{"id":899,"date":"2012-10-10T17:37:47","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T17:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/?p=899"},"modified":"2018-09-06T23:00:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T23:00:51","slug":"7-steps-to-successfully-troubleshoot-a-windows-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/?p=899","title":{"rendered":"7 Steps To Successfully Troubleshoot A Windows Network"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, I&#8217;ll run through the 7 steps you should take to  successfully troubleshoot a Windows network. I&#8217;ll cover what you need to  check on your local PC and related to critical Windows infrastructure  like DNS, DNCP, and default gateways.<\/p>\n<h2>Introduction<\/h2>\n<p>Whether you have a small Windows network in your  house with only one PC or a large Windows enterprise network with  thousands of PCs and servers, troubleshooting Windows networking can be  challenging. You can trust me on this topic as I have performed  troubleshooting on LANs &amp; WANs, SMB networks &amp; large  datacenters.\u00a0The complexity of troubleshooting increase with the number  of devices and the scope of the Windows infrastructure. However, there  is an important set of core troubleshooting steps that you would use to  troubleshoot a Windows network, no matter its size and scope. Now, let\u2019s  learn the steps you should take to successfully troubleshoot a Windows  network \u2013 the first time!<\/p>\n<h2>Step 1 \u2013 Know Your Infrastructure<\/h2>\n<p>While you can blindly  perform troubleshooting, you will be much more successful by first  knowing your infrastructure (what is connected to what and how it is  designed). If this is a Windows enterprise network, perhaps you are  lucky and you can locate a network diagram. Ideally, you are  troubleshooting your own network, that you designed, but we can\u2019t always  have that luxury.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 2 \u2013 Learn About Your Network<\/h2>\n<p>If you don\u2019t know your  infrastructure design and there\u2019s no documentation to reference, you can  start troubleshooting by learning about your network infrastructure  from a few common network diagnostic tools. There is actually a lot to  be learned by simply running IPCONFIG and\/or the LAN details Windows  GUI.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.windowsnetworking.com\/img\/upl\/image0021303761371062.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"0\" align=\"bottom\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Figure 1:<\/strong> IPCONFIG<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.windowsnetworking.com\/img\/upl\/image0041303761371062.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"376\" height=\"444\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Figure 2:<\/strong> Windows Network Connection Details<\/p>\n<p>From these two commands, you learn a lot:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Whether the network interface is up or down (physical network connectivity)<\/li>\n<li>How you are to obtain an IP address \u2013 DHCP or static<\/li>\n<li>Whether you have an IP address, no IP address, or an  automatically obtained IP address (those that start with 169.254.x.x, or  APIPA)<\/li>\n<li>Your default gateway<\/li>\n<li>Whether you have DNS servers configured and what they are<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All this information is tremendously valuable in solving your Windows network problems.<\/p>\n<p>In the graphics above, the network is working great and there are no  problems. However, what if the IPCONFIG shows a problem? In the  following steps, I\u2019ll focus more on the most common Windows networking  problems and resolutions.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 3 \u2013 Network Connection Is Down<\/h2>\n<p>If you look at the OSI  model, the physical layer (layer 1) is at the bottom. If layer 1 doesn\u2019t  work then NOTHING else is going to work. It is best to troubleshoot  from the \u201cbottom up\u201d (from layer 1 up to the higher layers).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.windowsnetworking.com\/img\/upl\/image0061303761371062.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"377\" height=\"456\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Figure 3:<\/strong> Media State Issue<\/p>\n<p>In the graphic above, you can see that the <strong>Media State <\/strong>is <strong>Enabled<\/strong>. That is the normal, fully-functioning state. However, if the media state is disabled then you need to:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Check the network cable \u2013 is it unplugged? Disconnected? Cut?<\/li>\n<li>Check the network switch \u2013 is the network cable connected there? Is the port enabled?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You\u2019ve got to get this working first, before anything else will work.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 4 \u2013 No IP Address<\/h2>\n<p>Whether you have no IP address  (0.0.0.0) or an automatic private IP address (APIPA, starting with  169.254.x.x), it doesn\u2019t matter. You\u2019ll have to obtain an IP address  before you can use the network. If you are set to use DHCP (likely the  default) and your DHCP server is down then that is the reason that you  don\u2019t have an IP address.<\/p>\n<p>Options to solve the problem:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Resolve the issue with the DHCP server<\/li>\n<li>Statically assign an IP address that isn\u2019t in conflict, is on the right subnet, etc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Step 5 \u2013 No DNS Servers<\/h2>\n<p>If you don\u2019t have any DNS servers  configured then you\u2019ll be able to communicate on the network with IP  addresses only. You should be able to ping your default gateway, your  DHCP server, and other servers on the network. However, you won\u2019t be  able to do any of that by name.<\/p>\n<p>Options to solve this problem:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Determine why the DHCP server isn\u2019t providing DNS server IPs<\/li>\n<li>Manualy configure the DNS server IPs if you know them<\/li>\n<li>Configure public Internet DNS servers like the <a href=\"http:\/\/code.google.com\/speed\/public-dns\/\" target=\"_blank\">Google public DNS servers<\/a> (like 8.8.4.4)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand, if you have DNS servers configured but you can\u2019t  ping them then you need to check the DNS servers \u2013 perhaps they are hung  or packets are being restricted through a firewall.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 6 \u2013 No Default Gateway<\/h2>\n<p>If you have no default gateway IP  address configured, this will prevent you from communicating on another  IP subnet (like the Internet) but not from communicating on your local  LAN. Thus, even with no IP default gateway configured, you should be  able to work as normal with local servers. In fact, configuring a  default gateway is optional if you don\u2019t need to reach an external  network.<\/p>\n<p>You could manually configure a default gateway or determine why the DHCP server didn\u2019t provide one for you.<\/p>\n<p>Alternatively, if you have a default gateway defined but you can\u2019t  communicate with it (even with a ping) then you need to check your local  router.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 7 \u2013 Misconfigured Subnet Mask<\/h2>\n<p>If you have an incorrectly  configured IP subnet mask then you\u2019ll get some unpredictable results.  You either need to manually configure it (if you are using static IP  addresses) or check the DHCP server to see why it gave you the wrong  subnet mask.<\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Troubleshooting a Windows network doesn\u2019t have to be difficult if you  understand the various pieces that make it all work. Having a strong  understanding of the network design and layout is going to go a long way  to solving problems. Even if you don\u2019t have that knowledge to begin  with, you can quickly learn about how the network is configured by  running a command like IPCONFIG. From there, you can start  troubleshooting, first the physical connectivity and then move on to the  IP address configuration. By following these steps, you should be able  to resolve your network troubles quickly and easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, I&#8217;ll run through the 7 steps you should take to successfully troubleshoot a Windows network. I&#8217;ll cover what you need to check on your local PC and related to critical Windows infrastructure like DNS, DNCP, and default gateways. Introduction Whether you have a small Windows network in your house with only one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-networking-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}