7 Simple Steps to Diagnose a Network

Problem
Ben Stegner November 17, 2016 7 minutes

Of all the types of problems you can have with your computer, network issues might be one of
the worst. Though our computers can do a lot offline, being cut off from the internet isn’t fun.
Even worse, when you can’t get online, you can’t easily research fixes for your problem.

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Let’s step through the process you should perform to diagnose network issues. That way, next
time you open up your web browser to a “Cannot Connect” message, you’ll know what to do.
Like all troubleshooting, we’ll start broadly and narrow down to specifics.

After each step, attempt to connect to a website to verify your connection is working. If it still
doesn’t work, continue to the next part.

0. Make Sure It’s Your Problem

Sometimes what seems like a network outage is actually a problem on a specific website’s end.
If you can’t get on Twitter, check another few websites to make sure that it’s not just them. You
can use IsUp.me to check if a website is down for everyone or just you.

1. Power Cycle Everything and Check Other Devices

There’s no need to get upset right away, as the fix to your problem might be as simple as
rebooting your equipment. Restarting fixes a ton of issues, so make sure it’s your first response
to network issues, too.

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Common Issues Fixed With A Reboot

To help you understand the more complex underlying principles that are at the basis of why it
takes a reboot to make things work again, we’ll start with the symptoms and the most likely basic
causes you already know.

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Symptom: The computer slows down or freezes.
Cause: Memory leaks.
Solution: Stop software or reboot.

Symptom: Windows Blue Screen Of Death

Cause: Driver or hardware error.
Solution: A reboot is enforced.

Symptom: WiFi stops working.

Cause: Driver crashed or router software causes a problem.
Solution: Reboot or perform a power cycle (unplug power for 30 seconds) on router.

Taken together, something stops working, which causes problems, and the fix is to start from
scratch.

The root cause can often be attributed to human error. Computers are designed and programs are
written by humans. If humans are fallible, why should the things they create be without fail? All
man made things have the capacity to be flawed and as a computer’s complexity increases, so
does the number of flaws. Now what exactly are those flaws?

How Does Rebooting Fix Memory Leaks?

When you first boot the computer, you can think of it as a clay market place. The clay represents
the various resources that are available on the computer, such as memory. The operating system
handles the clay (among other things) and distributes it to programs when necessary.

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Theoretically, this loop could go on forever without issue. The problem is, some programs waste
the commonly used resources.

In order to run, a program must receive some clay from the computer and it becomes the
program’s responsibility to account for all of that clay. The ideal program would clean up the
clay and return it to the computer when it finishes, allowing the computer to distribute the clay to
other programs in need.

Now imagine that there are 3 programs, each with their own share of clay. One returns all of the
clay without issue. One leaves a chunk of clay on the ground and only returns half of the clay to
the computer. The last one loses its clay and returns nothing to the computer. Now the computer
has less clay to distribute.

Over time, as flawed programs fail to return all of the clay they’ve been given, other programs
need to wait longer and longer for their share of resources. This is where memory leaks, program
lag, and runtime errors come from.

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So your computer has been running for a few hours and now it’s slowed to a crawl. If we assume
that the cause is due to poor clay management (which it most likely is), then what can we do to
fix it?

One solution would be to take away the responsibility of clay management from the programs
and leave it with the operating system. When the operating system detects lost clay, it retrieves
it. The problem is that this process, known as “garbage collection”, can be processor intensive
and would impact operating system performance, hence it’s uncommon.

The other solution is: reboot!

By rebooting, everything is reset to its initial state and the operating system begins fresh with a
full block of clay. Then, as programs start running and asking for clay, the whole procedure
repeats itself until another reboot is later necessary.

This phenomenon can be applied to software, too. For example, your web browser. Ever notice
how Chrome or Firefox can get laggy when they’ve been open for hours at a time? That’s
because those browsers are flawed AND they have flawed addons. Restarting is one way
to speed up a slow browser.

What Can You Do To Speed Up Your Browser? What Can You Do To Speed Up Your Browser? If you’re
like me and you spend a huge portion of your day browsing the web then you understand how
frustrating it is to have a slow, bloated browser that seems to be on its...

