Troubleshooting Wired ethernet Ubuntu

Wired Network troubleshooting Ubuntu


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

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

Get information about the current connection

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

  1. Press Applications → Accessories → Terminal to open a Terminal

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

    • inet addr gives the current IP address of the connection

    • HWaddr gives the MAC address of your network device

Check if a connection is working properly

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

To check if you are connected to the Internet:

  1. Press System → Administration → Network Tools

  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 should have 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 your computer is probably not connected to the Internet or cannot reach a DNS server.

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