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The following are basic utility and steps that you can use to trouble shoot network connections some times you have to dig a little deeper to find out why you can't connect to a server.The following commands will not break any thing and I recommend
trying the commands at your workstation it's fun seeing what's going on around you. All so as you know net work
trouble shooting can get very complicated this is really very basic steps to get you pointed in to the right direction for additional
information on each utility go to www.Microsoft.com and search support .

Tip: to see the options for each command do a /? after
Example
c:\>ARP/?

For Windows NT Server and Workstation the following utilities are available

Telnet
Tracert
Ping
Netstat.exe
Arp.exe
Nbstat
LMHOST

The main consideration is that even when you see the network, that don't always mean every thing is working
correctly

Example:
Client can't connect to the SQL server you can see the server and map to it, how ever after you go threw checking the
open client configuration only to find you still cant connect, If you check in DSEDIT you will see that the configuration
has NAME,PORTNUMBER if you change it to TCP/IPaddress and port number odd are that you will connect
the problem comes from the network not resolving names with in the domain this can happen when network
changes have taken place and the DHCP and WINS data base has no replication or is having a problem.

Don't be fooled by Ping, In many cases if you ping by name you will get a correct response back, but you still can't
connect WHY?.
The problem come from the ARP Cache to seed up Process and connection for the network card a cache is created
and it holds names and TCP/IP addresses so when a problem comes up with the WINS OR DHCP you ping by name
and get a response back every thing is working correct when in fact the information is coming from the ARP cache.
to see your ARP cache go to a DOS command prompt and type arp -a
SYNTAX
C:\>arp -a
C:>ping netoe

Now that you know about Ping what do you do to get around this problem.
The easiest why is to use Tracert this little utility will hit every ROUTER,BRIDGE,and HUB to track
down the the connecting path to the server if naming Resolution is a problem it will fail and that is a very good
indication that the problem is with the naming convention on the network, odd are if you then try Tracert and TCP/IP
address it will see the server
SYNTAX
C:\>tracert netoe

Netstat will display TCP/IP protocol statistics and current connections the
SYNTAX
c:\>netstat -a (displays all connections)
c:\>netstat -n(tell netstat not to convert addresses and port numbers)

Telnet is a very use full tool the problem with telnet is that you have to have telnet services running on the NT server
if the user does have Telnet services running then you can try and connect by using the computers name this will
also tell you if the network is have a naming convention problem as well
SYNTAX
From windows go to start ->RUN and in the run line type in telnet
you can also find telnet in the start program accessories group

Nbstat is used to determine the cause of connection problem when specifying a server name
on local server by using the nbstat it will give you the out put list of names of the registers computers
NOTE: this is only good if the client are using the LMHOST file and #PRE entries are used
SYNTAX
c:\>nbtstst -n

LMHOST
I know I mentioned LMHOST well it's not a utility it's a file you can find in the Windows\systen32\drivers\ect directory
and Windows 3.x/95/98 directory c:\windows\system
What is it
The file is read by the operating system on boot up if it find a entry it will then take the information and put
it in to the ARP cache this file is many used for and helpfull in cases where you are not getting name reseloution on your network by adding TCP/IP to name it is cached up so when you ping by name the information is read in to the ARP
cache and the name is all ready match to TCP/IP
EXAMPLE of a entry
102.54.94.97 rhino #PRE #DOM:networking #net group's DC

NOTE: For more information on this file do a search on your computer when you find the file open it in word
it has all the information on #PRE #DOM and addtional information on seting up the file