If you’re like me and you spend a huge portion of your day browsing the web (whether it’s for
research, leisure, or just sheer boredom) then you understand how frustrating it is to have a slow,
bloated browser that seems to be on its last leg. While some of that slowness can stem from
issues unrelated to the browser, like ISP and computer hardware, there are some steps on how to
speed up browser speeds.

I should make a note here that if you’re expecting a drastic, mind-blowing speed increase, you
won’t find it in this article. Switching to a faster ISP package and upgrading your computer
hardware (in particular, RAM) will offer the biggest boosts. The following tips can and will

4
make your browsing experience somewhat sleeker, but don’t expect a “zero to hero”
transformation.

Keep Fewer Tabs Open

My first encounter with tabbed browsing was with Firebird (an earlier incarnation of Firefox),
though I’m pretty young so there may have been tabbed browsing before then. But here’s my
point: tabbed browsing has been around for a long time and many of us, myself included, have
started taking them for granted.

When people are over my place and happen to see my browser, they inevitably remark at how
many tabs I have open. Maybe you’re like that, too. I do it out of convenience and I wouldn’t
have it any other way. When I’m browsing and I come across something that seems interesting,
I’ll open it in a new tab to browse later. If there’s a page that I want to save but it isn’t important
enough to bookmark, I’ll keep it open in a tab, too.

But here’s the downside to convenience: each tab hogs up a bit of RAM and when you have too
many tabs open your computer will be bogged down. It doesn’t matter which browser you’re
using; sure, some browsers may be more efficient with their RAM usage, but ALL browsers will
take up more resources with each new tab. God forbid some of those tabs are Flash-based,
because those take up even more RAM!

If you’re a tab addict like me, channel that energy in other ways. Use bookmarks if you need to
save items. If you want to mark an interesting article for later reading, use an extension like
Instapaper or Read Later Fast.

Use Fewer Extensions and Addons

One of the biggest reasons why users will choose one browser over another is the plugin
selection. Firefox calls them “addons,” Chrome calls them “extensions,” and other browsers will
use other terms. But they all accomplish the same thing: extensibility and customization for your
browser according to your needs.

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It’s no secret that many users have dozens and dozens of plugins installed. You’ve got plugins that
spruce up the tab bar, improve readability, and block pesky ads. But just like tabs (explained above),
each active plugin ends up using a little more CPU and RAM on your computer, which can result in some
big performance hits.

The quickest way to solve this problem is uninstalling every browser plugin that you don’t
absolutely need. This is a subjective decision that you need to make. Do you really need that
weather plugin? How about that plugin that changes your tab colors? If your browser is slowing
down, try disabling as many unnecessary plugins as you can.

Delete Cache and Browsing History

In some ways, your browser is like a car: it needs routine maintenance. Imagine if you never
took your car in for an oil change or inspection. It may run well for a long time, but eventually
there will be a buildup of gunk and goo and nothing will run at maximum capacity. Similarly,
you need to clean your browser’s cache and history every once in a while.

“But wait, isn’t the cache meant to speed up browsing?” Yes. Browsers will save certain pages
and images locally so that the next time you visit that site, it can load them instantly without
having to download them again. However, as your cache increases in size, the browser spends
more time digging through those images and pages in order to find the right ones. Caches are
most efficient when they aren’t filled with too much data.

In Firefox, you can go to Options and look under the Privacy tab where you can delete recent
history, cookies, cache, and other things. In Chrome, open the Wrench and navigate to Settings,
look at the Advanced settings for “Clear Browsing Data” to wipe out history, cookies, cache, etc.
You can do the same in other browsers by looking in their preference settings.

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Change Your DNS Servers

I recently wrote an article on DNS servers and how they impact your Internet speeds. In essence,
the Internet relies on a network of DNS servers which are used to translate certain URLs (like
www.makeuseof.com) into IP addresses. Your DNS servers determine which route your Internet
connection takes, which can result in slow speeds if the routing is poor (a simplified explanation,
but enough to understand why DNS is important).

Fortunately, there’s a tool that I recently discovered called DNS Jumper which easily changes your
computer’s DNS settings to what you want. It’s portable (no installation), easy to learn, and has an
internal database of different DNS services, including Google Public DNS and OpenDNS. If you don’t
know which one to use, you can use the “Fastest DNS” option and DNS Jumper will select the fastest one
for you.

