How to Effectively Troubleshoot Your Network Issues

Every office has an interconnected network of computers. These computers will be connected to the same server. Nothing can beat the convenience of a shared network. However, network issues can take down all the computers at the same time. It is important to ensure that you can troubleshoot your network issues. If your network is down, then your employees can’t do their work. Thus, you should focus on restoring your network. In this article, we are going to share some tips which will help you in troubleshooting your network issues.

What is Network Troubleshooting?

Troubleshooting simply means that you will identify problems with your network by following a repeatable and rigorous process. You can use testable methods for solving the problem. Network troubleshooting is more efficient when compared to testing random things. You can try random things until your network starts working again. However, this will take a lot of time in some cases. You should follow a plan for fixing your network issues. Network troubleshooting is important for everyone.

Why Network Troubleshooting skills are important for network management?

If you have network troubleshooting skills in the home, then you can avoid the inconvenience of contacting IT support whenever your network goes down. However, most businesses don’t have access to IT network professionals. Network outages in the workplace are the real trouble for business owners. You can’t do your work if your network is down. Thus, you should focus on eliminating network downtime.

New technology can help you in achieving your business goals. However, these new technologies won’t help you until they are connected to your network. Thus, you should focus on building a robust IT architecture first. Your network will also grow with your organization. If you are hiring more people, then the size of your network will automatically grow. You should ensure that you can deal with this growth.

Network downtime will translate to lost revenue. This can cost you a lot of money. Thus, network troubleshooting skills are a necessity for every business.

How to troubleshoot your network issues?

1. Check your network connectivity settings

Sometimes you can solve this network issue by following the easiest solution. Thus, you should start by doing what is obvious. If your network device is not connected to the internet, then all the computers won’t be connected to the internet. You should start by checking your network connectivity settings.

Start by checking your Wi-Fi settings. Make sure that your Wi-Fi is turned on. Sometimes your employees can accidentally close your Wi-Fi without realizing it. It is important to ensure that you are upgrading your systems. Sometimes this upgrade can turn off your internet settings. If your internet is off, then you should first start it and check if your network is working properly. This is the easiest solution. However, it is sometimes the only solution to this problem.

2. Check your hardware

In some cases, all you need to do is check your network settings. However, this is very rare. In most cases, you actually need to do a lot of work. If your network settings are correct, then you should check your hardware next. There is a chance that your hardware is not working properly.

You should start by checking your LAN or local area network. Also, you should check your WAN connections. There is a chance that someone accidentally tripped over your Ethernet cables. Due to this, your LAN is not working properly. Thus, you should check your hardware connections.

If all your Ethernet cables are already plugged in, then you should unplug them. Wait for some time to reset your Ethernet. After that, you need to plug them back in. This might help you in solving your network problem. If your network is still down, then buying new Ethernet cables might help you. However, you should try other methods before you buy new cables.

3. Use ipconfig command

If your hardware is working properly, then it is time to write some commands in the terminal. There is a lot of network troubleshooting that you can do. Thus, it is time to open a command prompt on your Windows computer. After that, you need to type ipconfig command in this terminal.

This command will help you in checking every TCP or Transmission control protocol network configuration and IP or Internet protocol configuration value of your network. You can also use this command for resetting various important settings. It will also help you in resetting your DNS or Domain Name System. Also, it will help you in resetting your DHCP or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

DNS is very important for your network. It will take the domain name of all the websites you are visiting. DNS will remember the IP addresses of the websites that you are visiting. Your browser will be using this IP address for fetching the resources you need. In simple words, DNS is just a phonebook for your computer. It will help your computer in remembering the IP address of websites that you are visiting.

DHCP will provide an IP address to your network. This will ensure that you can actually use DNS and other network protocols like TCP and UDP.

If you want to check your network IP address, then you need to type ipconfig command in the terminal. You can check your IP address validity by checking the first 3 digits. They can be anything other than 169. If your IP address starts with something else, then this is not an IP issue. IP addresses starting with 169 are invalid. Thus, you will be sure that something is wrong with your network IP address.

You can easily reset your network IP address. All you need to do is type ipconfig/release in your terminal. After that, you need to type ipconfig/new in your terminal. This will help you in generating a new IP address for your network. Sometimes you can fix your network issue by generating a new IP address.

