Main steps of troubleshooting network issues

The main steps of troubleshooting are :

• problem report (the first step is receiving the complaint from a user or from a monitoring tool (using a monitoring tool, we may detect a situation that could become a tshoot issue and resolve that situation before it impacts users : that is called proactive maintenance))
• diagnosis
•  resolve the problem

The first step toward resolving an issue after it's reported, is : clearly define the issue. Diagnosing the reported problem allows to clearly define it. Note that we have to diagnose because most often the end user's report may not have enough information to allow us to resolve the issue.


Steps to diagnose a reported problem :

•  collect information and examine the collected information : we collect information by using maintenance tools and interviewing the impacted user if necessary. There are a lot of tools we can used to collect information. One of my greatest tool is WIRESHARK. With WIRESARK, in just few minutes, it's possible to know if i should focus my troubleshooting effort at the upper layer of the OSI model (layer 7 to 5) or at the bottom layers of the OSI model (layer 3 to 1). With WIRESHARK, i can easily analyse the layer 4 of the OSI and know exactly the root of a network performance issue.

• eliminate potential causes : by analysing the traffic captured with WIRESHARK at the source and destination of a converstion, it's possible to eliminate potential causes and again focus where the problem really is. >> Here is our contacts infos, if you wish to learn how to set WIRESHARK and analyse captured traffic to pinpoint the source of a network problem.

• propose hypothesis

• verify hypothesis

Note that, Cisco CCNP tshoot course is the best training course focusing on troubleshooting issues at the bottom layers of the OSI (layer 3 to 1) BUT before jumping into your routers or switches or cables or NICs, you need to make sure that you will not be wasiting your time, thus WIRESHARK.

>> Here is our contacts infos, if you wish to learn how to set WIRESHARK and analyse captured traffic to pinpoint the source of a network problem.

>> Here is our contacts infos,  if you wish to attend to our CCNP route, switch or tshoot classes.