IB Network Troubleshooting Guide

The test page has established that your network settings are not configured correctly in order to establish a proper connection with our servers.
You should contact your network administrator or your Internet Service provider to help you reconfiguring your network environment to re-establish connection to our servers. If you would like to diagnose the connection prior to contacting your network support team, please follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Here is a quick overview of the probable issues according to the test from the sections below:

1. Should you get failure at the end of the test in section A, your network cannot establish even basic connection to the IB servers.
2. Should you complete the test in section B and your results are negative, then even if you can establish a connection to the server, your network does not allow you to connect to the specific port needed to establish a connection to the servers.
3. If your setup has failed test C you cannot connect to the host using SSL, but a connection without this additional encryption will be possible. Please contact your network admin to enable port 4001 if you would like this type of security for the connection.

A. General Connectivity Test

The Ping command will test the quality and latency of your connection. A failure on this test would be any response that refers to lost packets or a timed out connection.

Windows

1. Press the Windows logo + R keys on your keyboard
2. Type "cmd" in the search box
3. Hit Enter on your keyboard
4. Type ping, space then add the destination server that was shown as failed on the test page (Eg. ping zdc1_hb1.ibllc.com)
5. Hit Enter
6. Confirm the ping statistics show the following: Sent = 4 /Received = 4/ Lost = 0. If you do not see a result of 4 packets received, please contact your network administrator to review.

MacOS

1. Open a Finder window
2. Type Terminal in the search box at the top right of the window
3. Select the Terminal app from the list
4. Type ping -c 4 and add the destination server that was shown as failed on the test page (Eg. ping -c 4 zdc1_hb1.ibllc.com)
5. Hit Enter
6. Confirm the ping statistics show the following: Sent = 4/ Received = 4/ Lost = 0. If you do not see a result of 4 packets received, please contact your network administrator to review.

B. Port Testing for Standard Communication

This test establishes whether port 4000 on your network is open. This port is needed for a regular connection of your trading platform to the IB servers without activating SSL.

Windows

1. Press the Windows logo + R keys on your keyboard
2. Type "cmd" in the search box to open Command Prompt.
3. Hit Enter on your keyboard

Type telnet, space, the destination server that was shown as failed on the test page, space, 4000 (e.g. telnet zdc1_hb1.ibllc.com 4000) and then press Enter on the keyboard. The following outcomes are possible:

4a. The window goes blank with no message and a blinking cursor on the top. This means that your test was successful and you actually can connect through port 4000.

4b. You receive the message "connecting to ..." and/or "connect failed". This indicates that the port is closed. In this case, please review the article IBKR Host and Ports Documentation and contact your network administrator to implement the required changes on your firewall.

4c. You receive the message "'telnet' is not recognized as an internal or external command...", you need to enable Telnet Client. In this case, close the existing Command Prompt window, press the Windows logo + R keys on your keyboard, then type "cmd" in the search box and in the panel on the left select the option Run as Administrator. If a pop-up appears, asking you to allow the operation, click "Yes". Now type in the Command Prompt window the following command:

DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:TelnetClient

and press Enter on the keyboard. The Telnet Client will been enabled. Once this operation has been completed, please follow again the instructions from point 4. If the Telnet Client can not be enabled because of lack of Administrative rights or credentials, please refer to your local IT Support Team

MacOS

1. Open a Finder window
2. Type Terminal in the search box at the top right of the window
3. Select the Terminal app from the list
4. Type telnet, space and add the destination server that was shown as failed on the test page + space + 4000 (Eg. telnet zdc1_hb1.ibllc.com4000) If you received a message "Connected to + destination server" then you have access to port 4000. If it says "Unable to connect to remote host, please contact your network administrator to review and open the port.

C. Port Testing for SSL Communication

Windows

1. Press the Windows logo + R keys on your keyboard
2. Type "cmd" in the search box to open Command Prompt.
3. Hit Enter on your keyboard

Type telnet, space, the destination server that was shown as failed on the test page, space, 4001 (e.g. telnet zdc1_hb1.ibllc.com 4001) and then press Enter on the keyboard. The following outcomes are possible:

4a. The window goes blank with no message and a blinking cursor on the top. This means that your test was successful and you actually can connect through port 4001.

4b. You receive the message "connecting to ..." and/or "connect failed". This indicates that the port is closed. In this case, please review the article IBKR Host and Ports Documentation and contact your network administrator to implement the required changes on your firewall.

4c. You receive the message "telnet is not recognized as an internal or external command...", you need to enable Telnet Client. In this case, close the existing Command Prompt window, press the Windows logo + R keys on your keyboard, then type "cmd" in the search box and in the panel on the left select the option Run as Administrator. If a pop-up appears, asking you to allow the operation, click "Yes". Now type in the Command Prompt window the following command:

DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:TelnetClient

and press Enter on the keyboard. The Telnet Client will been enabled. Once this operation has been completed, please follow again the instructions from point 4. If the Telnet Client can not be enabled because of lack of Administrative rights or credentials, please refer to your local IT Support Team

MacOS

1. Open a Finder window
2. Type Terminal in the search box at the top right of the window
3. Select the Terminal app from the list
4. Type telnet, space and add the destination server that shows you failed + space + 4001 (Eg. telnet zdc1_hb1.ibllc.com 4001) If you received a message "Connected to + destination server" then you have access to port 4001. If it says "Unable to connect to remote host", please contact your network administrator to review and open the port.