Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- en:troubleshooting:debugging_your_internet_connection [2022-08-05-13-58] – [Internet Connection Up, Connecting Still does not Work] 7saturn
+++ en:troubleshooting:debugging_your_internet_connection [2022-08-10-18-30] (current) – sw
@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 Many people confuse not being able to connect to the internet with >>my website is not loading<< or >>my game cannot connect to its servers<<. But there are actually a lot of things, that can be wrong instead. In order to get a basic understanding //where// your connection attempts go wrong, first step is to find out, if you can actually use your network connection outbound.
 ==== Is it a Problem on Your End or of Someone Else? ====
-The first step is finding out, if you are actually able to use other addresses or services. E.g. try browsing another website, start another program, that uses the internet. If it works, it is very likely not your internet connection, but the problem lies on the other end. If you want to check, whether others have the same problem, check out the page on [[https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/]]. When a lot of others have the same problem, it is very likely not you, meaning you cannot do a whole lot about it. Either the server is down, your ISP has routing problems, or the server's network has issues. Bottom line is: If a lot of others have the problem, you just have to sit this one out. If seems to be just you, go to the next step.
+The first step is finding out, if you are actually able to use other addresses or services. E.g. try browsing another website, start another program, that uses the internet. If it works, it is very likely not your internet connection, but the problem lies on the other end. If you want to check, whether others have the same problem, check out the page on [[https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/]]. When a lot of others have the same problem, it is very likely not you, meaning you cannot do a whole lot about it. Either the server is down, your ISP has routing problems, or the server's network has issues. Bottom line is: If a lot of others have the problem, you just have to sit this one out. If seems to be just you, or you could not even reach such a checking size, go to the next step.
 ==== Can I Reach the Internet? ====
 So you tried a few pages, but >>nothing on the internet works<< for you at the moment. The question is, can you actually reach anyone on the net? For this open a console of your choosing (on Windows that will probably be the cmd.exe or possibly the Power Shell).
@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 If you cannot reach the Google DNS server, your internet connection may indeed be down. But that must not be the case. (Yes, Google may also be down, but that is very unlikely. So we just assume it is not down.) Head on to the next step.
 ==== In Which Direction Is the Internet, Please? The Standard Gateway ====
-You could not reach the Google DNS via its IP address but others don't seem to have you initial problem. The next step is finding out, whether the Internet connection is down, or something else along the way to the internet. If you for example cannot reach your own router (which routs the internet traffic to your computer and vice versa), you of course cannot reach the internet either. In order to find out, what's going wrong, enter this into the cmd:
+You could not reach the Google DNS via its IP address but others don't seem to have your initial problem. The next step is finding out, whether the Internet connection is down, or something else along the way to the internet. If you for example cannot reach your own router (which routs the internet traffic to your computer and vice versa), you of course cannot reach the internet either. In order to find out, what's going wrong, enter this into the cmd:
 ''ipconfig''
-This should show you a list of blocks of data on the network cards currently active on your computer. Such a block looks similar to this:
+This should show you a list of blocks of data on the network cards currently active on your computer. Such a block looks similar to these:
 {{ :en:troubleshooting:ipconfig_results.png?nolink |}}
+You can see here two blocks for two network cards, both using Ethernet as a technology, one named //LAN// and one named //VBox//.
 <code>
@@ Line 52: / Line 54: @@
 If the gateway does //not// respond or is not set (even after checking all hardware is plugged in and you have a wireless connection), head on to the next step.
 ==== My Little Island (Wrong IP Configuration) ====
-You do have an IP address, but it leads nowhere. This is usually the case, when someone™ messed with the IP configuration locally. Check whether your IP configuration is set to automatically receiving an IP address (in opposition to setting it manually). You can see this by opening your settings and select //Network & Internet//:
+You do have an IP address, but it leads nowhere. Or resolving domain names to IPs does not work. This is usually the case, when someone™ messed with the IP configuration locally. Check whether your IP configuration is set to automatically receiving an IP address (in opposition to setting it manually) and a DNS server. You can see this by opening your settings and select //Network & Internet//:
 {{ :en:troubleshooting:win_10_network_and_internet_settings.png?nolink |}}
@@ Line 66: / Line 68: @@
 The greyed out elements are the network cards currently deactivated. If you find, that your LAN or W-LAN adapter is actually just deactivated, that would also explain, what is going on. (In the example, the wireless connection is deactivated, the wired connection is active.) In such a case, just activate it (right-click --> //Activate//, may need administration privileges) and recheck.
-When right-clicking and selecting //Properties//, you will end up with this small window (you may have to enter administrator credentials for this):
+When right-clicking and selecting //Properties//, you will end up with this small window (you may have to enter administration credentials for this):
 {{ :en:troubleshooting:win_10_network_adapter_ipv4_properties.png?nolink |}}
@@ Line 97: / Line 99: @@
 If the router actually does respond but you still cannot reach the internet, it means, that your local network seems to be just fine, but somehow the router is not routing any more. Very likely it is just the internet connection itself, that is down. You may have to open your router's configuration interface and try and reconnect to the internet.
