The Best Linux Network Troubleshooting Tools for 2024

Keeping a computer network up and running—especially in a Linux environment, takes some skills

A network or system administrator needs to have the right skills required to manage and maintain a network. One of such skills is an excellent hands-on knowledge of network troubleshooting. There are times when troubleshooting will account for more than seventy percent of a network administrator’s time. Fortunately, network diagnostic tools can enable you to quickly resolve issues during those crisis times and keep your network operating as designed.

Here is our list of the best Linux network troubleshooting tools:

1. Site24x7 Linux Monitoring EDITOR’S CHOICE This unit on a cloud platform provides activity monitoring for the operating system that also tracks processor availability and usage and can identify the causes of performance problems. Get a 30-day free trial.
2. ManageEngine OpManager A highly scalable Linux network monitoring tool. It can monitor Linux devices and traffic in your network for availability, health, and performance in real-time and generate network performance reports.
3. Ping A network troubleshooting tool used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
4. IP command tool Found in the net tools which are used for performing several network administration tasks.
5. NSLookup A network administration command-line tool for querying the Domain Name System (DNS) to obtain the mapping between a domain name and IP address.
6. Domain Information Groper (Dig) A network administration command-line tool for querying the DNS. Dig is useful for network troubleshooting and educational purposes.
7. Ethtool A tool used for troubleshooting in a Linux network. It is primarily used to query and control Ethernet devices, including driver and hardware settings on Linux systems.
8. PuTTY A free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console, and network file transfer application.
9. Traceroute A tool in Linux that allows you to investigate the routes of network packets and identify the limiting factor in their journeys.
10. Route The route command is used to view and make changes to the kernel routing table on Linux, BSD, and other Unix-like systems.
11. NETCAT and NCAT A tool for reading from and writing to network connections using TCP or UDP. It is a feature-rich network troubleshooting and investigation tool.

A good understanding of those troubleshooting tools serves as an advantage. In addition, Linux supports lots of useful command-line tools that can help you narrow down to the root cause of a network issue. This article will explore the ten best Linux network troubleshooting tools to help you when things don’t seem to work.

The Best Linux Network Troubleshooting Tools

With these selection criteria in mind, we selected a range of tools, many of which are free, that can form your troubleshooting toolset.

1. Site24x7 Linux Monitoring (FREE TRIAL)

Site24x7 Linux Monitoring is a facility on a cloud platform of system monitoring and management tools. The Linux monitoring system is delivered from the cloud and implemented through the installation of an agent on one of your servers. That agent also gathers data from network and application monitoring.

The key features of Site24x7 Linux Monitoring include:

• Tracks CPU load
• Shows live activity
• Records metrics for analysis
• Syslog management
• Container monitoring

Why do we recommend it?

Site25x7 Linux Monitoring is able to interface to just about every distribution of Linux, so it is able to implement the commands of the operating system right down to the specific syntax of the Linux flavor on your computer. The main focus of the Linux monitor is actually the computer and its resources rather than the operating system.

The Linux Monitoring feature is really a host monitor that is able to interface with the Linux operating system in order to extract performance statistics from the computer. The same platform offers Windows Monitoring.

The Linux Monitoring system includes Syslog management, which you can use to construct your own analysis system and also store Syslog records in files over time, which can be used for capacity planning and root cause analysis.

Who is it recommended for?

Any business that runs Linux on its computers will need the Linux Monitoring service of Site24x7. The platform provides Linux monitoring as part of its server monitoring feature and you can just as easily use the system’s Windows monitoring system on your PCs and computers running Windows Server.

Site24x7 provides monitoring services for networks, servers, and applications and it bundles all of its services into plans. The Linux Monitoring unit is included in all plans. There is also an edition for managed service providers. You can examine the platform with a 30-day free trial.

2. ManageEngine OpManager

ManageEngine OpManager is a highly scalable Linux network monitoring tool. It can monitor Linux devices and traffic in your network for availability, health, and performance in real-time and generate network performance reports. These reports can be used to make a better purchase or upgrade decisions. In addition, with over 2,000 metrics for monitoring network device performance, OpManager can be used to monitor and identify faults in real-time, so performance issues can be fixed before they impact end-users.

Some of the key features and capabilities include:

• Real-time Linux network performance monitoring
• Physical and virtual Linux server monitoring
• Network Performance Reporting
• Customizable dashboards
• Email and SMS alerting

Why do we recommend it?