4. Ping another network

You have checked your IP address and it is valid. Also, your router is working properly but your network is still down. If this is the case, then it is time to open your terminal again. You should try to ping another server. Try to ping the google server by typing input ping.8.8.8.88 –t in the terminal. The –t command will ensure that your computer will keep pinging the Google server without stopping. If you are writing ping command only then your network will ping the Google server only once.

The ping command is heavily used by network admins. It can help you in checking if you can send a request to other servers. If you need more detailed information, then you should use the tracert command. Tracert command will help you in checking where the issue occurs between every ping. This will help you in finding the root cause of the problem. It can help you in understanding what is wrong with your network.

5. Use nslookup command to check the DNS server

You can also find the origin of the error by using the nslookup command prompt. This command will help you in running a DNS check. The result will either be no response, server failure, server timed out, or refused. If you are seeing these results in your command prompt, then the destination server is at fault. Your network is working properly but the destination server is not working properly.

After that, you can do a nslookup on your network. If you are not seeing the above responses in your terminal when you are checking the destination server, then something might be wrong with your network. Thus, you should run a nslookup on your network. This will help you in pinpointing the reason why you can’t connect to other servers.

If you think that the connectivity issue is on the destination server, then you should contact your ISP. This will help you in determining if there is some widespread outage. Your ISP might tell you that other users are also facing the same problem. In this case, your ISP will actively look for a solution. You don’t need to worry about solving this problem.

All you need to do is to wait for your ISP to restore the service. However, you are going to lose employees’ productivity due to this. Your network might be down for an entire day. Thus, you should consider having a backup ISP. This can help you in avoiding ISP outages.

6. Check your Data logs

Your ISP can also tell you that they are not having any problems. Thus, it is time to again get to work. You need to again focus on troubleshooting your network issues. In this case, you should start by checking your data logs. If every network command is working fine, then only your data logs can help you in debugging the issue.

Sometimes database issues can affect your network connectivity. These database issues are hard to detect. Due to this, most network admins don’t know about them. Your data logs can give you some hints regarding this. Thus, you should check all the data logs that you are storing.

7. Check your antivirus

Antivirus is very important for your organization. It can help you in protecting your systems from attackers. However, they can also flag your main network device. Due to this, you can’t use it. Your antivirus will also block various websites and suspicious attachments before you can download them. It will provide a detailed report to you that you can check.

Sometimes antivirus can become too active. They can even turn off your firewall or some other parts of your network. Thus, you should once check your antivirus. Maybe your antivirus solution is blocking your network. If you are using an anti-malware solution, then you should also check it. These tools can sometimes block your network if they think something is wrong with your system.

8. Contact your IT team or MSP

You have tried every method but your network is still not working. This is the correct time to call your IT team or MSP. They can help you quickly review the issue. Your IT team or MSP might need to come onsite to your office for checking the network software and hardware. In some cases, they can also debug the issue remotely. This will actually depend on the issue that you are facing.

Sometimes the issue will be a simple thing that you missed. However, this is normal as you are not trained in troubleshooting. There is also a chance that there is some complex issue. In this case, you need to provide sufficient time to your IT team for dealing with the issue.

Make sure that you are getting a diagnostic report from your IT team or provider. This will help you in understanding what the actual issue was. Also, you will know how to deal with this issue in the future. You don’t need to contact your IT MSP for the same issue. Your IT partner will also give you tips that you can follow for keeping your network up.

Conclusion

Network issues are something that every business needs to deal with. If your network is down, then your employees can’t do their work. Sometimes your services can also go down. This will be devastating for your business as your customers can’t access your services. You can try all the methods mentioned in this article for troubleshooting the issue. Sometimes the issue is very simple and you can solve it without contacting IT professionals. If nothing works, then you should contact your IT team.

The best way to deal with these problems is by outsourcing your IT needs. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in quickly solving these simple problems. They will regularly monitor your network for issues. Thus, you can solve the issue before it affects your users. This can help you in protecting your network from downtime. In case of a network failure, they will help you in quickly recovering your network. If you need more information regarding IT services, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.