HOW DO I TEST FOR CONNECTIVITY? (PING)

Pinging allows you to determine whether or not you have connectivity to another device.  To ping an IP address

Left click the Start icon in the bottom left corner of your monitor

 Left click on Run and press the enter key

Now you are in DOS

In the command prompt, type in “ping “ and then address you want to ping.  For example, if you wanted to ping 192.168.1.5, type in the command prompt “ping 192.168.1.5”

Press the enter key

Now the DOS window will print out some information as it tries to ping the address.  If within the text that is printed you see “Reply from….”, then the ping is successful and you can connect to that address.  If instead you see “Request timed out” repeated, then the ping was unsuccessful and you cannot connect to that address.

If you find you are unable to connect to an address, follow these tests:

1.  Ping your computer’s IP address.  If the ping is successful, then you know that your Ethernet card is working and TCP/IP is working correctly on the computer.  If it is unsuccessful, either TCP/IP is not enabled on your computer or your Ethernet card is not working.  First check to make sure TCP/IP is enabled.  Follow these instructions:

If your computer uses Windows 98 operating system:

Left Click the Start icon in the bottom left corner of your monitor

Move your mouse onto Settings, then left click on My Computer in the next pop up submenu

In the next window, double left click on Network

If your computer uses Windows 2000 operating system:

Left Click on the Start icon in the bottom left corner of your monitor

Move your mouse onto Settings, then left click on the Network and Dial-Up Connections in the next pop up sub menu

In the next window, right click on the icon that's labeled "Local Area Connection” and left click on properties

If your computer uses Windows XP operating system

Left Click on the Start icon in the bottom left corner of your monitor

Right click on the My Network Places

In the next window, right click on the icon that's labeled "Local Area Connection” left click on properties

If in the next window TCP/IP is checked, then it is enabled on your computer, which means you need to replace your Ethernet card.

2.  If you are able to ping yourself, next try and ping another device on your network.  If you are able to ping it, then that means your computer is able to connect to the network.

3.  If you are able to ping a computer on your network, next try and ping the gateway address of your network.  Since the gateway is what allows you to connect to the Internet, if you can ping the gateway, you should be able to get out into the Internet.

4.  If you are able to ping the gateway, try and ping another webpage on the Internet.  For example, see if you can ping the web address of IDView (The IP address is 66.180.119.121 ).  If the ping is successful, then that means you can successfully enter the Internet.

If you pass all these tests and you still can’t connect to a desired device, it might mean that the device is protected by a firewall