If you don’t want to use DNS Jumper or if you’re on a system that doesn’t support it, then you can use a
program like NameBench to optimize your DNS settings. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Conclusion

Web browsers may seem simple at first glance, but there’s a lot of technology under the hood
that keeps the web browsing experience as smooth as it is. Like any other machine, if you don’t
keep your browser well-oiled and clean, it’ll start to hang and sputter and slow down your
system. Keep the above tips in mind and your browser won’t feel as laggy as it normally does.

Have any other tips, tricks, programs, or plugins that might help with how to speed up browser
loads? Please share them with us in the comments! We all know how frustrating it can be to have
a languid browser and we’d all benefit from more suggestions.

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How Does Rebooting Or Power Cycling Fix Other Issues?

Basically, the same principle that applies to resource management also applies to issues with
drivers or low-level error: All evidence of the error is wiped away and the computer starts with a
clean slate.

Your WiFi router, for example, is run with software, just like your computer. A power cycle, i.e.
completely turning the router off for at least 30 seconds, will clear its cache and reset the
software.

Jerrold Foutz, an expert in the design of power supplies, offers another interesting view on how a
reset can fix electronic devices, including household items:

In hardware, there are many causes for what is called a Single Event Upset (SEU). A power
glitch, a cosmic ray passing through an integrated circuit (IC), or an alpha ray from the plastic IC
package, can all cause an SEU, possibly changing a logic state (1 to 0 or vice versa), or
triggering latchup in the pnpn layer most ICs have. In software, the computer can get caught in
an infinite loop.

In other words, random events can put electronic devices into an odd state that renders them
useless. Jerrold explains that one state which all functioning devices can recover from is the
power-off-state. And hence he recommends to turn the device off, unplug the power, remove the
battery, wait for a set amount of time, then plug the power back on and restart.

8
Why Do Some Issues Mandate A Reboot?

In the case of poor resource management, it is possible to manually track down and close
offending programs. But other issues simply cannot be fixed while the computer is running
and the answer why can be quite philosophical. Einstein recognized that problems cannot be
solved from the same level of awareness that created them. In a way that’s also true for
computers. Why?

Computers are finite state machines that constantly need to monitor for events and respond
accordingly. They operate on an infinite processing loop to stay alert for new events, even when
idle. Events can be anything from plugging in a mouse to loading a program to shutting down.
Each event leads to a change of state.

One reason for a reboot is that, depending on your operating system, the infinite loop can’t be
modified while it’s already running. That’s why driver installations and Windows Updates often
require a system reboot – to change the way the operating system works at the most basic
level. Hopefully, you won’t enter into an infinite reboot loop.

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9
If an error affects this infinite processing loop, only a reboot can set it back to its known state,
from where it will work again. Barring the fact that computers lack consciousness (at least as far
as we know), this is pretty much the opposite of what Einstein meant; the “awareness” doesn’t
progress, it’s reset. So maybe “ignorance is bliss” would be a more apt analogy.

And It All Comes Back To What Is Known

This article can only scratch the surface of what can go wrong inside your computer that can be
fixed by a reboot. Sometimes it just works and even the experts can only guess why. Basically, a
reboot works because everything returns to its original state. In this familiar state, the system
knows where to start, like a game of chess, after you forgot whose turn it was.

Apart from being a quick fix to many issues, rebooting also is a troubleshooting step. If the issue
persists after rebooting, the underlying cause might be much more serious than a random error.
Problems such as corrupted software, presence of malware, or failing hardware are rarely fixed
by restarting.

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Which devices and symptoms have you successfully fixed with a reboot?

Go ahead and reboot your PC, as well as your modem and router. To clear the modem and router
caches, wait 60 seconds before you turn them back on again. Turning everything off and back on
first ensures that it isn’t a temporary problem. It’s better to reboot now than to waste 30 minutes
continuing on when you don’t need to.

After a little "power cycle" issue our internet and phone connections are working again. Pretty
easy

— UnNam3d (@unnam3d97) October 29, 2016

Once you’ve restarted, if you have another computer (or a mobile device), try to get online with
that machine. If you find that no devices can connect, it’s likely an issue with your equipment or
your ISP.

Should you find that only one computer can’t get online, you can continue to narrow down the
problem. On that device, make sure to run an antivirus scan to ensure you don’t have malware
interfering with your connection. Make sure that your firewall settings weren’t changed.