ManageEngine OpManager is a full network and server monitoring package that includes a number of troubleshooting and testing tools along site its automated, threshold-based monitoring routines. Typical connectivity tests start with Ping and Traceroute, which are built into the OpManager console. The service also provides root cause analysis for network device problems.

OpManager can provide alerts on the performance degradation of devices in a Linux network. In addition, it categorizes the alerts into Attention, Trouble, Critical, and Service Down. This helps to streamline and prioritize response efforts.

OpManager has many built-in Linux network troubleshooting tools such as Ping, Traceroute, CLI, SNMP, MAC Address Resolver, DNS Resolver, DHCP Scope Monitor, and Port Scanner. The software comes in different editions, which are tailored to suit your network and server monitoring requirements, as shown in Table 1.0 below:

Table 1.0 | Comparison of the different editions of OpManager

Who is it recommended for?

This tool is suitable for any business. It installs on Windows Server, Linux, AWS, and Azure. The package has a Free edition. However, this is limited to monitoring three devices and doesn’t include many features. The Standard edition’s base price caters to 10 devices, which is a good package for small businesses.

OpManager license options depend on the number of devices to be monitored. The license is inclusive of all the interfaces, nodes, or sensors in the device. A device can have any number of interfaces, elements, or sensors. You can download the free version for evaluation or check out the 30-day fully-functional trial to confirm its capabilities and make sure it’s the right fit for your organization before purchase.

3. PING

Ping is a network troubleshooting tool used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The ping command is one of the most used tools for troubleshooting, testing, and diagnosing network connectivity issues in Windows and Linux environments. With this tool, you can test if a server is up and running. Ping works by sending one or more ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) Echo Request packets to a specified destination IP on the network and waits for a reply. When the destination receives the packets, it responds with an ICMP echo reply. This helps to determine whether a remote host is reachable or not. It can also determine whether there is a packet loss by examining the round-trip delay in communicating with the destination.

Why do we recommend it?

Ping is the first call for any network manager to check on connectivity and device availability. This system is free and built into the operating system for Windows, macOS, and Linux. This system will emit test packets to a target and it operates at Internet Layer level.

Who is it recommended for?

Every network manager will use Ping. It doesn’t test Transport Layer ports, but it provides a good check to ensure that every device is running. Ping is central to nearly all automated network management tools but you don’t have to pay anything to use the standard tool at the command line.

Ping is part of the iputils (or iputils-ping) package, pre-installed on nearly all Linux distributions. Most Linux users are familiar with the tool and know how to use it in its basic form. However, there are many additional ping options and variations. The syntax for the ping command is as follows: ping [option] [hostname] or [IP address]

To better illustrate how the ping command works, let’s ping google.com. The output is as shown on the screenshot below:

The ping command resolves the Google domain name into an IP address and starts sending ICMP packages to the destination IP. If the destination IP is reachable, it will respond, and the ping command prints a line that includes the following fields:

• The number of data bytes. This translates into 64 ICMP data bytes – 64 bytes.
• The IP address of the destination – from bom07s20-in-f4.1e100.net (172.217.166.164).
• The ICMP sequence number for each packet. icmp_seq=1.
• The Time to Live: This refers to the amount of time or “hops” that a packet is set to exist inside a network before being discarded by a router. – ttl=57.
• The ping time, measured in milliseconds, is the round trip time for the packet to reach the host and the response to return to the sender. – time=2.40 ms, etc.

4. IP Command

The IP command tool in Linux is present in the net tools, which are used for performing several network administration tasks. For example, with the IP command, you can adjust how a Linux computer handles IP addresses, network interfaces controllers (NICs), and routing rules.

Why do we recommend it?

The IP command provides a number of system information options and also gives you a way to alter settings. An example of a useful command is the ip route show, which gives you IP address, interface name, subnet range, and gateway details for each interface. It works with IPv6 as well.

Who is it recommended for?

The IP command is very flexible and can implement network address and routing changes as well as providing a reconnaissance tool. The tool is free and is integrated into the Linux operating system. The command gives insights into all IP-related issues, so it is well worth getting to know.

The tool is similar to the ifconfig command, but it is much more powerful and has more functions and facilities. Older Linux distributions used the now deprecated ifconfig command, which operates similarly. However, ifconfig has a limited range of capabilities compared to the IP command.

