network analysis guide

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Topic/Postby Tormeron » 20 Sep 2015, 20:28

network analysis guide

Greetings fellow friends!

So today i shall teach you something for more advanced users who do understand a few stuff about computers and / or are managing their own networks at home.

How to find out where the problem lies in a home network? is it your router or is it your modem?

This guide is not complete and nor can it be since in order to give you a complete guide I shall have to teach you a whole lot about how these stuff work and how to identify issues, the following are ways to detect most issues in home networks.

First of all, meet the CMD window, (go to your run bar and enter 'cmd' and press enter) this is where most of the magic is gonna happen. The following commands are initiated within the cmd window:

1. ping - a tool to identify whether a network peripheral is actually working or causing packet loss.
Code: Select all
ping www.google.com
ping www.google.com -t

the -t addition makes the ping be constant and not until halted by a ctrl+c command.
a typical response for such a ping would be something in the way of:
Code: Select all
Reply from 194.90.196.48: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=58


and depending on how many packets you sent, you will get a statistic something like this:
Code: Select all
Ping statistics for 194.90.196.48:
    Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% los
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 16ms, Maximum = 16ms, Average = 16ms


now, how do you read it? reply from means the host got the packet and actually responded with a packet,
In case you get "Hardware error" it means something is very faulty at either your ethernet card or your router / modem.

In case of a 'request timed out" it means either you are not connected to the network or that the device you are pinging isn't responding or is faulty.

in case you are getting a mixed batch of timed our and reply from pings you most probably have a router or modem whom are either going to fail or are in too much traffic and aren't keeping up.

normally in home networks you won't get timed out scenarios due to it's short route, what you might see though are slow response times, if it's a regular wired connection you should get 1-2 ms maximum for a healthy connection, for wifi I am unsure since it varies at how far your wifi device is. if you want to know that information, do a ping now while the home network is fine and write down the approximate number you are getting from the ping in ms.


2. tracert - a way to identify where in the chain of hosts (modems, routers, ISPs) you are having an issue going on.
Code: Select all
tracert www.google.com

(reserved for a later explanation)

3. MTR / winMTR - a tool that combines tracert with ping
http://winmtr.net/download-winmtr/
(reserved for a later explanation)
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Topic/Postby Shevron » 20 Sep 2015, 20:35

Tormeron on 20 Sep 2015 21:28 wrote:2. tracert - a way to identify where in the chain of hosts (modems, routers, ISPs) you are having an issue going on.
Code: Select all
tracert www.google.com

(reserved for a later explanation)


Code: Select all
tracert -d www.google.com

to get direct IPs resolved, instead of having to wait 600 years for the DNS to resolve the hostname of each hop, which fails most times anyways.
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