One of the common problems among Internet users is testing their
Internet connection to identify the exact problem. There are a large number of Internet users using DSL and cable modem service.
You set up your connection for us the way your ISP (Internet Service Provider) tells you to. Sometimes it doesn’t work for numerous reasons.
Your service is not ready, your hardware is not connected properly, or your ISP is having problems.
Whatever the cause of the problem, there are some diagnostic tools that you can use in Windows XP to identify the problem.
If you are not exact in your diagnosis, at least you will get a good idea.
Before we get to the diagnostic tools, let’s discuss what an Internet connection entails.
Information travels over the Internet to your computer through your ISP service. This is done through a high-speed modem and then to a network card installed in your computer.
Your computer is called a host, your service provider will give you
you the DNS IP address, and you will get your username and password. That’s all you have from your ISP.
Sometimes your Internet connection fails and you want to find
the problem. You may be able to fix it, or at least get some
information about the problem to request help from your ISP.
You will start by accessing the command prompt by going in sequence to:
Start menu, program, accessories, then command prompt. A window
will open wherever you type commands from the prompt.
At the command prompt, type: IPCONFIG. This command will give you the active network connection on your computer. Here is an example:
DPI Adapter Copy:
Connection-specific DNS suffix. :
IP adress. . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.239.158.45
Subnet mask. . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway. . . . . . . . . : 68.239.158.45
The above output occurred when I ran the Ipconfig command on my own computer running Windows XP and an ADSL connection. The IP address is the address of my computer assigned by the ISP.
Note that you can add an option to this command to get more detailed information about your connection. Here is the output, when I ran the same command with the
“all” option.
ipconfig /all
DPI Adapter Copy:
Connection-specific DNS suffix. :
Description . . . . . . . . . . : WAN interface (PPP/SLIP)
Physical address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
DHCP enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP adress. . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.239.158.45
Subnet mask. . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway. . . . . . . . . : 68.239.158.45
DNS servers. . . . . . . . . . . : 151.198.0.39
151.197.0.39
NetBIOS over TCP/IP. . . . . . . . : Disabled
Notice now, the output includes the physical address of the network interface card installed in my computer. Also, you will see the DNS IP addresses. With the above information, I had no problem.
Supposedly, I disconnected my DSL connection and ran the command again, this is the new output:
Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS suffix. :
IP adress. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Subnet mask. . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway. . . . . . . . . :
Notice in this case, where I disconnected my connection, you don’t get a DNS server. This tells you that I am not connected to the Internet.
Also, notice that the IP address starts with 192.168, which is the default address as long as your computer is not connected to the Internet.
Another command is the ping command. It will allow to verify if a computer is connected to the network and ready to communicate, be it intranet,
or the Internet.
Once you run it, it will send a packet to the specified computer and give you the time it took for the packet to travel. This is an output when I tried to ping [http://www.yahoo.com:]
C:>ping [http://www.yahoo.com]
Pinging www.yahoo.akadns.net [216.109.118.66] with 32 bytes of data:
Response from 216.109.118.66: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=55
Response from 216.109.118.66: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=55
Ping stats for 216.109.118.66:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milliseconds:
Min=35ms, Max=39ms, Average=38ms.
That shows that the host was reachable and connected to the internet.
A very important command is Nslookup. This will allow you to check if the DNS (Domain Name Server) is working properly. The role of the DNS server is to translate IP addresses to the domain name of the networked computer. Here is an example:
C:>nslookup [http://www.yahoo.com]
Server: home5.bellatlantic.net
Address: 151.198.0.39
Unauthorized response:
Name: [http://www.yahoo.akadns.net]
Addresses: 216.109.118.67
Alias: [http://www.yahoo.com]
So, you enter the name after Nslookup, it will give you IP addresses and vice versa.
In short, there are more commands in Windows XP, but using the above three commands should give you a good idea about your Internet connection problems. You can find where the problem is occurring. Is it your machine, or the ISP.
Thanks,
Jorge Chamoun
