IT Ninjas: Mastering Network Troubleshooting in Windows

[Music] hello and my name is Lowell Vanderpool and this channel is dedicated to IT professionals IT students and anyone who's interested in technical subjects troubleshooting network connectivity is probably the most common skill or task that an IT professional does at the helpdesk level or level one tech it is just something you do on a regular basis so learning to do it well it's very very important we're gonna look at best practices we're gonna look at dealing with wired and wireless users we're gonna work look at working with remote and local users as far as troubleshooting network and network connectivity we're gonna look at PowerShell Ned Ashton's to help you troubleshoot then I want to share from my experience different types of portable tools that you can carry with you to help you troubleshoot network connectivity issues we're gonna look at wireless interference as a big problem a big problem for wireless clients we're gonna look at Wireless interference and as it relates to troubleshooting a lot of their network connectivity or slow network connectivity and then finally I'm going to share my favorite internet testing tools that I used to test the appliance machine prior to leaving and clear enough that helpdesk ticket I know that that system is working properly we're gonna be focusing on Windows 10 we'll be working from the simplest to the most complex solutions we're gonna look at items that anyone can try two steps that's best left to the IT professional below in the graphics is a cool thing for you geeks where it's a five speed PCI Express times for network card that covers from one gig to two point five five gigs and ten gigs everybody wants that for Christmas so Before we jump into troubleshooting remember this new five speed network cards and switches are out there and they are going to be coming to the enterprise at some point slowly at first but it will become the standard at some point remember you have to have at least cat 6 cable for five gigabits and at least cat 6a if you're gonna get 10 gigabits so just keep that in mind now if you're watching this video and you're neither an IT professional or you don't do this as a profession but you're watching this video hoping to network connectivity then you need to determine whether your wireless are wired if you're in an office you're probably going to be connected to a network cable if you're working from home and you're plugged directly with a cable in your router you're wired if you have a laptop and you're at home you're probably gaining access to the network via wireless if you have a tablet you're definitely going to be wireless as an IT professional usually when I deal with wired clients I am usually going to get a phone call or I'm going to get a email from a co-worker saying that their buddy in the cubicle next door doesn't have internet access what I come look at it or a help desk is help this ticket is generated or I'm tackled in the hallway usually tackled in the hallway first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to ask them to see is the cable plugged in listen don't assume anything many times I solve problems right right here is the cable plugged into the back of the computer or is the cable plugged into your your laptop now this has to be done with some carefulness for example if it's a lady she's probably not gonna crawl under the desk to check so remember there's an appropriate in this year you may have to at some point get under the desk and look and yes you're gonna dodge those moldy potato chips and 40 years of dust and grime as you can see in this picture this particular PC is a very typical you know workplace and it may have Cova 19 over 20 and a hundred other serious diseases that exist both above and below the desks I've been to many of these remember many a good network cable has lost its life to the janitorial vacuum cleaner the night before check your cable LEDs on computer equipment are for technicians I make every student learn the LED indicators on any piece of equipment that we trained them on from printers to network cards to the computer itself because those LEDs are for you the tech you need to know what they are and what do those LEDs indicate on the back of every network card are two LEDs one LED is usually a solid color and this indicates what is known as link most cases it's green but many manufacturers use that same link LED with a multicolored LED and it also indicates speed such as green for 10 megabits amber 400 megabits and yellow for a gig now there's usually one other LED and that indicates its flashes and it indicates Ethernet traffic it is a very important that you look and see are those LEDs functioning correctly now on some low-cost low-cost pcs and laptops they have no LED indicator at all almost all enterprise switches have the same two LEDs both a link LED and an activity LED it is very important you understand what they are let's understand your link LED it's a series of unseen communication between your network card and your switch port a booting PC or laptop Nick waits for and transmits these critical pulses to validate layer one is stable before it transmits data this is all a part of Auto negotiation between the Nick and the switch for link speed and duplex the link information is encoded newest specials pulse train known as F LP or fast link pulse each f LP burst consists of 33 pulse positions