10
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Finally, try using a different browser to see if your usual one is damaged.

2. Check Physical Connections

Does your problem persist after rebooting? Before we start diving into settings and tests, the next
thing to check is that you’re physically connected. If you use an Ethernet cable to connect to
your router, check to make sure that it’s not unplugged. If your laptop has a physical wireless
switch (check specific tips for fixing wireless connections), make sure that it didn’t get bumped
to the off position.

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Once you’ve verified a proper connection, check your equipment. Are the lights on your router
and/or modem flashing green as normal? If no lights come on after the reboot, the device could
be dead. If you get red lights, or a power light but no connection light, your ISP is likely down.

3. Run the Network Troubleshooter

Windows includes some built-in troubleshooters that can automatically find and fix issues. To
run the troubleshooter for network problems, right-click the network icon in your System Tray
and choose Troubleshoot Problems. Once the troubleshooter runs, it could fix issues, find
issues but fail to fix them, or find no issues.

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If the troubleshooter finds a problem that it fixes, try to connect again. If you get a specific error
or problem name that Windows can’t fix automatically, take note of it for later research.

So has the Windows network troubleshooter ever actually worked for anyone? Ever?
"Click here to see if we can fix your problem .
…
Nope."

— Jeff Vader (@bubbicus) October 4, 2016

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4. Check for a Valid IP Address

At this point, we’ve verified that the problem is not temporary and that all of our hardware
works. Since Windows can’t fix the problem on its own, we need to pinpoint the spot along the
connection where the problem is occurring.

It’s a good idea to make sure that you don’t have any strange IP settings selected. To check this,
type Network and Sharing Center into the Start Menu to open that utility. On the right side,
where you see Connections, click the name of your Wi-Fi or wired network. Choose Properties
and double-click internet Protocol Version 4.

Unless you’ve set up a static IP (if you don’t know what this is, you probably don’t use one),
make sure to check Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address
automatically. Repeat this process for internet Protocol Version 6 to ensure that everything is
automatic there, as well.

Once you’ve done this, we can check to confirm the router is giving you a valid IP address. Open
up a command prompt by typing cmd into the Start Menu. Type ipconfig and look for the text
under Ethernet adapter (for wired connections) or Wireless LAN Adapter (for wireless
connections).

If IPv4 Address starts with 169.x.x.x, your computer is not receiving a valid IP address from
your router. Typing the following two commands may resolve this:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Should you still have a 169.x.x.x address after typing the above commands and ipconfig again,
your machine still isn’t receiving an IP from the router. Try plugging your PC directly into the
modem with an Ethernet cable and see if you can get online. If so, your router is the problem.

5. Try a Ping and Trace Its Route

If your IP address starts with anything other than 169 when you run ipconfig, you have a valid IP
address from your router and the problem is occurring between your router and the internet.

Type this command to ping Google’s DNS servers to see if you can get online: (you can replace
8.8.8.8 with anything, such as www.msn.com)

ping 8.8.8.8

This will send four packets to Google. If they fail to send, you’ll be told what the problem was.
For more information, type this line to trace the route between your computer and Google’s DNS
servers:

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tracert 8.8.8.8

The above command gives you a step-by-step breakdown of the path that the information takes
to reach the destination you specify. Watch it, and if it fails, check to see where the problem
occurs. If an error pops up early in the route, the issue is likely with your local network.

6. Contact Your ISP

Should all the above steps complete successfully, we’ve verified that our equipment is working,
we have a valid IP address from the router, and the problem is occurring outside of our network
for multiple devices. If this is the case, your next best option is to find out if your ISP is having
issues.

Using your smartphone will prove useful here, as you can look up an outage map (like
DownDetector.com) for your provider or check Twitter to see if others in your area are
experiencing issues as well. If you don’t see anything of note online, try giving your ISP a call to
see if there are known issues. Perhaps line issues are affecting a small area; they will be able to
run tests to check.

7. Wait It Out

Once you’ve let your ISP know of the issue and confirmed that it’s not just one computer having
a problem, all you can do is wait. Many times, you can’t fix network issues on your own. When
attackers took down half the internet in late October, none of the above steps helped users get
back online. If your ISP is aware of the issues, hopefully they’ll get everything fixed in a short
time.

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While you’re waiting, there are plenty of things to do when you can’t get online.

