You can ping a system - and still have a broken network
Most Linux troubleshooting doesn’t fail because of missing commands.
It fails because we check things …
but we don’t really know what we are checking.
A typical example:
“Ping works. So the network is fine.”
Sounds reasonable.
It usually isn’t.
Let me show you what I mean.
In the video, I check something very simple:
- Can I reach another system in my local network?
- Can I reach a remote system (8.8.8.8)?
Both work.
So the conclusion could be:
“Network is fine.”
But that’s not really true.
What we actually proved is:
The IP layer works - in this specific situation.
What “ping works” actually proves
There are already at least two different checks hidden in this
- local connectivity
- routing to a remote network
And even here, things can behave differently.
You can:
- reach a system locally
- but not remotely
Or:
- reach remote systems
- but only through specific paths
Where troubleshooting usually goes wrong
At this point, most troubleshooting starts to drift.
You try something
… then something else.
… then maybe restart a service.
Sometimes it works.
But you don’t really know why.
And that’s the real problem.
There is a more reliable way to approach this
Instead of guessing, you can follow the path step by step.
Tools like traceroute do exactly that.
They don’t just tell you if something works - they show you where it stops working.
And even if traceroute itself doesn’t work (firewalls, filtering, etc.), you can still reproduce the same idea:
- send packets with different TTL values
- observe where they fail
The important part is not the tool.
It’s the thinking behind it.
Most Linux problems aren’t random.
They just happen on a layer you didn’t check yet.
And this is exactly where many people get stuck.
They know commands.
They can test things.
But they don’t have a clear mental model of:
- which layer they’re looking at
- what that result actually means
- what the next logical step should be
So troubleshooting turns into:
trying things until something works …
LinuxBOSS is built to change that.
Not by giving you more commands - but by helping you understand how these layers fit together.
Because:
Ping works. Problem solved.
(usually not)
If you want to connect more of these dots:
