PartyNet - Troubleshooting
What
you need before the party | Connecting
your machine | Troubleshooting
| Special cases
This entire document can be used for troubleshooting
- chances are very good that if you do everything as written here, your
network will work.
We
will now attempt to describe a few of the most common failures that may
occur and what you can do to fix them. Make sure you have tried
the solutions in this section before contacting NetCrew. Even if you have
tried all of these and still cannot get it to work, by knowing you went
through these steps will help us in figuring out the problem.
If
you encounter problem in any section, keep going down until you find a
solution or you reach the end (at which point you should come and contact
the NetCrew)
Network does not work
There are various ways in which the network can
seem 'broken', most of which do not depend on your own machine at all.
Simply because you cannot open page 'whatever' in your Netscape does not
necessary mean there is something wrong with the network.
First use 'ping' to check whether the connection
works. Ping is a fairly reliable method of determining whether or not
a host is reachable (assuming it is up). Open up a DOS prompt and type
ping <address>
If
you get a response like above, the connection works. If you get 'Response
timed out' messages, the connection does not work. If you get an 'Unable
to resolve hostname', the nameserver is down.
If
you do not get a response, you should try a 'traceroute' to determine
at which point the connection is severed. At the DOS prompt, type
tracert <address>
This only makes sense for hosts that are outside
of Assembly (i.e., have addresses that do not end with assembly.org).
Name resolving does not work
If you get 'host not found' or 'unable to resolve
hostname' and similar errors when trying to access hosts that you absolutely
know exist (for such hosts, check the next few sections) then you are
getting name resolving errors.
For this to occur, either our nameserver is down
(possible but unlikely), or the network from you to the nameserver does
not work. Check the sections on problems with local addresses for assistance
with fixing this problem.
You
can assume that if you can resolve assembly2k.net addresses, the problem
is with the remote nameserver or the connection to it.
If you cannot resolve NS.ASM01.ASSEMBLY.ORG, try
pinging its IP address (will be announced at the party place) as described
above to check whether the network connection to it works.
If you cannot resolve NS.ASM01.ASSEMBLY.ORG, but
you can ping its IP, you most likely have the wrong nameserver address
in your TCP/IP properties. Check an earlier section on how to set it.
A remote address does not work
This section is useful only if all
remote addresses do not work. If you cannot reach any single host outside
of Assembly, there is nothing we can do about it as the connection may
be severed somewhere on the other side of the globe.
If all remote addresses
are down, please know that we will already be aware of the situation and
working on fixing the problem - there is no need to contact us.
If you cannot ping RS.INTERNIC.NET, NS.EUNET.FI
or NS.CS.HUT.FI, you can assume that all remote addresses are down.
Please wait patiently and we will fix it.
A local address does not work
Again, if any single host is down there is little
we can do about it - as it may be that the computer is simply turned
off.
If *all* local addresses appear to be down, read
the next section.
You can determine whether you can access the local
network by pinging NS.ASM01.ASSEMBLY.ORG
No local addresses work
Check
whether the person next to you has a working network. If his network
is down as well, chances are that the entire table has lost network
connection. Though we can tell when an entire table drops off, it might
be useful to come and tell us about it. If only your machine is without
net, read on.
Nothing works
Check
whether your cable is still attached to the switch. There have been
instances when some people take off others' cables to make room for
themselves. If something like this happens, contact the NetCrew.
If
your cable is firmly attached to the switch, check if you have a link
up. The link works if there is a small green light lit in the switch
(some network cards have link lights in them as well).
If
you have a link but no network, most likely you have a driver problem
/ network settings problem. Read other sections of this document again
and try to solve them. If you had a working network before, reboot,
and then try again./p>
Try using 'winipcfg' or 'ipconfig /all'
to see what network settings you have. If your IP address like XX.XX.XX.XX
(PUBLISHED LATER), you did not receive a proper IP address from the DHCP
server. Rebooting should help - if the problem persists contact the NetCrew.
If you got an IP other that isn't (The Assembly
partynet IP range, which will posted on the wall at the partyplace later),
there likely is a rogue DHCP server out there. Check the IP address of
your DHCP server (with 'ipconfig /all'), and it's MAC address (with
'arp -a', and finding the DHCP server's IP from the list). Report
these to the NetCrew info booth and we will deal with it.
If
you have no link, the situation is a bit more tricky. You can try rebooting
the machine (you should always reboot your Windows frequently any way).
If it does not work, your cable may be the problem. The NetCrew has
the necessary equipment to test cables, so bring it to us.
If
you have reached this far and still cannot get anything to work, come
to us. It is (one of) the many reasons why we are here.
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