This is a guide i’ve created with some notes I have created while working through the networking+ content. While I do plenty of networking troubleshooting experience, these instructions ensure that I STOP, and SLOWN DOWN and think about the changes. Something else I enjoy about these instructions is they force me to think more about change management. Something I need more practice with.

1. Gather as much information as possible. If possible, duplicate the problem.
2. Break the problem down into meaningful bytes. What steps need to occur and in what order? a lot of people use this step as an opportunity to begin working their way up or down the OSI Model identifying the processes that take place.
3. Generate a few different hypothesis’s and the steps needed to take to resolve these issues. Document these issues somewhere publicly where you and your peers can look back at them.
4. When you begin making changes, document the steps taken to test your hypothesis and perform one change at a time. After you have completed the change, assess the situation and determine if the change has produced a favorable result.
5. Once you have confirmed that you have resolved the issue, reach out the customer and confirm that they are seeing the same behavior as you are.
6. Document, Document, Document everything.