The syntax for the IP command is as follows: [OPTION] OBJECT {COMMAND | help}

Objects subcommands that you will use most often include:

• Link (l) – used to display and modify network interfaces.
• Address (addr/a) – used to display and modify protocol addresses (IPv4/IPv6).
• Route (r) – used to display and alter the routing table.
• Neigh (n) – used to display and manipulate neighbor objects (ARP table).

5. Name Server Lookup (NSLookup) 

NSLookup is a network administration command-line tool for querying the Domain Name System (DNS) to obtain the mapping between a domain name and IP address. It’s convenient when troubleshooting DNS issues on a Linux system.

Why do we recommend it?

Nslookup provides a name service lookup function. This tool is free to use and it is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. This command reports on the domain name server entries for your network. It will also provide information from the global DNS system.

Who is it recommended for?

This is a command line tool that is frequently used by network managers. The command is integrated into the operating system of Windows, macOS, and Linux. You don’t need to install it because the tool is already available.

NSLookup queries the specified Linux DNS server and retrieves the requested records associated with the domain name you provided. Other DNS records that can be obtained include:

• A: The IPv4 address of the domain.
• AAAA: the IPv6 address of the domain.
• CNAME: the canonical name (CNAME) allows one domain name to map onto another. This enables multiple websites to point to a single IP or web server.
• MX: the server that handles email for the domain.
• NS: one or more authoritative name server records for the domain.
• TXT: a type of DNS record that contains text information for sources outside of your domain. This information is used for email spam prevention and domain ownership verification, among others.

Thenslookup tool comes bundled inside the bind-utils package in older Linux systems, while newer Linux systems ship the nslookup tool by default. The nslookup tool can operate in interactive or non-interactive mode. When used interactively, the user issues parameter configurations or requests when presented with the nslookup prompt (>). When no arguments are given, then the command queries the default server. In non-interactive mode, i.e., when the first argument is a name or Internet address of the host being searched, parameters and the query are specified as command-line arguments in the program’s invocation. The non-interactive mode searches the information for a specified host using the default name server.

6. Domain Information Groper (Dig) 

Dig is a network administration command-line tool for querying the DNS. Dig is useful for network troubleshooting and educational purposes. With dig, you can query DNS servers for information regarding various DNS records, including host addresses, mail exchanges, name servers, and related information. It was intended to be a tool for diagnosing DNS issues. However, you can use it to poke around and learn more about DNS, which is one of the central systems that keep the internet routing traffic.

Why do we recommend it?

Dig is a Linux utility that provides a querying utility for the Domain Name System. It gives you details of domain name records for a particular domain, such as the related IP address. This tool was available before nslookup, which, since its creation has become more widely used.

Who is it recommended for?

Dig can be used as an alternative to nslookup, The tool is available in Linux, macOS, and several Unix versions. This tool queries the DNS root zone.

Newer Linux systems ship dig utilities by default, but most older ones come bundled inside the bind-utils package. Thus, dig is usually installed by default on most Linux distributions, and you can access it from the command line with no additional installation. To confirm if dig is installed on your Linux system, run the # dig -v.

If the command returns anything other than dig’s version information, you may need to install dnsutils. For example, to install dnsutils on a Linux server, run the following commands:

For Debian/Ubuntu distribution, use the command: sudo apt-get install dnsutils

For RedHat/CentOS distribution, use the command: dnf install bind-utils

Once you’ve installed dnsutils, run the # dig -v command again to verify dig’s installation.

7. Ethtool

Ethtool is a tool used for troubleshooting in a Linux network. It is primarily used to query and control Ethernet devices, including driver and hardware settings on Linux systems. Ethtool can also be used to find important information about connected Ethernet devices on your Linux network. Other ways the tool can be used include:

• Control speed, duplex, auto-negotiation, and flow control for Ethernet devices
• Control checksum offload and other hardware offload features
• Control receive queue selection for multi-queue devices
• Control DMA ring sizes and interrupt moderation
• Identification and diagnosis of Ethernet devices
• Identification and diagnosis of Ethernet devices
• Extended Ethernet devices statistics
• Upgrade firmware in flash memory

Most Linux distributions provide a standard utility program called ethtool that can be used from a shell to control or gather information from NICs using the ethtool userspace API. The tool consists of the following key components:

1. An API within the Linux kernel can send and receive parameters through their device driver software, through which NICs can send and receive parameters.
2. A userspace API based on the Linux SIOCETHTOOL ioctl mechanism through which application programs can communicate with the kernel to send and receive NIC and NIC driver parameters.