-If the router is still not reachable, you may try restarting any switch, that is used in-between (they sometimes also hang). And if that also fails, you may try using another router (if you have a spare one). If someone messed up the settings, resetting it to factory settings and configure it anew might be necessary, too. If that does not help either (or you don't have a replacement at hand), there is on quick test, to see, if at least your computer isn't the problem: [[#Am I Listening to Myself? IP Stack Damaged]].
+If the router is still not reachable, you may try restarting any switch, that is used in-between (they sometimes also hang). And if that also fails, you may try using another router (if you have a spare one). If someone messed up the settings, resetting it to factory settings and configure it anew might be necessary, too. If that does not help either (or you don't have a replacement at hand), there is one quick test, to see, if at least your computer isn't the problem: [[#Am I Listening to Myself? IP Stack Damaged]].
 ===== Internet Connection Up, Connecting Still does not Work =====
@@ Line 109: / Line 111: @@
 This should look very similarly to the other ping attempts. If it does, continue with [[#DNS Resolves, Still no Luck]].
-If you get a message like this: //Ping request could not find host www.google.com. Please check the name and try again.//, then your DNS lookup went badly. Head on to the next step.
+If you get a message like this: //Ping request could not find host <nowiki>www.google.com</nowiki>. Please check the name and try again.//, then your DNS lookup went badly. Head on to the next step.
 ==== DNS does not Resolve ====
-You can now try and find out, why your system cannot resolve //www.google.com// to a proper IP address with the following command:
+You can now try and find out, why your system cannot resolve //<nowiki>www.google.com</nowiki>// to a proper IP address with the following command:
 ''nslookup <nowiki>www.google.de</nowiki> 8.8.8.8''
-This tries to resolve the domain name //www.google.de// by using Google's own DNS server at //8.8.8.8//, bypassing any configured DNS servers to be used by default on your end.
+This tries to resolve the domain name //<nowiki>www.google.de</nowiki>// by using Google's own DNS server at //8.8.8.8//, bypassing any configured DNS servers to be used by default on your end.
 {{ :en:troubleshooting:nslookup_google_de.png?nolink |}}
-If this works, your general internet connection setup is actually OK, but the configured DNS server to be used by your computer may be faulty. Either there is a DNS server manually configured, that does not respond any longer. If so, remove the manual configuration. Usually the DNS server to be used is provided by your router at the same time, your client gets its IP address assigned by the routers DHCP server. Or the DNS server has a problem itself.
+If this works, your general internet connection setup is actually OK, but the configured DNS server to be used by your computer may be faulty. Either there is a DNS server manually configured, that does not respond any longer. If so, remove the manual configuration (see section [[#My Little Island (Wrong IP Configuration)]] on a very similar matter). Usually the DNS server to be used is provided by your router at the same time, your client gets its IP address assigned by the routers DHCP server. So getting it automatically should usually be fine. Or the DNS server has a problem itself.
-When everything works now, you are done.
+If nothing gets resolved, head on to the next stop.
-If everything works just like charm (pinging //<nowiki>www.google.com</nowiki>//), but other hosts cannot be resolved, then the problem may either be a wrong host name or your DNS server has problems. There is also one other possibility: The DNS server is purposely not resolving the host name given, or redirecting to a completely different host, for reasons of law enforcements. Lately it has become more and more accepted or practiced to block IPs of certain domain names, especially ones that are known to host computer piracy web sites and related content. A Judge may have given a judicial order that this specific domain name is to be not resolved correctly. In some countries this is also done for censorship purposes on politically unwanted content. If this is the case, see the sections below, so see what is going on. Maybe you want to change the DNS server to be used.
+If everything works just like charm for the test case provided here (pinging //<nowiki>www.google.com</nowiki>//), but other hosts cannot be resolved, then the problem may either be a wrong host name (you didn't just have a typo, did you?) or your DNS server has problems. There is also one other possibility: The DNS server is purposely not resolving the (actually proper) host name given, or redirecting to a completely different host, for reasons of law enforcement. Lately it has become more and more accepted or practiced to block IPs of certain domain names, especially ones that are known to host computer piracy web sites and related content. A Judge may have given a judicial order that this specific domain name is to be not resolved correctly. The ISP then has to bow to that decision. In some countries this is also done for censorship purposes on politically unwanted content. If this is the case, see the sections below, so see what is going on. Maybe you want to change the DNS server to be used.
 ===== The Lost Phone Book: DNS Problems =====
-So you have used the standard DNS configuration, and it does not work. If so, extend the step ''ipconfig'' to ''ipconfig/all''.
+So you have used the standard DNS configuration, and resolving domain names to IPs still does not work. If so, try using ''ipconfig/all'' on the cmd.
 {{ :en:troubleshooting:windows_ipconfig_all.png?nolink |}}
-If there is no block with information like ''DNS-Server  . . . . . . . . . . . : [...]'', then you simply got no DNS server information provided. You may have to re-check the DNS configuration of your router. If you do not administrate your own network yourself, you might want to get help by the people doing it for you.
