Checking for software problems

If there is trouble on the network, here are some actions you can take to diagnose and fix software-related problems.

1. Determine the status of the network and the network interfaces, as described in:

   • ``Verifying the configuration of network interfaces''

   • ``Displaying activity on a network interface''

   • ``Displaying per-protocol statistics''

2. Check the accuracy of the line(s) in the /etc/confnet.d/inet/interface file. See the interface(4tcp) manual page for the format of an entry in the interface file. In particular, check whether incorrect values have been defined for the netmask and broadcast addresses of the system's network adapters. If necessary, use the Network Configuration Manager to change the TCP/IP configuration for a network adapter. See ``Adjusting your netmask to correct routing problems'' for more information.

3. Check the /etc/hosts file to make sure that the entries are correct and up to date. See hosts(4tcp) for a description of the format of this file.

4. Check whether you can send network packets to yourself as described in ``Verifying local network connectivity''.

5. Check whether you can send network packets to other systems as described in ``Verifying remote network connectivity''.

6. If your system will provide services such as file transfer (in.ftpd), remote login (in.rlogind and in.telnetd), and remote shell execution (in.rshd), make sure the network daemon inetd is running by entering the command:
   
   ps -ef | grep inetd

   The resulting display should resemble the following if the inetd daemon is running:

   root 21038   359   TS  80  0   Oct 15 ?      0:01 /usr/sbin/inetd
   root 16155 16100   TS  85  0 12:37:10 pts/3  0:00 grep inetd
   

   If inetd is not running, restart it by entering:
   
   sacadm -s -p inetd

   or by shutting down and rebooting the machine.

7. Turn on logging by the various TCP/IP server daemons as described in ``Logging troubleshooting information''.