Troubleshooting network problems with Ping

Occasionally, if your network connection is down, you can use this ping tool to troubleshoot the problem and fix it.

The ping command is used to check whether a host is online and active. It's a pretty simple tool for troubleshooting network problems. Let's explore how to troubleshoot network problems and find the root cause of this home wired network design.

1) Make sure the light is on the network card with the cable connected. Network problems can sometimes be caused by loose or disconnected cables. If you do not see any light on your network card after connecting with network cable, check that the network cable is working and the router connected by this computer is up and running. Follow step 2 if the light appears.

You must connect the network cable to the router's LAN port

2)Go to Start and click Run.

3) The Run window will appear. Type cmd in the Run window and click OK.

4) Type ping 127.0.0.1 in the Command Prompt window. This is the loopback address of the network card. It works if you receive a reply from 127.0.0.1. When you receive Request timed out, your network card may not be working properly. You need to unplug and re-install the network card, then connect the network cable and ping the loopback address again. To troubleshoot a network card, check the driver status in Windows 7, Vista, or XP and make sure the card is functioning properly. However, if the problem persists, the network card is probably no longer functional. Try another card. On the other hand, if you just cannot install the network card driver on this computer, but it works on another, then you may have a problem with Microsoft Windows or its TCP/IP function.

5) Now you can ping your computer's IP address. If you are not sure what your computer's IP address is, you can use ipconfig to find it. When you are unable to ping this IP address or it is not configured on the computer, check the network settings, such as IP address (assigned manually or automatically? ), subnet mask, gateway on the network card to ensure it is set up correctly.

After pinging your computer IP address and loopback address, proceed to ping the router's LAN IP address. You should ensure that your router is configured properly with the correct IP address, subnet mask, DHCP settings, and other network settings if Request timed out.

To ensure that your DSL/Cable modem is working after connecting to your router, make sure it is configured in bridge mode (not routing mode). You can have a look at this example of configuring a DSL modem in bridge mode if you need more ideas.

Regardless of whether the router is up and configured properly, you should check and verify that the computer is connected to the correct and working router LAN port, as sometimes it might be connected to a faulty port or an incorrect port (such as an uplink port).

Make sure your router's firewall is configured correctly so legitimate network packets do not get dropped.

7)If you can ping the router IP, you should be able to ping the other computers or notebooks in your network as well. If you are still unable to ping the router IP or other computers, you can take a look at this wired home network setup tutorial for additional help.

  8)If you have completed the above steps successfully and now you are unable to connect to the Internet, check your DSL, cable or wireless modem and router to ensure all cables are properly connected. Reboot your DSL, cable or wireless modem and router and then try to connect to the internet again.

If still no Internet connection after that, connect computer to modem directly with network cable and test Internet connection. If this works, then I think the problem is on wired router configuration. If this fails too, contact your ISP for getting more helps to troubleshoot this network problem. This might due to some problems at your ISP side sometimes or the modem is broken.

Note: Sometimes you may find that your computer is connected to a network, but not able to access Internet websites. What should you do? nslookup can be used to resolve the domain name, and if that fails, you can try OpenDNS' free DNS servers (208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220).

If suddenly you are unable to access a webpage, your computer may be infected with adware, malware, worm, or virus, so you should scan your computer with antivirus or antispyware with the latest signature.