Basic Network Troubleshooting Page 1/10

Communications

Basic Network Troubleshooting

A way to identify network problem, concepts and
explanations

Product /Solution: IT/IP Network

First issue: 16.02.2005

Update: 16.02.2005
Version: 1.0

Issued by: Daniel Kodyat (Com CS)

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0 Content
0 Content ....................................................................................................... 2
1 Background................................................................................................. 3
2 Basic Network Troubleshooting .................................................................. 4
2.1 Check physical Layer network (Ethernet cable copper RJ-45). ........... 4
2.2 Check network latency, hops, and reachability.................................... 7
You have to capture the result of pathping results as prove......................... 10

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1 Background
During troubleshooting, sometimes engineers difficulty to define the problem whether
the problem come from host (applications, hardware) and the network itself. In IT
world, the problem of hosts / servers which these connect into the network somehow
looks like network problem.

The purpose of this documentation procedure is a way to help engineers to define and
identify if the problem is network or not. After creating this procedure, wishing that the
troubleshooting procedure can be faster for engineers and the problem can be
addressed to the right person.

These procedures are created base on experiences for the most mistakes and
problem find in Siemens Indonesia. Hopefully, it will useful for daily troubleshooting
especially to define the problem for engineer. For a note, the engineer should have
basic knowledge for computer when they want to follow this procedure.

The procedures are giving details information and basic knowledge in network.

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2 Basic Network Troubleshooting

2.1 Check physical Layer network (Ethernet cable copper RJ-

45).

In physical layer, engineers should check if network cable connects properly or not to
the host / server / computer and to the other side of the network connection likes host /
server / computer / switch / hub.

For following content will discuss for network Ethernet cable for 10-baseT, 100base-T,
100base-Tx and 1000base-T

For most networks Ethernet connection right now will use Ethernet cable straight cable
to connect between computer to hub / switch, router to hub / switch.

For network connection between computer to computer, hub / switch to hub / switch, ,
computer to router should use cross-over network Ethernet cable.

The network cable for 10 Mbps (10-baseT) should use not less then Category 3 cable.
This identification usually mark in the cable as text Cat3. You may use better category
likes cat 5, cat 5e and cat 6 for 10 Mbps connection.

The network cable for 100 Mbps must use at least category 5, 5e or 6.

1000 Mbps Ethernet must use cat 6. In some case, using cat 5e may work but it is not
recommended.

This picture will show you the pin connection for network cable if you need to create it
(based on T-568B standardization). The other standardization you can followed is
based on T-568A.

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Ethernet Cable Instructions:

1. Pull the cable off the reel to the desired length and cut. If you are pulling cables through
holes, its easier to attach the RJ-45 plugs after the cable is pulled. The total length of
wire segments between a PC and a hub or between two PC's cannot exceed 100
Meters (328 feet) for 100BASE-TX and 300 Meters for 10BASE-T.
2. Start on one end and strip the cable jacket off (about 1") using a stripper or a knife. Be
extra careful not to nick the wires, otherwise you will need to start over.
3. Spread, untwist the pairs, and arrange the wires in the order of the desired cable end.
Flatten the end between your thumb and forefinger. Trim the ends of the wires so they
are even with one another, leaving only 1/2" in wire length. If it is longer than 1/2" it will
be out-of-spec and susceptible to crosstalk. Flatten and insure there are no spaces
between wires.
4. Hold the RJ-45 plug with the clip facing down or away from you. Push the wires firmly
into the plug. Inspect each wire is flat even at the front of the plug. Check the order of
the wires. Double check again. Check that the jacket is fitted right against the stop of
the plug. Carefully hold the wire and firmly crimp the RJ-45 with the crimper.
5. Check the color orientation, check that the crimped connection is not about to come
apart, and check to see if the wires are flat against the front of the plug. If even one of
these are incorrect, you will have to start over. Test the Ethernet cable.

Ethernet Cable Tips:

• A straight-thru cable has identical ends.