Get Connected

These steps are a general template for diagnosing network issues, as your exact setup may differ.
There are lots of things you can do to troubleshoot your network connection. In general, respond
by restarting everything, seeing if multiple devices are having trouble getting online, and
checking to make sure your settings are correct, per the above. If you’ve checked all of this, the
issue is probably with your ISP.

Fixed your network problem, but still have a slow wireless connection? Find out how to fix slow
Wi-Fi.

13
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What steps do you take when you can’t get online? Let us know if these tips helped you by
leaving a comment!

Originally written by Karl L. Gechlik on January 16, 2010.

Image Credits:connectivity by Andreas Beer via Flickr

Explore more about: Computer Networks, LAN, Troubleshooting, Wi-Fi.

Fix Unidentified Network and No Network

Access in Windows 7/8/10
Recently, I was helping a client with Windows who was unable to connect to his home wireless
network one day even though it had been working fine for a few months. When he went to
Network and Sharing Center, he had the following listed:

Unidentified Network

Instead of his normal network connection, it said Unidentified Network and No Internet
Access and sure enough, he could not connect to the Internet! The same thing showed up in the
taskbar icon for network connections:

No Network Access

I’ve seen this problem on a couple of Windows machines and depending on your system, there
are multiple possible solutions. Try each one listed below and check to see if it fixes your
problem before moving on.

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Method 1 – Disable McAfee Network Agent

One common culprit has been the McAfee Network Agent service. You can disable the service
by going to Start, typing in MSCONFIG and then clicking on the Services tab. Find McAfee
Network Agent and uncheck the box.

Disable Services

It also might be a good idea to disable any third-party firewall like McAfee firewall or Norton
firewall, etc.

Method 2- Update Your Network Card Driver

You can update your driver in one of two ways: either via Windows or by downloading the
driver yourself manually from the manufacture’s website. I highly recommend downloading the
latest driver yourself as Windows usually does not do a very good job, but here are the
instructions in case you want to try it.

Network Card

Update Driver

Click on Start, type in devmgmt.msc, press Enter and then expand Network Controllers and
right-click on the problem network card.

15
Now click on the Driver tab and choose Update Driver.

If that doesn’t work, you can also uninstall the network driver and then reinstall it after a restart.
This has also been known to fix the problem with some people. Note that Windows will

16
automatically reinstall the driver for you. In case it does not, you can always download the latest
driver and then install it.

Method 3 – Restart Your Router and Modem

Just in case, make sure you restart your wireless router and your modem because you’ll waste a
lot of time messing with your computer for no reason if it’s actually a problem with the router.

Method 4 – Reset TCP/IP Stack

You can try to reset your network settings and fix any problems with the TCP/IP stack by
running the Microsoft FixIt solution here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/299357/how-to-reset-tcp-ip-by-using-the-netshell-
utility

Method 5 – Upgrade Router Firmware

If nothing else has worked so far, try upgrading the firmware on your router. This is a slightly
more technical process because you have to connect to your router via a web browser, but a little
searching on Google will give you step by step directions. It’s a fairly easy process and might

17
solve your problem, especially if you have an older router or have had one for a long time and
have never updated the firmware.

Method 6 – Use One Connection or Bridge Connections

If you have both an Ethernet connection enabled and a wireless connection on your laptop or
desktop, that could be the cause of the problem. You can either try disconnecting one, restarting
and then seeing if you can get Internet access for each individually or you can try to bridge the
connections.

You can do this by going to Network and Sharing Center, click on Change Adapter Settings,
then select both the Local Area Connection and the Wireless Network Connection and right-
click on either one. You will see the option to Bridge Connections.

Doing this can fix the problem of both networks conflicting with each other. Give it a shot if
nothing else has worked until now. You can always unbridge the connections later on if you like.

Method 7 – Check Adapter Settings

This solution is a little tricky because it can be something random, but you need to go to
Network and Sharing Center, click on Change Adapter Settings, then right-click on Local
Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection and choose Properties.

You’ll see a box that says This connection uses the following items, which contains a list of
protocols used by the network card to communicate. It should look something like this:

18
Now if you installed some network related software like VPN software or something like that,
you might have some strange extra stuff listed in there. You need to uninstall those items and
basically have something that looks like the list above. Once those are removed, restart and see it
that solves your problem.

