Many times networks just stop suddenly, and most likely this will happen in the moment when you need it the most. Maybe downloading or uploading a file, or maybe even in the middle of a transaction. This is why we give you this guide to troubleshoot your network yourself, avoiding this kind of trouble without needing to call a professional technician.
Follow the guide step by step and you will get the results you need.
1) Start by switching off and then on
Unplugging your network cable, leaving it one or two minutes and plugging it back again will give your network components the chance to re-register your Mac. This usually solves DHCP errors. You can also use this “switching off and on” technique for your router and your computer. This issue can also come from hardware problems, so if it keeps on happening you might have to get new hardware. The best order for this “switching off and on” test is switches, routers and lastly your Mac´s Lan card.
2) Take advantage of Network Diagnostics
You can use Network Diagnostics for analyzing your network issues. You can find Network Diagnostics on 404 Safari pages or in /System/Library/CoreService. Using it you will be able to see where the problems are along the network path.
3) Disabling Network Interfaces
Having multiple interfaces connected to a network (Wi-Fi, Firewire or LAN) can cause your Mac to send information to the wrong source, and when this happens, errors will appear. To handle this kind of issues you should delete the interfaces. Go to System Preferences and select the interface. Once you’ve done this, press the minus button placed at the bottom of the sidebar.
4) Check the Settings
The usual cause for problems with you Mac is that your setting might have been changed. Check them, making sure no IP addresses have been set back to default. This can cause lots of issues. Check all settings on the Network Settings of the interface you use as well as the ones on your routers and network hardware too to find if settings have been changed in any of them.
5) Refresh The DNS
DNS servers are the ones that ask for webpage IP addresses, they use a cache to avoid running hundreds of commands when you are surfing the web. Refresh your DNS by clearing the cache in Leopard type the following into Terminal: dscacheutil -flushcache , or lookupd –flushcache if you are in Tiger. If you are still having problems after this, you might have to add or change the OpenDNS servers to your list.
I hope you have found this guide useful, it should solve most of your problems, and if it doesn’t you might have to consider getting some professional help.
This guide comes in very useful when Network Troubleshooting. All 5 points really did help me to fix my network issues in my store….
By the way, Network troubleshooting Using Ping is another effective way that I found out recently.
Ping is usually the first port of call when troubleshooting network issues. All it does is send a short message to the destination asking if it exists or is alive. Then it feeds back the results to you. If it receives a reply then it will tell you how long it took. If it doesn’t receive as reply then you know there is something wrong with the connection.
Thanks Le voltz, for such a good post.
Yup, ping is the first thing I do whenever something goes wrong. But some servers block icmp packets, hence you might wan to do a tracert or tcp traceroute to check.
Good post!
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