Ethtool is installed by default in most Linux distributions. However, you can check whether ethtool is installed already with the following command: # sudo ethtool –version.

Why do we recommend it?

Ethtool is available for Linux kernel systems, which includes Android and Amazon’s FireOS. The tool provides a method to query data about the network interface controller of a computer and it also facilitates changes to its settings.

Who is it recommended for?

Ethtool is a free utility, however,r it is rarely used. You can use the command to make changes to the NIC’s settings. The service could be useful if integrated into a network management tool, which is possible because it is available as an API.

If you see an error, then ethtool may not be installed on your computer. However, you can install it via the official package repository of your favorite Linux distribution.

8. PuTTY

PuTTY is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console, and network file transfer application. It supports several network protocols, including SCP, SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw socket connection. PuTTY was originally written for Microsoft Windows, but it is now supported on Linux OS.

Why do we recommend it?

PuTTY is a terminal emulator that gives remote access to the command line of a computer across the internet or over a network. The name doesn’t mean anything but the “TTY” part stands for “teletype.” The system can implement encrypted communications by implementing a choice of protocols.

Who is it recommended for?

This service is a GUI package for Windows, macOS, and GNOME Linux distros. PutTTY is an old system but it is very widely copied. You are more likely to use the tool’s secure implementation that integrates SSH for encryption. PuTTY is a free utility.

The Linux version of PuTTY is a graphical terminal program that supports the SSH, telnet, and rlogin protocols and connects to serial ports. It can also connect to raw sockets, typically for debugging purposes. Some Linux users may be wondering why anyone would use a separate SSH client on Linux when there’s already a pre-existing native Linux terminal?

There are several reasons why you would want to use Putty on Linux:

• Familiarity: You have used Putty for so long on Windows that you are more comfortable with it.
• Convenience: You find it difficult to manually edit SSH config files to save the various SSH sessions, so you prefer Putty’s graphical way of storing SSH connections.
• Troubleshooting: You want to debug by connecting to raw sockets and serial ports.

Putty is not installed by default on most Linux distributions. Instead, you have to manually install it from the default official repositories or package manager in your Linux distributions. Since most people would prefer to use the pre-installed OpenSSH in a terminal window on Linux for basic SSH access, the primary use of Putty on Linux is primarily for debugging: connecting to serial ports and raw sockets.

9. Traceroute and Tracepath 

Traceroute is a tool in Linux that allows you to investigate the routes of network packets and identify the limiting factor in their journeys. Traceroute is also helpful for mapping local networks and troubleshooting sluggish connections. Insight into the topology and connections of the local network is found when running the tool.

Traceroute works by sending packets of data to the target computer, server, or website and recording any intermediate steps through which the packets travel. The output of a traceroute command will be the IP addresses and domain names through which the packets pass. These entries also show how long it takes for the packets to reach each destination. The information obtained may explain why some websites may take longer to load than others, as the number of traffic hops can vary.

On Linux or Unix-like operating systems, traceroute sends, by default, a sequence of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets, with destination port numbers ranging from 33434 to 33534. The implementations of traceroute shipped with Linux include an option to use ICMP Echo Request packets (-I) or any arbitrary protocol (-P) such as UDP, TCP using TCP SYN packets, or ICMP.

Why do we recommend it?

Traceroute is re second most widely used network diagnostic tool after Ping. This system is like Ping because it gives a report of elapsed time to each router on a path to a given target. The system is available for Windows, macOS, and Unix as well as Linux. The command is “tracert” on Windows.

Who is it recommended for?

Traceroute is a free utility that is integrated into the Linux operating system. Tracepath is a version of Traceroute that can be used by permission levels other than the root user. The tool can’t explain the route a previous transmission took but it can run a connection, which will likely take the same path as a previous connection to the same target.

Tracepath is another utility similar to traceroute on Linux, with the primary difference of not requiring superuser privileges. Traceroute and tracepath are available for installation from the default official repositories or package manager in most Linux distributions.

route [-nNvee] [-FC] [<AF>]           List kernel routing tables

route [-v] [-FC] {add|del|flush} ...  Modify routing table for AF.

route {-h|--help} [<AF>]              Detailed usage syntax for specified AF.

route {-V|--version}                  Display version/author and exit.