When something goes wrong with your internet connection, diagnosing the issue can be surprisingly difficult. Is it your ISP? Your DNS? A VPN misconfiguration? A blocked port? A certificate problem? Most of the time, you don’t need heavy desktop software or complex CLI commands. A few well-designed browser-based tools can already give you clear answers. In this article, I’ll walk through the most common network checks you may need and how to run them quickly from your browser. ## 1. Checking Your Public IP Address The first step in many troubleshooting scenarios is knowing which IP address the internet sees. This is especially useful if you: - Use a VPN or proxy - Host services from home - Debug firewall or routing issues - Want to verify IPv4 vs IPv6 connectivity A good IP checker should show: - Your public IP - IP version (IPv4 / IPv6) - Approximate geolocation - ASN / ISP information This immediately tells you whether your traffic is routed as expected. ## 2. Testing Open and Bl...