that provide clock and data information keep in mind your network card is responsible for getting the link lights on both the switch port and the network card and keeping them on now NIC or switch that failed to negotiate speed the link light will stay off if the nikkor switch failed to negotiate duplex the link light will stay off even though both of them are connected if either device the switch or the network card is powered off or if either device is being reset or reinitialized the link light will be off so here we can see link and we see network activity so you can see the one flashing showing you Ethernet traffic and on the other side you see the link LED now I'm powering down the switch you see the link light go out and I'm going to go ahead and plug the switch port back in and you'll see link light come back on there goes an activity light once they become stable the pulse train goes they ought to negotiate then you'll see your activity light kick on that is what you need to understand about your link light and activity lights if you're on help desk or you're a tier one tech and you're helping a user on your local network either wired or wireless before you get up out of your chair and you go work with that user at their location make sure you try to connect to that PC remotely so let's launch PowerShell and I'm going to launch PowerShell ISE and we're going to use test connection computer name and I'm going to type in the computer name that in this case this is a win 10 could have done a ping command but remember if you're not moving your skillset forward you're getting stuck behind PowerShell is where Microsoft is going so start moving your skillset forward don't get stuck behind so this is a simple tool it allows us to test layer one all the way through the our network card switches cables verify would connect to their network card layer two drivers network card layer three IP this is a very good test if it fails and you know you have a connectivity issue before you get up out of your chair but test this before you go the basics for wireless users is just checking to make sure you have connectivity so you open up your wireless menu option here and make sure your Wi-Fi is on not off make sure it's on and also make sure your airplane mode is not on because that will kill your wireless notice it automatically goes off again those are some real basics make sure that those conditions are appropriate if you're dealing with wireless you should have a wireless icon here in the system tray you can click on it and it should show you a list of all the trusted access points that you can connect to even if it says connected you're connected to an access point here I'm connect go ahead and disconnect and then try connecting again sometimes that solves our connectivity problem if that doesn't you can always come down and find a 2.4 version of your same trusted access point and try connecting to that and again put in your network security key and try connecting to another but make sure you connect to only trusted devices now in terms of portable tools for network troubleshooting this product right here it's called a link runner 81,000 it has a cousin called a 2 mm these tools were originally designed by fluke which sold this entire product line to net Scout and then net Scout spun them off to another company called net Ally they really haven't changed in their software or hardware they're absolutely awesome they give you everything you need as a level 1 helpdesk to troubleshoot network connectivity especially wired connectivity switch port name VLAN link speed duplex copper cable test wire mat for patch cables cable length you power over ethernet there are amazing tools they are pricey at $1200 a pop you can get them probably discounted at different places these are well worth the money you spend on them again they have two versions they look into them if you're interested in a tool like this this is top of the line but is well worth the investment [Music] now this tool I have not used but it's very interesting basically it's a lower-cost version of the link runner it gives you link to switch test DHCP validation gateway information internet connection power over ethernet what's really nice which I really was interested in this one was it sends it to your phone it gives you a ten-second test and it's under five hundred dollars so I haven't done this one myself but it looks very interesting and this kind of tool that if your budget is tight but you need good network connectivity tools I would definitely check this out obviously you can go to Amazon and just type in network connectivity tester and they have all kinds of product lines you have to do your homework and look at them carefully to make sure that they're going to meet your needs but there's some lower cost items that will help the IT professional do his job but honestly I've used the the link runner it is the best tool out there for fast reliable effective troubleshooting and network connectivity so check it out so after we have checked network connectivity and the user very often is using a browser and that's what's not working make sure you've tested network connectivity everything looks okay and they're using Chrome to get to the Internet to do whatever they're doing make them and Chrome is not still not working make sure you try an alternate browser try edge try IE remember IE is buried under every version of Windows 10 