User complaints never come at an opportune time. You are already being pulled in 20 directions when a user complains of slow Internet or email access. With few details and limited time to solve the problem, it's easy to overlook sound troubleshooting practices.
Not sure where to begin? The easiest place to start is by understanding as much as you can about the user's experiences. Mike Motta, NI University instructor and troubleshooting expert, places the typical user complaints into three categories: Slow Network, Inability to Access Network Resources, and Application- Specific Issues. Based upon the answers to the questions outlined in the following Troubleshooting Cheat Sheet, you'll gain a better understanding of the symptoms and be able to isolate the issue to the correct layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. Then you can begin troubleshooting.