Reporting Network Problems

Les Cottrell. Last Update: August 28, 2007
SLAC Computer Services (SCS) | Network Group | Computer Networking

Related sites
Recent Outages
Recent Changes
Reporting Problems
Diagnostic Steps
Case Studies
Request Tracker(RT)*

**Page Contents**
WAN Problems with Access to/from SLAC	Local Area Network Problems
Reporting Phone Problems	Reporting Non-network Non-phone Problems
Finding out about Problems	Frequently Asked Quesions (FAQs)

For SLAC problems, typically the user will report the propblem to their desktop admin or failing that the helpdesk. The local admin or desktop will do triage to gather information and decide who should be contacted. All network problems must report the coordinates (phone and email) of the contacts, the time and date of the start of the problem occurence, the name and IP addresses of the hosts involved (server and client), the user name (need for Visitor subnet registrations), connection kind (wireless, DSL/cable at home, modem, wired connection), if on SLAC wireless where on site the problem occurred, the application that was having problems, the Operating System of the users's computer, ping and traceroute* output from your host to the server, a description of the problem's symptoms, and if possible a Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) report see here for a web accessible based tool for SLAC only users and here for offsite users. There is also a Linux command line version available from SLAC Linux hosts by running ndt-client -n nettest5.

Wide Area Network (WAN) Problems with Access to/from SLAC

Contact your site's network adminstrators. They will research the problem and may contact the relevant Internet Service Provide (ISP) if it appears to be a non-site related problem, or SLAC (via email to net-admin@slac.stanford.edu⁺ with a cc: to help@slac.stanford.edu) if it appears the problem may be at SLAC.
Problems observed at SLAC with access between SLAC and another site should be reported via Email to help@slac.stanford.edu with a cc: to net-admin@slac.stanford.edu, with the information above plus a phone number where you can be reached. Contact your local network administrator if you need help with using ping &/or traceroute. If you are on a SLAC Unix system then you can also run the /usr/local/scs/net/bin/pingroute.pl nodename utility to prepare a report in /tmp/pingtime which is useful to give to the problem handler.
ESnet problems should be reported to trouble@es.net or +1 (800) 33E-SNET. The ESnet planned maintenance calendar to see whether there are relevant planned outages. If you wish to view the status of a known ESnet trouble ticket and you know the number (e.g. 5190), then you can issue the command

finger 5190@ticket.es.net
You can view the CENIC Maintenance / Calendar to look for outages. CENIC problems should be reported to noc@cenic.org, phone number 1-714-220-3494.
Internet2/Abilene problems should be reported to noc@abilene.iu.edu
CalREN problems should be reported to the CalREN NOC at support@4c.net
Residential Use
- Before calling for service unplug your DSL router to drop power to it and then plug it back in. Note the status lights and compare them with what you had when it was last working (it is a good idea to note the working status down). If they are not correct after a couple minutes after the power cycle the call for DSL service and report to them the status of the lights and your IP address. Ask for a case number and write it down for future reference.
- If it is not a "simple" DSL problem, then the "best" answer we can provide is that you are a customer of a service provider (e.g. AT&T) and you should contact them first (they may or may not be helpful, but "they" are responsible to you, and "they" are supposed to help you as their customer, and "they" are supposed to be your advocate to escalate as appropriate). The problem maybe that it is not a "DSL" issue, it is a backbone issue, and the "DSL" reps who answer the phone are targeted to being able to help the consumer turn on his DSL modem.
- If it is a backbone problem, the clueful reps who actually listen to you will escalate to their backbone group.
- If you are also a customer of SLAC report the problem to net-admin@slac.stanford.edu, we can do triage and escalation to our upstream provider (ESnet) as appropriate.
- SBC DSL(PacBell DSL) service problems should be reported to SBC Technical Support at +1 (877) 722-3755 or go to SBC Online Technical Support. You will be asked for a 'billing number' or a 'bill to' number which is +1 (650) 926-9333 431 9.
If you are having VPN/PPTP problems then look at VPN Troubleshooting and gather the information referred to. Then report the problem to the VPN-L mailing list.
Stanford University Network problems( not Stanford DSL) should be reported to noc@stanford.edu and/or +1 (650) 723-3909 or see http://www.stanford.edu/group/networking/trouble.html. Also see ITSS Services Monitoring for information on current service availability. There is al help at help@networking.stanford.edu
A few hosts at SLAC (in the DoE site office) are connected to the DOE Corporate Network. The telephone number for the DOE Corporate Network Help Desk is +1 (301) 903-0055. The number is staffed from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (EST) weekdays and has an Engineer on-call between 6:00p.m. and 6:00 a.m., weekends, and holidays. All DOEBN and DOEnet trouble calls are logged and tracked from this number. The DOEnet problem reporting number is +1 (301) 903-0055, and the email address is DOEnet@hq.doe.net.
If you appear to be having problems with routes through some Internet Service Provider (ISP) then see the contacts for ISP Network Operations Centers (NOCs). You may also want to check for Autonomous System (AS) adjacencies (i.e. which networks are served by which ISPs), by looking at the List of AS's ordered by Upstream AS Adjacency. To look at real-time information about the global routing system from the perspectives of several different backbones and locations around the Internet see RouteViews.

