Categories

S.No	FREE STUFF
1.	Fix: Network & Internet connection problems in Windows 7
2.	How To Fix Network Problems Using Command Line Tools In Windows 7
3.	How do I fix network adapter problems?

If you find that your internet connection, in Windows 7 or Vista, has suddenly stopped working or that you are facing certain Network problems, here are a few troubleshooting steps you may want to try:

1. IPConfig is a tool built into Windows, that displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values and refreshes Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol DHCP and Domain Name System DNS settings. You can access this tool via the command line. If you have a bad IP address, then renewing your IP address this way may help solve your internet problems.

Type cmd in start search and press Ctrl-Shift-Enter. If you wish, just out of curiosity, you may type ipconfig and hit Enter, to view the status of the computer’s Internet Protocol or IP address.

Type ipconfig /release to let go of the current IP address.

Next type ipconfig /renew to obtain a new IP address.

If you get an error Message When You Run the “Ipconfig /Renew” Command see KB810606.

If you recurrently face this problem, then you can have it renewed on every start-up, by creating the following .bat file and placing it in your startup folder.

Open notepad and type:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Save it as, say, iprenew.bat file.

2. Frequently, internet connection problems can also be traced to a corrupted DNS cache. Resetting or Flushing this cache is an easy fix to many of these problems. This is how to clear the DNS cache in Windows 7 or Vista.

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. Right click on it and ‘Run As Administrator’. Type the following and hit enter:

ipconfig /flushdns

You should be able to see a confirmation dialog window:

Windows IP Configuration. Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

Next type ipconfig /registerdns and hit Enter.

This registers any DNS records that you or some programs may have recorded in your Hosts file.

Just in case you are interested, to view the complete syntax for this command type ipconfig /help and hit Enter!

3. The Network & Internet Diagnostic & Repair Tool in Windows 7 & Vista will help you identify the potential issues preventing network connectivity, and it automatically takes appropriate steps toward correcting them. If a computer on the network loses Internet connectivity, you can graphically see which connection is down and then use Network Diagnostics to help determine the cause of the problem and find possible solutions.

To access it, open Control Panel > Network & Sharing Center. In the lower part, click on Troubleshoot Problems. From the windows which opens, you can select Internet Connections or any other issue you want to troubleshoot and repair.

Solving a network problem can be hard and frustrating. While you can check your internet connection using the Windows Network Diagnostic tool, it is hardly enough to solve most problems. Sometime, you might have to troubleshoot via the hard way – the command line way.

There are several advantages to using th command line instead of the visual interface:

• We can check on individual item, and isolate those that are causing the problems.
• Command line tend to have more options so we can test the system deeply.
• We can use scripts to automate the process.

In this article, we will show you how to diagnose and fix network problems using the command line.

To get started, first make sure that you are running the command prompt with Administrator privilege.

How to know if your cable is connected

You can use the ipconfig tool to check if you are experiencing some problem with your cable. Windows will show up a list of the interfaces and if they are connected or not.

How to know if your gateway is working

A gateway is the device, usually a router, that connects your computer to other networks and Internet. If you cannot connect with your device, it is pretty sure you are not going to connect to the Internet. First you need to know the IP address of the device. You can use Ipconfig to give us the information about the default gateway:

Now you can use ping to test if the gateway respond. This tool informs if a device with a given IP is answering. In plain English, with this test, we know that our network adapter, the cable and the router are connected correctly.

How to know if your dns is working

A DNS server is capable of converting a site name, for example www.maketecheasier.com, to its IP address. To connect to a computer in Internet, Windows needs that number. If you cannot connect to your DNS , it is almost impossible that Internet works.

As you can see in this case I have the same router and DNS IP address.

To test the DNS you can use nslookup. This command make a query to that server. In the following image you can see how the server resolve Make Tech Easier address.

How to know if a process is opening too much connections

Every time a program needs to connect to Internet or other machine, it opens a new connection. A router can only handle a limited number of connection. If for any reason, a program opens many connections, you can end up with a block Internet.

We can do this with the command netstat and the parameters “a” and “b”

 netstat -a -b

You can see what programs are using these connections. In this case, you can see that I have a program named “Filezilla Server” listening in port 21.

How to check firewall rules

Firewall misconfiguration can lead to Internet malfunctioning. A firewall configuration is no more than a set of rules deciding whether an application can access the Internet or not. By default, these rules appear in abundance and you cannot see all of them in one screen. Instead, we can insert this information on a text file using the following commands:

netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=all > firewallrules.txt

notepad firewallrules.txt

The first command access the firewall configuration and write it to a text file. The second command open the text file in a new notepad window.

A basic use of the netsh utility can inform us if there is one or more blocking rules to that use the command:

netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name | find "Block"

Unfortunately it doesn’t show what is the program blocked by that rule.

If you can't connect to a network, there might be a problem with your network adapter. You can try using the Network Adapter troubleshooter to automatically find and fix some common problems.

Here are some common reasons for network adapter problems, and related solutions:

• The network adapter is disabled.

  To enable the adapter:

  1. Open Network Connections by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type adapter, and then, under Network and Sharing Center, click View network connections.

  2. Right-click the network adapter icon, and then click Enable.  If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

• The network adapter needs to be reset.

  To reset the adapter:

  1. Open Network Connections by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type adapter, and then, under Network and Sharing Center, click View network connections.

  2. Right-click the network adapter icon, and then click Disable.  If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

  3. Right-click the adapter icon again, and then click Enable.  If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

  The adapter is now reset. Try connecting to the network again, or run the Network troubleshooter to verify that your network adapter is now working correctly.

  • Open the Network troubleshooter by right-clicking the network icon in the notification area, and then clicking Troubleshoot problems.

• The network adapter driver is missing, isn't working, or is out of date.

  You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

  If you reset your network adapter and you still can't connect to a network, you might need to update the adapter driver. (Updating the driver can solve the problem of missing or failed drivers, as well as outdated ones.) To update your network adapter driver, follow these steps:

  1. Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, and then, under System, clicking Device Manager.‌ If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

  2. Double-click Network Adapters, right-click your adapter, and then click Properties.

  3. Click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver.

     If Windows can't find the driver on your computer and you don't have a connection to the Internet, you might need to contact the network adapter manufacturer or your computer manufacturer to get the driver. Check the information that came with your network adapter or your computer to see if you have a disc that contains the drivers.

  Once you've updated the driver, try connecting to the network again, or run the Network troubleshooter to verify that the adapter is updated.

  • Open the Network troubleshooter by right-clicking the network icon in the notification area, and then clicking Troubleshoot problems.

• The network adapter needs to be replaced.