• A crossover cable has different ends.
• A straight-thru is used as a patch cord in Ethernet connections.
• A crossover is used to connect two Ethernet devices without a hub or for connecting
two hubs.
• A crossover has one end with the Orange set of wires switched with the Green set.
• Odd numbered pins are always striped, even numbered pins are always solid colored.
• Looking at the RJ-45 with the clip facing away from you, Brown is always on the right,
and pin 1 is on the left.
• No more than 1/2" of the Ethernet cable should be untwisted otherwise it will be
susceptible to crosstalk.
• Do not deform, do not bend, do not stretch, do not staple, do not run parallel with power
cables, and do not run Ethernet cables near noise inducing components.

Basic Theory:

By looking at a T-568A UTP Ethernet straight-thru cable and an Ethernet crossover cable with a
T-568B end, we see that the TX (transmitter) pins are connected to the corresponding RX
(receiver) pins, plus to plus and minus to minus. You can also see that both the blue and brown
wire pairs on pins 4, 5, 7, and 8 are not used in either standard. What you may not realize is
that, these same pins 4, 5, 7, and 8 are not used or required in 100BASE-TX as well. So why
bother using these wires, well for one thing its simply easier to make a connection with all the

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wires grouped together. Otherwise you'll be spending time trying to fit those tiny little wires into
each of the corresponding holes in the RJ-45 connector.

2.2 Check network latency, hops, and reachability.

Use pathping command at command prompt from Microsoft Windows XP Proffesional
when you suspect problem with network connection between 2 hosts / computers /
servers at different network segments.

Put your computer into the network. Make sure that you have network connection to
network and get the correct IP address (whether from DHCP server or put static IP).
You should place your computer in the same network segment with one of the
computer which you want to check. You can configure the IP in your computer from
Start > Network Connections, then click on which network you want to create IP,
double left click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and later on define the IP address (from
DHCP or static IP (use following IP address).

You have to issue pathping from your computer in the same network with one of
computer which suspected having network problem, to other IP address / hostname.

How the pathping works.

The pathping provides information about network latency and network loss at
intermediate hops between a source and destination. Pathping sends multiple Echo
Request messages to each router between a source and destination over a period of
time and then computes results based on the packets returned from each router.
Because pathping displays the degree of packet loss at any given router or link, you
can determine which routers or subnets might be having network problems. Pathping
performs the equivalent of the tracert command by identifying which routers are on the
path. It then sends pings periodically to all of the routers over a specified time period

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and computes statistics based on the number returned from each. Used without
parameters, pathping displays help.

Syntax:

pathping [-n] [-h MaximumHops] [-g HostList] [-p Period] [-q NumQueries [-w
Timeout] [-T] [-R] [TargetName]

Parameters

-n : Prevents pathping from attempting to resolve the IP addresses of intermediate routers to their names. This might
expedite the display of pathping results.

-h MaximumHops : Specifies the maximum number of hops in the path to search for the target (destination). The
default is 30 hops.

-g HostList : Specifies that the Echo Request messages use the Loose Source Route option in the IP header with the
set of intermediate destinations specified in HostList. With loose source routing, successive intermediate destinations
can be separated by one or multiple routers. The maximum number of addresses or names in the host list is 9. The
HostList is a series of IP addresses (in dotted decimal notation) separated by spaces.

-p Period : Specifies the number of milliseconds to wait between consecutive pings. The default is 250 milliseconds
(1/4 second).

-q NumQueries : Specifies the number of Echo Request messages sent to each router in the path. The default is 100
queries.

-w Timeout : Specifies the number of milliseconds to wait for each reply. The default is 3000 milliseconds (3 seconds).

-T : Attaches a layer-2 priority tag (for example, 802.1p) to the Echo Request messages that it sends to each of the
network devices along the route. This helps to identify network devices that do not have layer-2 priority capability. This
switch is used to test for Quality of Service (QoS) connectivity.

