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.