+If there is no block with information like ''DNS-Server  . . . . . . . . . . . : [...]'', then you simply got no DNS server information provided or set. You may have to re-check the DNS configuration of your network card (see section [[#My Little Island (Wrong IP Configuration)]]). If you do not administrate your own network yourself, you might want to get help by the people doing it for you. Usually your router will set itself as a DNS and just use the one provided by your ISP.
-If you do find entries here, redo the step ''nslookup www.google.de //DNS address//'' with the given DNS addresses. This can give you additional information on which server are acting up. If this is the case, you might want to (at least temporarily) set another DNS server on your clients or on your router. Google's ''8.8.8.8'' and ''2001:4860:4860::8888'' are a good start (you can also use them for the //nslookup// command, to see, if the domain name actually exists).
+If you do find entries here, redo the step ''nslookup www.google.de //DNS address//'' with the given DNS addresses. This can give you additional information on which DNS servers are acting up. If this is the case, you might want to (at least temporarily) set another DNS server on your clients or on your router (see section [[#My Little Island (Wrong IP Configuration)]] on the proper menu). Google's ''8.8.8.8'' and ''2001:4860:4860::8888'' are a good start (you can also use them for the //nslookup// command, to see, if the domain name actually exists). But if you prefer another DNS provider, you may of course use another one.
-But if you prefer another DNS provider, you may of course use another one. Just be aware: Resolving domain names is a sensitive thing. Anyone who runs a DNS server will know which domains you try to connect to (as usually this is the first step before connection there, getting the IP address of that domain). This allows the server maintainer to monitor your request. Also a DNS may manipulate you to go to sites, that are actually not what you intended to reach by giving you (purposely) wrong IPs. Worst case scenario: You end up on a hacking site that looks like the destination you wanted to end up at but in fact tries to steal login credentials or attempt other kinds of attacks. As there is no means for your computer to guess, which IPs are actually correct (that's what the DNS is for...), you have to be able to trust the DNS you are using. **So only use trustworthy DNS servers.**
+**Just be aware**: Resolving domain names is a //sensitive// thing. Anyone who runs a DNS server will know which domains you try to connect to (as usually this is the first step before connecting to a network resource, getting the IP address of its domain). This allows the server maintainer to monitor your requests. Also a DNS may manipulate you to go to sites, that are actually not what you intended to reach by giving you (purposely) wrong IPs. Worst case scenario: You end up on a hacking site that looks like the destination you wanted to end up, but in fact tries to steal login credentials or attempt other kinds of attacks. As there is no means for your computer to guess, which IPs are actually correct (that's what the DNS is for to begin with...), you have to be able to trust the DNS you are using. **So only use trustworthy DNS servers.**
 ==== Am I Listening to Myself? IP Stack Damaged ====
 So not even your own router does answer, you get no IP and it does not seem to be the hardware. Maybe there's something more fundamentally wrong with //your computer's// network configuration.
@@ Line 157: / Line 159: @@
 If your computer does answer to itself, then the computer is (usually) just fine. So it's either the router, that does not answer, or you still have a configuration problem of your IP settings. It may also be possible, that you have to configure your IP connections manually. But that usually is done by someone managing your network. So you will have to refer to that person.
 ===== DNS Resolves, Still no Luck =====
-There is still one other direction this can go. You can open //<nowiki>www.google.com</nowiki>// just fine, but other hosts IPs are simply not usable. It's not the DNS server, it resolves just fine. As you ruled out that others have the same issue (first step), this problem my lie in a firewall or proxy server or maybe a parental control put in place, that prevents you from reaching specific hosts on the internet. Usually there is not much you can do about that, unless you administrate that kind of infrastructure yourself. (But then again, you would not have come here for solutions on your problem in the first place...) If this is actually somehow malfunctioning (you don't see any reason why this specific service or page is being blocked for you), try and contact your network administrator about the issue.
+There is still one other direction this can go. You can open //<nowiki>www.google.com</nowiki>// just fine, but other hosts IPs are simply not usable. It's not the DNS server, it resolves just fine. As you ruled out that others have the same issue (first step), this problem may lie in a firewall or proxy server or maybe a parental control put in place, that prevents you from reaching specific hosts on the internet. Usually there is not much you can do about that, unless you administrate that kind of infrastructure yourself. (But then again, you would not have come here for solutions on your problem in the first place...) If this is actually somehow malfunctioning (you don't see any reason why this specific service or page is being blocked for you), try and contact your network administrator or ISP about the issue.
 ===== Router Accessible but Still no Internet Connection =====
 So your router responds and the web interface is accessible, but the internet connection still refuses to work. This is usually a problem of your ISP. You may have to live with it, until they fix it. If it does not go away, even after a few hours, try contacting your ISP on the problem. Usually it is nothing you can influence. Worst case scenario: The wiring of your home or of your carrier is defective, which requires a technician to fix the problem. Or the Router is damaged, and needs to be replaced.
+[ [[..:Troubleshooting]] ] [ [[..:Games Database]] ]