Also, click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and check to make sure that you are
obtaining an IP address automatically from DHCP. If you are using static IP addresses, make
sure it’s the correct IP address and subnet mask.

19
Method 8 – Disable Virtual Ethernet Adapters

If you have VMWare or any other virtual machine software installed, go to Device Manager and
disable any virtual network adapters that may appear there under Network Controllers. You
won’t be able to connect to the Internet from your virtual machine, but you can always re-enable
them for that. If the problem goes away though, it might be worth upgrading to the latest version
of the virtual machine software to see if it’s more compatible with Windows.

Method 9 – Enable/Disable Network Connection

You can go to Network and Sharing Center, click on Change Adapter Settings and then right-
click on the network adapter and choose Disable. Wait a little while and then re-enable the
network connection.

Method 10 – Run a Troubleshooter

Windows has a bunch of built-in troubleshooters that can try to fix the problem for you
automatically. Just click on Start and type in troubleshoot. Click on the first choice at the top.
This should open the troubleshooting dialog.

20
Click on the Internet Connections troubleshooter. That should check your network adapter and
make sure it’s enabled, it’s working properly, it’s got the correct network info, etc.

That’s all the solutions I could find for fixing this problem. If you still have unidentified network
with no Internet access, then post your specs here and we’ll try to help! Enjoy!

How to Ping a Computer or a Web Site

Ping an IP address to find out a website's status

Ping is a standard application found on most laptop and desktop computers. Apps that support
ping can also be installed on smartphones and other mobile devices. Additionally, websites that
support Internet speed test services often include ping as one of their features.

A ping utility sends test messages from the local client to a remote target over
the TCP/IP network connection. The target can be a Web site, a computer, or any other device
with an IP address. Besides determining whether the remote computer is currently online, ping
also provides indicators of the general speed or reliability of network connections.

21
Ping an IP Address That Responds

Bradley Mitchell

These examples illustrate the use of ping in Microsoft Windows; the same steps can be applied
when using other ping applications.

Running Ping

Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux provide command line ping programs that can be run
from the operating system shell. Computers can be pinged by either IP address or by name.

To ping a computer by IP address:

 Open a shell prompt (in Microsoft Windows, the Command Prompt or MS-DOS Prompt on the
Start Menu).
 Type ping followed by a space and then the IP address.
 Press the Enter (or Return) key.

Interpreting the Results of Ping

The graphic above illustrates a typical ping session when a device at the target IP address
responds with no network errors:

 Reply from: By default, Microsoft Windows ping sends a series of four messages to the address.
The program outputs a confirmation line for each response message received from the target
computer.

22
  Bytes: Each ping request is 32 bytes in size by default.
 Time: Ping reports the amount of time (in milliseconds) between the sending of requests and
receipt of responses.
 TTL (Time-to-Live): A value between 1 and 128, TTL can be used to count how many different
networks the ping messages passed through before reaching the target computer. A value of
128 indicates the device is on the local network, with 0 other networks in between.

Running Ping Continuously

On some computers (particularly those running Linux), the standard ping program does not stop
running after four request attempts but instead runs until the user ends it. That is useful for those
wanting to monitor the status of a network connection over longer periods of time.

In Microsoft Windows, type ping -t instead of ping at the command line to launch the program
in this continuously running mode (and use the Control-C key sequence to stop it).

Ping an IP Address That Does Not Respond

In some cases, ping requests fail. This happens for any of several reasons:

 The IP address specified by the ping program is invalid.

 The host system (device being used to send pings) is not connected to an IP network (i.e., does
not have a working IP address).
 No network device is connected to the target IP address.
 Network congestion or errors in between the host and target are preventing messages from
passing through (in one or both directions).

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The graphic above illustrates a typical ping session when the program does not receive any
responses from the target IP address. Each Reply from line takes several seconds to appear on the
screen as the program waits and eventually times out. The IP address referenced in each reply
line of the output is the address of the pinging (host) computer.

Intermittent Ping Responses

Though uncommon, it is possible for ping to report a response rate other than 0% (fully
unresponsive) or 100% (fully responsive). This most often occurs when the target system is
shutting down (as in the example shown) or starting up:

C:\> ping bwmitche-home1

Pinging bwmitche-home1 [192.168.0.8] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.8: bytes=32 time=

Ping a Web Site or Computer by Name

Bradley Mitchell

Ping programs allow specifying a computer name instead of an IP address. Users normally prefer
pinging by name when targeting a web site.

