Using Ping to Troubleshoot
11/25/09
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To troubleshoot a non functioning network or 
internet connection, you'll first have to make sure 
your computer's TCP/IP stack is properly installed.  


1) Use the 'Ping' command to ping your local 
host's loopback address by typing 'ping localhost' 
or 'ping 127.0.0.1' into a command line session. 
(Note: IPv6's loopback address is ::1)



If you receive all replies, then your TCP/IP stack 
is installed properly.  If not, you will need to 
reinstall the TCP/IP stack on your machine.



2) The next step is to ping your default 
gateway. This will likely be the router you use to 
connect to the internet.  It will be something like 
192.168.x.x.



If there are no timeouts, and you receive all 
replies, then the connection to the router is fine.  
If not, there is a problem with the router.  The 
router may need to be rebooted, or possibly a port 
or MAC address may need to be unblocked.



3) If there is LAN connectivity through the 
router, but no internet connection, the connection 
between the router and ISP is down.  This can be 
confirmed by pinging a well known internet site 
such as www.google.com



If ping requests are unable to reach the internet 
site, the ISP likely has an outage on this segment 
of their network.

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