A desktop workstation in an office environment fails to connect to network resources after a desk rearrangement. A technician decides to troubleshoot the issue using a bottom-up approach following the OSI model layers. In what order should the technician perform the following diagnostic steps, starting from Layer 1 (Physical) up through Layer 3 (Network)?
- 1Inspect the Ethernet cable connections and check for link light activity on the network interface card (NIC).
- 2Verify the switch port status and confirm that MAC address learning and port VLAN assignments are configured correctly.
- 3Run `ipconfig /all` to verify local host IP address assignment, subnet mask, and DHCP server configuration.
- 4Execute a `ping` command to the default gateway address to test local ICMP reachability across subnets.
Answer
The correct sequence starts with checking physical cable connections and link lights (Layer 1), followed by verifying switch port settings and MAC/VLAN configurations (Layer 2), inspecting the local host's IP address assignment via `ipconfig` (Layer 3 configuration), and finally testing IP reachability to the gateway using `ping` (Layer 3 communication).
A bottom-up troubleshooting methodology starts at the Physical Layer (Layer 1), verifying cable connections and link lights. It then moves to the Data Link Layer (Layer 2) to check switch port status and VLAN configuration, followed by the Network Layer (Layer 3) to inspect host IP addressing (`ipconfig /all`) and test end-to-end ICMP connectivity (`ping`).
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Bottom-up troubleshooting methodology follows the OSI model from Physical Layer (Layer 1) to Data Link Layer (Layer 2) and Network Layer (Layer 3).
Estimated Time:1m 30s