you just have to type type it in and it will pop up but you can launch it so sometimes you can get the browser itself is in a failed state and it's the problem it's not the other issues that you've just tested and verified are good so try an alternate browser quickly to see if it is the browser that's a problem anyone who's troubleshooted non connectivity also knows that malware and viruses can infect the user's machine and that can be an issue so you may have to stop at this point and look carefully at infections or malware in the system and see if you're infected that way I have also experienced where users had expired anti virus products and those very nasty products would shut down web traffic usually you can tell that you've got an issue because you can pain but you can't browse whether with a browser be careful make sure they don't have an anti-virus product that has quote expired and they I've seen a few that have been known to shut down web traffic you may have to rip those antivirus products out to get things going again so let's get back to network troubleshooting if you're on the phone or you're at the users desk you're gonna go ahead and take and go to start go to settings and we're going to go to network and Internet and we're just going to scroll down to network troubleshooting and launch Network troubleshooter this is doing a lot of things so it's asking me questions here am I trying to read a specific website or folder because I'm really not having a problem it's saying why are you launching troubleshooter when there's no issue but this will actually kick off a series of scripts that will actually do a lot of things that I'm going to show you in the next slide so this is the next step you want to do for many IT pros you would prefer to do it manually so you can do you can open up PowerShell with admin rights and do a net ash windsock or ISA and that Ash Enosh reset IP config release IP config renew IP config flush DNS those are really good steps that really reset a lot of the the basic fundamentals of your network connectivity components if you'd like to run the network a network troubleshooter right from the command line you can you can run a command called M s DT Exe - ID and then type in network diagnostic network adapter and it actually runs that network troubleshooter for IT pros I'm going to do two things this slide deck I'm actually going to put in the video description as an as a editable power point slide as well as a PDF so if any of you would like a quick PowerPoint that you could customize and send your users to help them troubleshoot on their own you're welcome to do that I'm also going to put the PowerShell net edge tool document in RTF as well as PDF so if you'd like to edit it for your own use and add tools add additional features on your own you're welcome to do that it's great to be able to have a Tech's document which you have commands for faster access I always carried a edited version of a notepad document with all my command-line tools on a USB Drive or a network share so I quick access to it that prevents making typos errors that way I can just copy from the document paste it into the command line for the powershell and boom it works every time correct [Music] so you've done the network connectivity troubleshooter and you're still not working and your user is at home or at a small business office let's take the next step so if you're still struggling with connectivity and you're at home or in a small office we're going to now reboot your router so your ISP has a router generally a device that has both wireless and router functionality we want to unplug the power cable and let it totally de-energize some routers from your ISP if you have voice over IP support they will put a battery backup you may have to remove that battery it's not difficult but look around and see if you can disengage the battery some do not some do it is very important that you let the modem come completely de-energize so pull power out wait 30 seconds we want those capacitors in that modem to totally de energize before you plug the power back on that way the router will completely reenergize hardware and software know your ISP modems LED lights so when everything is working fine at home or at the office take a picture of your wire your ISP modem so you know what the lights look like when everything is good things are not good and you see a light on that modem off when it should be on when you call tech support at least you're talking intelligently for IT pros you have the same thing you have a Demark zone in some place in your business environment where you have in this case you can see I've got fiber optics coming in and I've got a fiber optics terminal cable and then the fiber ox optics goes into an interface box all that belongs to the ISP we're not to touch it but I take pictures of all those front-facing LEDs and I know the condition of those lights when everything is normal if any light changes and we're having problems I can talk to tech support and say look this LED is normally on this LED is now off and usually the ISP Tech will then say oh yeah it's probably our side rather than them pointing figures and say well it's you guys's problem not ours etc etc the intelligent get your facts it saves a lot of problem on the tech support call ok mister Vanderpool I'm still not getting anything or I'm still way too slow if you're still not having network connectivity let's