There are many ways to get stuck with networking, other documentation in this project mostly focuses on how to work with or troubleshoot firewall, but here the aim is to make troubleshooting other network related problems in detail.
It covers wide area of network problems and is based on Process of elimination meaning you go step by step and isolating each area making it less probable to be the cause of an issue.
This are the most basic troubleshooting procedures one should always perform when facing network issues.
Press Windows key + X then click on “Windows PowerShell (Admin)”
Clear-DnsClientCache
Perform multiple DNS queries and make sure they are successful.
Feel free to test more hosts/IP addresses as needed for your case.
Resolve-DnsName 8.8.8.8
Resolve-DnsName microsoft.com
These commands will save output to file, you can review those files so that you don’t need to run the commands multiple times, or to be able to share output in some computer forums so that somebody can help you out.
ipconfig /all > $env:SystemDrive\ipconfig.txt
Get-NetAdapter | ? HardwareInterface | select * > $env:SystemDrive\adapter.txt
Pinging hosts is important to isolate specific routes/sites:
ping 8.8.8.8 > $env:SystemDrive\ping.txt
ping google.com >> $env:SystemDrive\ping.txt
ipconfig /all command (above) will telly you IP address of your router,
you should definitely ping it, here is example entry from ipconfig /all
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.4.1
Now see if route to router is working by pinging address from your output:
ping 192.168.8.1 >> $env:SystemDrive\ping.txt
You might also want to ping other computers on your local network, to find out their IP,
login to computer in question and run ipconfig /all on that computer, then look for
address at field that say:
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
NOTE: If you’re using Hyper-V it’s recommended to uninstall Hyper-V prior to network reset which
will remove virtual adapters.
Your existing virtual machines won’t be removed, just install Hyper-V back after network reset.
To reset network manually type the following commands into console:
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
At this point reboot system and do all of the previous steps all over again to verify if that worked or to see if something new come out.
Remember, you can’t make mistake of rebooting system too much, more reboots is better while troubleshooting, even if not needed.
Alternative method to reset network is by using “Settings” app in Windows 10 as follows:
Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network Reset
It’s important to let network reset finish without interruption.
Make sure your system and drivers are fully up to date:
It’s good to continue checking for updates after they are installed, until there is no new updates, it’s not bad to reboot system after update even if not asked to do so.
Never user driver updater tools or similar automated solutions. Never download drivers from sites of questionable reputation or those who claim to have up to date drivers but are not original hardware vendors.
Do it manually in this order:
Link below explains how to troubleshoot WI-FI problems, some of the steps are already covered here:
Traceroute will help you figure out which node on the network isn’t responding.
Usually that means either site problem, ISP problem or router problem.
It depends at which node you get failure.
Test-NetConnection google.com -traceroute
Test-NetConnection microsoft.com -traceroute
Alternative way to run trace route is:
tracert google.com
tracert microsoft.com
NOTE: Some sites (such as microsoft) drop ICMP packets, so make sure to test multiple sites.
If nothing so far worked disable firewall and try all over again.
If things start to work it’s likely misconfigured firewall.
See link below on how to disable both GPO and Control Panel firewall:
Disable Firewall
NOTE: If you experience this problem only while having firewall enabled from this project, feel free to open new issue and provide as much details (results) as possible from this document.
Disabling and enabling adapters can help, replace “Adapter Name” with actual adapter name.
Disable-NetAdapter -Name "Adapter Name"
Enable-NetAdapter -Name "Adapter Name"
To learn which is your adapter for above commands look at your adapter.txt from earlier step
or run:
Get-NetAdapter
Alternative way to disable/enable adapter is in control panel at:
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center
Click on Change Adapter Settings, right click your adapter that is having problem,
then disable and enable back.
google DNS servers are fast and reliable, see link below to change your DNS settings to use google DNS:
Usually some routers if not restarted often will stuck and cause slow internet or loss of network completely.
Restart your router, and if that doesn’t work you can also try reset it to factory defaults.
Resetting to factory defaults is done by pushing a toothpick or something like that into a tinny
hole in the router.
This will reset router and WI-FI password and the default one can be found on the sticker somewhere on the router.
Check your LAN cable, verify it is properly connected and functioning.
If other computers are not working on your LAN, or if you have no other computers to test with, call your ISP and ask them what’s the problem.
If you’re having problem with slow connection, visit link below to perform network speed test:
Try different servers to see if there is a difference, you might need to contact your ISP and ask them how much it will cost to get faster internet. (more pay = faster)
See if your ISP can install you optic cable into your house, and for what price.
If your network speed is slow and related only to local network (ex. between computers behind router), you can test LAN speed with tool called NetIO:
If you got to this point you should really try out another network adapter, but before doing so, make sure to verify other devices on your network work properly (ex. no internet issues)
Which means something is wrong with your operating system or adapter.
You might want to boot linux live ISO to make sure your adapter or operating system is not faulty.
There are many different network adapters, most of them have settings which you can access via device manager.
Make sure to open device manager as Administrator:
Open device manager
Open your adapter properties and you’ll find settings somewhere under “Advanced” tab or something like that. Depending on your adapter, here are links that help explain the meaning of adapter settings options:
NOTE: This settings are universal, not always limited to specific hardware vendor:
Read documentation about yor router, learn what different options do and adjust your router setting for optimal performance.
Restarting router is recommended to check if new configuration makes any difference.
If your problem is MMO gaming (online multiplayer), LAN multiplayer, Hotseat and similar then you must make sure your router NAT settings are properly configured.
Log in to your router and find “NAT” settings, possible options are:
For gaming your want “Full Cone NAT (Static NAT)”
remember, “Symmetric NAT (Dynamic NAT)” may cause you a lot of multiplayer troubles.
Link below contains detailed guidelines:
Link Below explains how to reset both GPO firewall and firewall in control panel:
Usually network troubleshooter in Windows should be able to resolve the problem, or at least tell you what is going on:
Windows key + I to open settings apptroubleshoot and select troubleshoot settingsadditional troubleshootersOn another systems, alternative way is:
Get-NetRoute
For more information about see Get-NetRoute
For more information about routing table routing table
You want to make sure your younger brother or sister doesn’t have fun with you!
Visit this folder: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Open hosts file with notepad or some other text editor and make sure all lines begin with hash “#”
If any lines doesn’t begin with hash, then either add hash to those lines or delete entry.
To troubleshoot firewall take a look at:
Windows Auto-Tuning was designed to automatically improve the performance for programs that receive TCP data over a network.
To see current setting run:
netsh interface tcp show global
Windows Auto-Tuning should be enabled and left alone unless you have a router, WI-Fi, network card, or a firewall that does not support this feature.
To disable setting run:
netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
To enable setting run:
netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal
Few external references for specific issues:
Computer Name Won’t Resolve on Network
First see recovery options in Windows 10, you might be able to recover your system to previous good state.
Recovery options in Windows 10
reinstalling is is last resort, if operating system is bad reinstall it:
Try search for help on computer forums, there are many experts out there, or visit computer shop and let them fix your issue.
To get good support in forums make sure you provide as much details as you can, this includes: