Network outages, lag, unstable connections and intermittent drops are common network problems. Where do these problems come from, and how do you troubleshoot them? It is a headache! Master the five commands below and the cause of every network problem becomes clear at a glance. How do you check your local IP address and router address?
Knowing your computer’s IP address and your router’s address is the foundation of finding network faults. The commands below are all run in the system Command Prompt window. Open the system Run menu, or press Ctrl+R to bring up the Run window, type cmd and press Enter to open the Command Prompt window:
- ipconfig
In the Command Prompt window, type the IP information command ipconfig and press Enter, as shown below: here 192.168.0.107 is your local IP address; the gateway 192.168.0.1 is the router’s management address. What should you do when the network is down?
- ping command
The ping command is extremely useful. It determines whether the local host can reach a destination address or device, and it helps you infer whether the TCP/IP parameters are set correctly. If, as in this example, the network is down, first check whether your computer can communicate with the router normally. In the Command Prompt, type the following command: ping192.168.0.1. When the numbers after TTL start changing, it means communication between the computer and the router is fine; if a “Request timed out” message appears, there is a network problem, usually caused by the IP address configuration, the router or the network cable link. What causes high network latency?
- tracert network node tracing
When browsing feels very slow and you cannot tell which node is responsible, remember that a router, the external line or a DNS error can all cause network latency. If Baidu loads slowly, type tracertwww.baidu.com in the Command Prompt window to trace the routing nodes the traffic passes through on the way to the destination network, so as to locate where the latency occurs. As shown below, you can see that three nodes have problems.
- netshwinsockreset (reset network)
QQ works but web pages will not open: what is the reason? This is usually a problem with the network DNS or the IP/TCP protocol ports. Type netshwinsockreset in the Command Prompt window to restore the network to its initial state, then restart the computer to solve the problem of websites failing to open.
- nslookup domain/IP cross-lookup
Sometimes we know a website’s IP address but not its domain name, or know the domain name but not the IP address. To perform cross conversion and lookup between IP and domain name, use the nslookup command. For example, to look up Sina’s IP address, type nslookupwww.sina.com.cn and you will see the result.
