I have just seen a little course on detecting networking errors, and I learned a few things about using tools such as Ping, Traceroute, and Netcat. These can all be used in Linux, but you also have similar commands in Windows like Ping, Tracert, and Test -NetConnection. As I am writing this, I haven't tried the Windows command yet since I am using an Ubuntu computer, but the tools are quite similar.
What can I do with Netcat?
If you use the NC or the Netcat function in Linux you will be able to check an IP address and whether it has open ports available or not. For example, I can first send a ping request for the IP address of www.steemit.com. That will show me the IP address of the server in use.
When I then run the command netcat -v -z 172.67.134.94 80 I send a request to find out if port 80 (which is the port for HTTP requests) is open on the given server.
Of course, it is open.
But, if I send a similar request trying to find out if port 22 (SSH) or 21 (FTP) is open, I do not receive positive feedback, meaning that they are unreachable to me.
This all turns out to be quite interesting to me.
I look forward to learning more about other tools that will help me solve networking problems more efficiently in the future!