WAN Troubleshooting: A Guide to Resolving Network Issues
WANs connect multiple LANs and facilitate communication between geographically dispersed locations. A WAN outage can cause significant disruptions to a business’s daily operations. While WAN issues are not uncommon, properly diagnosing and resolving them can be challenging. In this article, we’ll discuss common WAN issues and effective troubleshooting techniques.
Common WAN Issues
- Slow network speeds: Slow speeds can be caused by congestion, network equipment failure, or bandwidth limitations.
- Intermittent connectivity: Intermittent connectivity can be caused by network interference, incorrect driver configurations, or network equipment failures.
- High packet loss: High packet loss can be caused by network congestion, transmission errors, or faulty network equipment.
- Security breaches: WANs can be vulnerable to security breaches, which can compromise sensitive business data.
Troubleshooting Techniques
Before troubleshooting WAN issues, ensure that all your network equipment is powered on and functioning correctly. Here are several troubleshooting techniques:
- Check network utilization and bandwidth usage to identify potential congestion issues.
- Verify network equipment configurations to ensure they are correct.
- Conduct a network trace to identify the source of intermittent connectivity issues.
- Perform a link test to identify faulty network equipment.
- Check for any security breaches by analyzing network traffic or logs.
By using the above troubleshooting techniques, businesses can identify and resolve WAN issues quickly and efficiently, minimizing downtime and ensuring that their network stays up and running.