General Troubleshooting

Networking CCNA 200-301
1

Hello Keith,

I was going through your Basic Network Troubleshooting Course, I had a question for instance I’m not able to access “Netflix” what should be my troubleshooting approach step by step.

Could you please let me know?

Best,
Abhishek

2

Hello Abhishek,
Well…when a network-connected app (or website) can’t be reached the problem can be narrowed down to one of four things:

  1. It’s a problem with your device (laptop, tablet, smart TV, etc)
  2. It’s a problem with your local home network
  3. It’s a problem with the Internet
  4. It’s a problem with the remote server that is hosting data for your app

I typically ask two questions right away:

  1. Can you reach the website on a different device? Does it work on your smartphone? On another tablet or laptop? If the answer is “Yes” then that means the problem is isolated to one device.
  2. Is it JUST Netflix that you can’t reach? Or are ALL websites you try to reach down?

If Netflix is unresponsive on any of your devices, but you CAN reach another website (like your banking website or ine.com) then you’ve ruled out issues-1 and 2 above and probably issue-3 as well. At that point it’s probably a problem on their end and there’s nothing you can do but wait.

If Netflix is reachable via some other device in your house (like your phone) but not working on your SmartTV (as an example) I’d recommend:

  1. Doing an internet search to see if that particular service is known to be having problems right now
  2. Update your Netflix app on whatever device you’re using to watch it.
  3. Uninstall and reinstall the Netflix app
  4. Wait a while (15-30 minutes)

If you’ve done those steps, and you can still reach OTHER websites and use other network-connected apps but Netflix is still not responsive, at that point it’s probably something wrong on their end that you can’t control. I’ve had this happen too (several times) and all you can do is wait.

Now, if you can’t reach Netflix or ANY OTHER website, then you need to follow my steps in that entire video series.
I hope that helps!
Keith

1 Like
3

Thanks Keith, Loved your detailed explanation.