Local Area Network Problems

Problems with the SLAC Local Area Network should be reported to the SLAC HELP desk (Email help@slac.stanford.edu, phone +1 (650) 926-HELP or +1 (650) 926-4357, FAX +1 (650) 926-5400). When reporting problems, please include the information above plus the application you were using (and if the application was WWW, then the page you were accessing), if you were using an Xterminal then the host that is providing the application services.
If you are on the visitor subnet then be aware that some behaviors (e.g. running SKYPE as a supernode) can result in your host being put in a Penalty Box with performance limited to < 56kbps.
More information on the SLAC Network is available on the Web.

Reporting Phone Problems

If your SLAC phone has a problem or needs repair, or you run into some other phone problem, then please use the Repair Request available from the SLAC Phone Request System (SPRS) web page, or call extension 2200. You will be asked to give your name, extension, building and room number, and the nature of the problem. You do not need to make this request through your ATOM. Do NOT report the problem to the Help desk. Normally repairs will be completed within a working day. If you need assistance with other Telecommunications services then see the Telecommunications Directory. ATOMs can find information on making requests etc. in the ATOM Training Manual. For more information on requesting phone services, see SLAC Phone Services.

Reporting Non-network, Non-phone Problems

Central Computing Access contains an at-a-glance list of phone numbers, URLs, and e-mail addresses for reporting problems and obtaining services from SCS and other relevant information.
Information on obtaining Desktop assistance.
Email problems should be reported to mail-admin. They have the expertice to determine the causes/faults for failures (and the logs to prove it!)
Usenet/netnews problems should be reported to slac-news@news.stanford.edu.
Non critical problems with WWW may be reported to www-admin@slac.stanford.edu.
Non critical Unix problems may be reported to unix-admin@mailbox.slac.stanford.edu.
Critical problems should be reported to the SLAC HELP desk (Email help@slac.stanford.edu, phone +1 (650) 926-HELP or +1 (650) 926-4357, FAX +1 (650) 926-5400).

Finding out about Problems

For information on reported problems, scheduled outages and changes, see below:

Calendar of SCCS Outages
Outages are reported in the COMP-OUT mailing list.
System Changes are reported in COMP-CHANGE mailing list.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

SLAC computing services has several sources of answers to frequently asked questions. These should be consulted to see if the answer to your problem is already answered.

* Note that traceroutes to Windows hosts at SLAC will not complete since for security reasons SLAC Windows hosts block the UDP ports used by the traceroute probes. If you are running traceroute from a Linux host then you can use the -I option to utilize ICMP rather than UDP probes. If you are on Windows then using the tracert command will utilize ICMP probes and thus work.
+ An alias for net-admin@slac.stanford.edu is noc@slac.stanford.edu.
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