When trying to solve problems with hosting (email and website), it is sometimes useful to be able to test the connection between your computer, and the server providing the service.
While a Ping Test will not solve any problems, it can help determine if there is a connection issue between your computer and the server.
Apple's Mac computers can perform Ping Tests, instructions are here: http://www.wikihow.com/Ping-on-Mac-OS
On Windows based computers, open a command prompt (run the program CMD) and type into the black-box:
ping server30.goldhosts.net
... then press enter.
The most important details from the answers are the percentage of packets lost. If all (100%) of the packets are lost, then it is a networking problem, rather than fault with the service. Knowing that you can successfully Ping a server will save hours of trying to solve an issue with a particular service, when it is actually a network problem.
Example:
See also pathping for more in depth trouble shooting with ping.
See also Service Check to see which of our servers your service is on.