Tools to help with network connection problems

If you have a network connection which is not working properly, you can use a few tools to help diagnose the problem.

Most of the tools in this section require use of the Terminal, which you can open by pressing ApplicationsAccessoriesTerminal.

Get information about the current connection

ifconfig is intended to allow you to change the settings of your network connections. It can also be used to list information about the current connection.

  1. Press ApplicationsAccessoriesTerminal to open a Terminal.

  2. Type ifconfig eth1 in the Terminal and press Return. Replace eth1 with the name of your network interface if it is different.

    • inet addr shows the current IP address of the connection.

    • HWaddr shows the MAC address of your network device.

Check if a connection is working correctly

A good way of checking if a connection is working correctly is to ping another computer on the network or the Internet.

To check if you are connected to the Internet:

  1. Press SystemAdministrationNetwork Tools to open the networking tools suite.

  2. Select the Ping tab.

  3. Type ubuntu.com into the Network address box and then press Ping.

  4. After a while, a graph should appear. Look at the number for Successful packets under Transmission Statistics

    • 100% successful packets - Your computer has a good connection to the Internet.

    • Less than 100% successful - Your computer probably has a poor connection to the Internet or a poor wireless signal.

    • 0% successful packets - Your computer has a very bad connection, or is connected to an access point or router which is not connected to the Internet

If you get an error message which says The address 'ubuntu.com' cannot be found, then you cannot reach a DNS server.

Check the DNS

A good way of checking if a connection is working correctly is to ping another computer on the network or the Internet.

To check if you are connected to the Internet:

  1. Press SystemAdministrationNetwork Tools to open the networking tools suite.

  2. Select the Ping tab.

  3. Type 91.189.94.249 into the Network address box and then press Ping.

  4. After a while, a graph should appear. Look at the number for Successful packets under Transmission Statistics.

    • 100% successful packets - Your computer has a good connection to the Internet.

    • Less than 100% successful - Your computer probably has a poor connection to the Internet or a poor wireless signal.

    • 0% successful packets - Your computer has a very bad connection, or is connected to an access point or router which is not connected to the Internet.

If you get an error message which says The address '91.189.94.249' cannot be found, then there is no connection.

If the address is found then try the next stage.