MIS 420/520 Networking in a Business Environment Lab 3

LAB ASSIGNMENT 3 (Due November 4, 1997) - Troubleshooting TCP/IP Networks

Excerpts from Troubleshooting chapter in INSIDE TCP/IP Second Edition New Rider's Publishing, 1995.
"What does it take to be a "Super-Tech" in the TCP/IP networking environment? the answer to this quetion is simple; you must have the following:

• A great deal of common sense
• Asystematic and logical approach to troubleshooting
• A solid knowledge of each protocol in use on your network

Examining the Six-Step Troubleshooting Procedure

1. Recognizing symptoms
2. Elaborating on symptoms
3. Listing probable faults
4. Localizing the faulty function
5. Localizing and repairing the actual problem
6. analyzing the failure

Troubleshooting Tools

1. Network Neighborhood
2. TCP/IP Utilities - verifies and debugs TCP/IP networking problems (these need to be run from the DOS prompt)
   1. ping - used to test if another computer is "alive"
      ping [ipaddress] [remotename]
   2. telnet - used to connect to another computer
   3. ftp - used to connect and transfer files between computers
   4. tracert - traces the route taken to another computer on the Internet
   5. netstat - reports current TCP/IP connections and protocol statistics
      netstat [-a] [-e] [-n] [-s] [-p protocol] [-r] [interval]
      • -a displays all connections and listening ports
      • -e displays Ethernet statistics
      • -n displays addresses and ports in numerical form
      • -r displays routing table data
      • -s displays statistics separately for each protocol
   6. arp - displays the ARP (address resolution protocol) table on the local computer arp -a [ipaddress]
   7. winipcfg - displays information about the ip configuration including the NICs physical address
   8. nbtstat - reports statistics and connections for NetBIOS over TCP/IP
      nbtstat [-a remotename][-A ipaddress] [-c] [-n] [-r] [-R] [-s] [-S] [interval]
      • -a & -A lists the name table of a remote computer
      • -r gives complete name resolution statistics for Windows networking
      • -s displays workstation and server stations

1. What is the computer name and workgroup?
2. What is the IP address for the computer?
3. What is the address of the gateway for the computer?
4. What is the address of the computer's domain name server?
5. What is the physical address of the computer's NIC?
6. What is the IP address of venus.nmhu.edu?
7. What is the physical address of venus?
8. List all of the active connections for the computer you are currently using?
9. List all of the active routes for the computer you are currently using?
10. Approximately how long does it take for a signal to reach www.yahoo.com and return?
11. List the first and last hops in connecting to nmhu.campus.mci.net?
12. what is the physical address of the router at NMHU?
13. what is the physical address of the computer cs.nmhu.edu?
14. I just received a call that the computers in the library at West Las Vegas High School are not connecting to the Internet? What should I do to determine the problem?