Pinging a Responsive Web Site

The above graphic illustrates the results of pinging Google's web site (www.google.com) from a
Windows command prompt. Ping reports the target IP address and response time in milliseconds.
Note that large websites like Google utilize many web server computers worldwide. Many

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different possible IP addresses (all of them valid) can be reported back when pinging these
websites.

Pinging an Unresponsive Web Site

Many websites (including Lifewire.com) block ping requests as a network security precaution.
The result of pinging these websites varies but generally, includes a Destination net unreachable
error message and no useful information. IP addresses reported by pinging sites that block ping
tend to be those of DNS servers and not the websites themselves.

C:\>ping www.lifewire.com
Pinging www.about.akadns.net [208.185.127.40] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 74.201.95.50: Destination net unreachable.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 208.185.127.40:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),

Testing network connectivity with ping

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Ping is a network administration utility or tool used to test connectivity on an Internet Protocol
(IP) network. It also measures the latency or delay between two computers.

To test network connectivity with ping:

Open the Command Prompt or Terminal. Every operating system has a command line
interface that will allow you to run the Ping command. The Ping command operates virtually
identically on all systems.

 If using Windows, open the Command Prompt. Click the Start button and enter "cmd" into the
Search field. Windows 8 users can type "cmd" while on the Start screen. Press Enter to launch
the Command Prompt.
 If using Mac OS X, open the Terminal. Open your Applications folder, and then open the
Utilities folder. Select Terminal.
 If using Linux, Open a Telnet/Terminal window. It is most often found in the Accessories folder
in your Applications directory.

Type ping followed by an IP address or a website address then press Enter key to execute the
command. Here is a brief explanation of commonly used ping commands:

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  ping 127.0.0.1 (This is a "loopback ping" - your computer trying to talk to itself. If the loopback
step fails, it might be because the TCP drivers are corrupted, the network adapter might not be
working, or another service is interfering with IP.)
 ping (This will ping the IP address of a device like a local computer, remote server or any client
that receives an IP address to verify that it is reachable and that you can communicate with it
properly.) Example: ping 192.168.1.1 (this is the default IP address of NETGEAR routers)
 ping (This command will test for the Internet connectivity and DNS functionality.) Example: ping
www.netgear.com, ping google.com

Here is a screenshot of a successful ping test:

The first arrow shows the computer we are trying to reach is responding. The DNS address
"www.netgear.com" is displayed into the equivalent 54.187.xx.yy IP address. This also shows
that the computer is online and it has Internet access.

The second arrow shows that all of the sent packets are received showing that there is 0% loss.
This means that the connection is available and stable.

The third arrow shows the average time it took to answer. "Average = 173ms". In this example,
the website server is several time zones away. A ping reply for a PC/ Server on the same local
network should be 1-10 milliseconds.

Unsuccessful ping replies:

Request timed out

This message indicates that no Reply messages were received within the default time of 1
second. This can be due to many different causes; the most common include network congestion,
failure of the ARP request, packet filtering, routing error, or a silent discard. Most often, it means
that a route back to the sending host has failed. This might be because the destination host does
not know the route back to the sending host, or one of the intermediary routers does not know the
route back, or even that the destination host's default gateway does not know the route back.
Check the routing table of the destination host to see whether it has a route to the sending host
before checking tables at the routers.

Unknown host
This error message indicates that the requested host name cannot be resolved to its IP address;
check that the name is entered correctly and that the DNS servers can resolve it.

Destination host unreachable

This message indicates one of two problems: either the local system has no route to the desired
destination, or a remote router reports that it has no route to the destination. The two problems
can be distinguished by the form of the message. If the message is simply "Destination Host
Unreachable," then there is no route from the local system, and the packets to be sent were never

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put on the wire. Use the Route utility to check the local routing table.
If the message is "Reply From < IP address >: Destination Host Unreachable," then the routing
problem occurred at a remote router, whose address is indicated by the "< IP address >" field.
Use the appropriate utility or facility to check the IP routing table of the router assigned the IP
address of < IP address >.

If you pinged using an IP address, retry it with a host name to ensure that the IP address you tried
is correct.

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