Step 3

If the searching above didn’t work out, determine the network’s hardware configuration. Figure out whether there is a trouble with the networking hardware or hardware device drivers. My experience when troubleshooting user problems, is that it is often solved by updating device drivers and system updates, and occasionally static configurations on the network card.

Step 4

The final step in procedure is to test communications. Perform a series of tests that can help you pinpoint the nature of the problem. The test might be something like:

  • Verifying basic communications.
  • Checking the routing and firewall configurations of your network.
  • Test name resolution
  • Testing connectivity to specific applications on your network.

Knowing how to troubleshoot network-related problems is great to have in the back of your head, and it help you to minimize disruption to your users, and also avoid having people running down your desk with with computer issues that they expect you to fix in a split second.