DRAFT

The following flowchart can be useful for troubleshooting basic network issues and for other issues as well.

Always choose one hypothesis to check at a time.

Troubleshooting is best done with the ping command. It’s convenient to look at the networking icon in Windows to see if it says “connected” or not, or to rely on opening a page in the web browser, but these methods are not reliable for troubleshooting.

Windows’ network connection icon will often say “no connection” in places where the connection is very slow or has high latency. Using the ping command to verify a connection to a public web address will often still succeed in cases where Windows says “no connection”. The same is true for both Chromium and Edge browsers (they share some of their code base). They will often say “no connection” when opening a web page is slow, even if the page is still loading in the background, as seen by looking at the loading icon in the corner of the tab. So using the ping command is much more reliable for testing network connectivity than relying on The OS or browser’s indications.

Use the ping command to determine how far the problematic device’s network communication physically goes and where it fails, beginning with the nearest network devices. For example, can the device communicate with the access point (if it has a known IP address)? With the gateway LAN address? With the gateway/firewall WAN address? With a public domain name? With a public IP address?

How many users are experiencing the issue? Is this a problem with this computer only or a general issue?

If from a specific computer, do you have network-layer connectivity? Can you ping the device or server using its address? If not, can you ping something else ?

If not, what is the status of your network cards when you try an ipconfig /all? Are you connected to the right WiFi network? Did you receive a DHCP lease? If not, renew the request. If you still have not received a lease, what is the status of the DHCP server? Or is your computer in quarantine?

If static, did you configure the IP settings correctly? 

If you can ping something else, can you ping the faulty equipment from somewhere else ?

Test the IP connectivity with the resource which seems unreachable, and with network components between you and this resource

If so, what is the status of the faulty equipment? Is it active?

If a general issue, for example you can’t reach a website, does this only happen from the LAN, can you reach it from the WAN? Check that firewall settings are not blocking the required network traffic.

Do you have data-link connectivity? If not check physical connections. Check that cables are properly seated and secure. Or if on WiFi, check the device’s wifi signal strength.

If you suspect the issue may be related to a specific component (e.g., a router, switch, or access point), try to isolate that component by bypassing it or substituting it with another device for testing.

Think about any recent changes or updates made to the network configuration, software, or hardware. Reverting to a previous configuration or undoing recent changes may help resolve the issue.

If you are unable to identify or resolve the issue after thorough troubleshooting, consider escalating the problem. Ask for advice.

Once you have identified and resolved the network issue, document the problem and its resolution. This documentation can be valuable for future reference and troubleshooting similar issues.