-R : Determines whether each network device along the route supports the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP),
which allows the host computer to reserve a specified amount of bandwidth for a data stream. This switch is used to
test for Quality of Service (QoS) connectivity.

TargetName : Specifies the destination, which is identified either by IP address or host name.

/? : Displays help at the command prompt.

When you do pathping make sure that you type in the right case, because pathping is
case-sensitive. Don’t use continuous ping to check network because it will cause
network congestion if it is network problem.

• Pathping parameters are case-sensitive.

• To avoid network congestion, pings should be sent at a sufficiently slow pace.
• To minimize the effects of burst losses, do not send pings too frequently.
• When using the -p parameter, pings are sent individually to each intermediate hop. Because of this, the interval
between two pings sent to the same hop is period multiplied by the number of hops.
• When using the -w parameter, multiple pings can be sent in parallel. Because of this, the amount of time specified in
the Timeout parameter is not bounded by the amount of time specified in the Period parameter for waiting between
pings.
• Using the -T parameter Enabling layer-2 priority on the host computer allows packets to be sent with a layer-2 priority
tag, which can be used by layer-2 devices to assign a priority to the packet. Legacy devices that do not recognize
layer-2 priority will discard these packets, since they appear to be malformed. This parameter helps identify network
computer that are discarding these packets.
• Using the -R parameter An RSVP reservation message for a nonexistent session is sent to each network device on
the route. If the device does not support RSVP, it returns an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Destination
Unreachable-Protocol Unreachable message. If the device does support RSVP, it returns an RSVP Reservation
Error message. Some devices might not return either of these messages. If this occurs, a time-out message is
displayed.
• This command is available only if the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol is installed as a component in the
properties of a network adapter in Network Connections

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Examples

You have to open command prompt Start > All programs > Accecories > Command
prompts

Use pathping <parameter> <address> on command prompt

The following example shows pathping command output :

D:\>pathping -n corp1
Tracing route to corp1 [10.54.1.196]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 172.16.87.35
1 172.16.87.218
2 192.168.52.1
3 192.168.80.1
4 10.54.247.14
5 10.54.1.196

Computing statistics for 125 seconds...

Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 172.16.87.35
0/ 100 = 0% |
1 41ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 172.16.87.218
13/ 100 = 13% |
2 22ms 16/ 100 = 16% 3/ 100 = 3% 192.168.52.1
0/ 100 = 0% |
3 24ms 13/ 100 = 13% 0/ 100 = 0% 192.168.80.1
0/ 100 = 0% |
4 21ms 14/ 100 = 14% 1/ 100 = 1% 10.54.247.14
0/ 100 = 0% |
5 24ms 13/ 100 = 13% 0/ 100 = 0% 10.54.1.196

Trace complete.

When pathping is run, the first results list the path. This is the same path that is
shown using the tracert command. Next, a busy message is displayed for
approximately 90 seconds (the time varies by hop count). During this time, information
is gathered from all routers previously listed and from the links between them. At the
end of this period, the test results are displayed.

In the sample report above, the This Node/Link, Lost/Sent = Pct and Address
columns show that the link between 172.16.87.218 and 192.168.52.1 is dropping 13
percent of the packets. The routers at hops 2 and 4 also are dropping packets
addressed to them, but this loss does not affect their ability to forward traffic that is not
addressed to them.

The loss rates displayed for the links, identified as a vertical bar (|) in the Address
column, indicate link congestion that is causing the loss of packets that are being

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forwarded on the path. The loss rates displayed for routers (identified by their IP
addresses) indicate that these routers might be overloaded.

You have to capture the result of pathping results as prove.

Note: if you identify packet loss, or response time to high, you may contact your
network administrator with the copy of the pathping capture result.

Otherwise, if you find no packet loss, response time is about normal – please check
other than network. You may consult your network administrator if you have a doubt.

Issued by: Daniel Kodyat (Com CS)