Communication problems

Common TCP/IP communication problems include the inability to communicate with a host on your network and routing problems. These are some solutions.

If you cannot communicate with a host on your network:

• Try to contact the host, using the ping command. Run the ping command on the local host to verify that the local interface to the network is up and running.
• Try to resolve the name of the host, using the host command. If the name does not resolve, you have a name resolution problem. See Name resolution problems for more information.

If the name resolves and you are trying to contact a host on another network, you may have a routing problem. See TCP/IP routing problems for more information.

• If your network is a token-ring network, check to see if the target host is on another ring. If so, the allcast field is probably set incorrectly. Use the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) fast path smit chinet to access the Network Interfaces menu. Then, set the Confine Broadcast to Local Ring field to no in the token-ring dialog.
• If there are a large number of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packets on your network, verify that your subnet mask is set correctly. This condition is known as a broadcast storm and can affect your system performance.