Small Business Network Troubleshooting: Common Issues and Solutions

Your computer network has been performing just fine: your Internet connection is fast and reliable, you can access the network from any device, anywhere on premises, and you can print from any device. Then one day, inexplicable problems start to pop up. It’s as if all your network components had a falling out and they’re refusing to talk to each other. And they’re also being passive-aggressive about the situation, because they keep telling you everything is fine, when things are obviously not fine. Now, as tempting as it might be to take a bat to stubborn devices, it’s always better to just take a breath. What the situation calls for is “networking troubleshooting.” This process can often speedily resolve your issues at no cost. All it takes is a little patience and a little knowledge of the basics.

Take for example the problem of a slow or stalled network. There are numerous reasons why this might happen, such as:

• Aging hardware — Devices tend to slow down towards the end of their lifecycles. Until you’re ready to replace a computer, you may have to reboot it occasionally to reconnect to your network. You might also need to replace modems or routers.
• New applications — If you’ve added new programs to your network, they might be making added demands on your system.
• Poor physical connections — Wires can wear out or become loose.
• High volume usage — If you’ve added employees to your network, this additional use could strain the system. This problem will be worse if employees decide to do some personal downloading at the office, because the office network is faster than what they have at home. A network monitoring tool helps ensure your workers are not taking advantage of the network for personal use.
• Changes in the worksite’s physical layout — If you’ve moved workstations around, you might find that workers are now in areas of the office where you didn’t realize the signal was weak. Adding objects like tall metal file cabinets can also interfere with a Wi-Fi signal.
• Viruses in the network — If your network has picked up a computer virus, your network’s performance will suffer.
• Invalid IP address — You must get a valid IP address from your router to connect to the Internet. Occasionally, this automatic process breaks down and you must restart manually by requesting a new IP address.

So, here are a few basic troubleshooting steps to take when dealing with a suddenly stalled network:

• Check your hardware — Restart the devices in your network and check the physical connections.
• Try ipconfig — This term is short for IP Configuration Utility. It’s a program that allows you to check and see if you’re getting a valid IP address. If the result you get starts with 169, your computer is not receiving a valid IP address. The problem is probably in your router. By typing in “ipconfig /release” followed by “ipconfig /renew,” you can cancel the current IP address and receive a new one.
• Use ping and tracert — If you have a valid IP address, you can use the ping command to see if you are able to contact outside servers, such as Google’s DNS servers. You can also use tracert, short for trace route, to see where along the path your system is being obstructed.
• DNS check — The problem might lie with the server your network is trying to connect to. The command nslookup might tell you the server is unresponsive.
• Run an antivirus scan — If malware has gummed up your system, your antivirus software should be able to detect the problem and clean it up.

Of course, there are issues you can’t readily solve through basic troubleshooting, which is when you have to contact the pros. Unfortunately, many systems and service providers aren’t eager to interface with their customers. It helps them keep their costs low if they refer you to an “article” on the topic somewhere in their vast archives. And, unfortunately again, even a precise keyword search on your exact issue is liable to yield a trove of off-subject results you must sift through to find a relevant article. Then, when you find an article that seems to deal with your issue, it’s written in some incomprehensible language that only an M.S. in Computer Science can follow.

This is when it pays to have a relationship with a dedicated IT consultant whom you can contact for quick questions and direct answers. At KMF Technologies, we know that troubleshooting more complex issues is over-the-head of most business computer users and can be enormously frustrating and time-consuming. We make ourselves available to our clients throughout the workday. We understand that time is money, and computer downtime can damage your operations and customer relations. We’re here for you when you need us to get your network up and running again.