Computer Network Troubleshooting

Problems in network access can result in a lot of stress and frustration. It includes both software and hardware issues and requires considerable expertise and skill to deal with the issues. Luckily, the internet is a good source of information for computer network troubleshooting and tells you how to fix these problems. However, when network problem occurs, the internet becomes inaccessible, and it seems impossible to find the solution online. Here, I have listed some basic commands for computer network troubleshooting that occurs in a UNIX and windows operating systems. These commands will help you to diagnose the problem and resolve computer network issue.

PING

Pinging is commonly used to check the connectivity of your source device with other systems. For instance, if the IP address of your system is 192.168.1.0 and network server IP address is 192.168.1.1, you can trace the internet connectivity status with that server by using the ping command. Go to start menu>run and type cmd. There you need to type the following command.

Ping 192.168.1.1 and press key of enter.

If you get a reply from the concerning server, it means that your connectivity status is okay. If you have an error message, like ‘request time out’, it is an indication of some problem in the server’s connectivity.

IPCONFIG

This command is used in Windows systems to view the computer IP address. It also displays the DHCP, gateway addresses, subnet mask and DNS of the network.
Type ‘ipconfig’ in the command prompt window, and press enter. It will show the IP address for your system.
Inconfig: This command will show the detailed information of the network.

NSLOOKUP

This command (NSLOOKUP) is used to check DNS records, domain names, and operating system information. You can get all these details by sending a request to the domain name servers and resolve the error associated with it.

HOSTNAME

It will show the name of your computer. Go to start>run, type cmd and then enter the command ‘hostname’, press enter.

NETSTAT

This utility is used to view the current statistics of TCP/IP connections and protocols in the system.

NBTSTAT

It is helpful to troubleshoot the problem related to NETBIOS resolution.

ARP

It modifies and displays physical and IP address table used by the protocols of ARP.

FINGER

It is used to get information related to a user within a specific network.

TRACERT

It determines the remote system path and provides the IP address to each hop. If you want to know how many hops are included to access any URL and IP address of these hops, you need to use this command.
Type ‘tracertwww.google.com’ at the command prompt, it will show you a list of hops with IP addresses.

ROUTE

It allows inserting manual entries of the network in the routing table.

TRACEROUTEd

It is a command for network debugging and used to show the status of the locating server. It is helpful to trace the network route between two computers.
Hopefully, these listed commands will be helpful to trace computer network troubleshooting problems without involving network professionals.