uninstall the network card driver and reinstall it so I'm going to come over to my virtual machine and I'm gonna type in device manager and I'm going to launch device manager and I'm simply going to come down to network adapters and find the network adapter that indicates that makes sense either in Intel Broadcom some network adapter that would be either your wireless or your wired network card you would right mouse click and you could uninstall device now if you do this in many cases this is going to edit your registry and possibly remove your driver so be careful if you're not sure how to install your driver you may want to be careful on this step I'm going to go ahead and uninstall and it's going to remove that entire device and I can come back up and just say scan for hardware changes and notice it automatically puts it back in this is all done by plug-and-play you could also reboot your PC and it would put it back in so this is one option that you have for resetting your network card so we do have one more option so we're going to go back to start settings we're going to go to network and internet and if you scroll all the way down we have an option called network reset this is your last option because it can impact your VPN software and other software that you may be connecting back to your home network so if you're at home you want to be careful about doing this if there's a tech there that's an option he can definitely do this is going to be a pretty radical reset of your network system so this is an option we're going to click it and we're going to yep and it will basically reset everything regarding your network and log you off and redo [Music] this is called the internet repair tool and it's a portable app it has been done by a developer who has maintained this for a long time and I've used this tool for many many years I'm not a big fan of these kind of tools but this one I have used personally make sure you do a restore point the developer encourages a restore point you don't just check all the boxes and hit go obviously an intention that there's intelligence behind the keyboard that's using a tool like this so you use only the most minimal tools as needed I would start at the top and work my way down and if you see something on that list that you know is not a problem don't try to fix it this is a good tool I've solved many many a problem with this tool so check it out it's worth looking into when it comes to wireless problems Wireless interference and the home in the small office is probably the number one issue for slow traffic or no traffic so during kovat 19 when everybody was sent home and became remote workers people bought new 4k TVs and more voice assistance security cameras and now they're they're trying to get on their work network and it's slow as molasses in January because they don't understand wireless there are lots of devices in a home that impact your Wi-Fi microwave ovens cordless phones tablets direct satellite service certain external electrical sources such as power lines electrical railroad tracks power stations Wi-Fi cameras baby monitors two-way radios remote-controlled toys and on and on all can impact your wireless very often people will move their modem or their they move their home office behind a concrete wall that's in the back of the home or the back of the apartment and they wonder why they have no Wi-Fi it is very important that you understand what creates wireless interference I have two videos on my website in my channel that really cover wireless if you're 90 Pro Wireless impacts your users more than anything else today and it's only going to grow in its importance not diminish get comfortable with wireless here's a great article on USB 3.1 devices using cables and how they interfere with wireless if you want to take a look and see this is very well-positioned paper on poorly designed 3.1 Jack's connectors and cables and how that can interfere with your wireless system for IT pros Microsoft has you has a great wireless report that you can kick off and then look at you use your net Esch commands as shown in this in this slide in the video description below I'll have a link to a PDF that will help you analyze this Wireless report take a look at it very helpful DSL reports comm is my favorite site for using to verify that the PC is functioning correctly it has fiber test cable test DSL test satellite tests it also used multiple servers across the United States so I get a mail a more accurate average of the thorough put up and down for that PC fast comm is a relatively newcomer to the internet speed test I like it because it is powered by Netflix so it's good for testing video uploads and downloads it gives you both unloaded and loaded tests it also has settings that you can go in and modify and change for say a particular situation test my net is another great site that gives you very accurate upload download and latency tests check it out this is a very interesting site with some really interesting results speedo me is another site that you can test that Internet connectivity I like this site it gives us seems to give a very accurate download upload and latency it also gives you your IP address [Music]

Channel: TechsavvyProductions

Views: 109,844

Keywords: Wireless, wired, troubleshooting network, powershell, Windows 10, network down

Id: 6idmlvHBnNk

Length: 24min 26sec (1466 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020