Check internet connection from behind proxy

I explained that I did not know which forum was best suited for my question, so I posted in 2 different forums. Do you have a suggestion for which forum my question is best suited?

I too run into this in my work. We use VPN and proxy servers and sometimes stuff just doesn't work. I hate calling the help desk and do so as a last resort. I do find that most problems eventually work themselves out, however, and we get a later notice about the unexpected outage. I could understand your frustration about going to a help desk as sometimes they are anything but helpful. It depends on who you wind up speaking to as I've found many treat their "customers" like dummies. I really hate it when they solve my problem but refuse to tell me what they did so that I could try that the next time. In any event, I think what's behind your issue may be too complicated for you to get much help in these forums. Only your IT knows for sure and they may not be willing to tell their secrets...or reveal that they don't know what's happening either. Good luck. Don't want to discourage anyone. Maybe you're persistence will pay off in some manner.

I'm trying to avoid going to IT with merely, "My internet doesn't work." It saves time all around if I can run a couple diagnostics myself to narrow down the problem.