When I type a local IP into my browser (to get to a VM or another machine or even my firewall), there is more of a delay than there should be. Sometimes, it just hangs until I try again.

How do I troubleshoot this?

I’m on a single VLAN (flat network), with a few unmanaged switches and a Brocade core switch connected to Sophos XG (home edition running on VM). I thought layer 2 addresses would get resolved by switches between the device requesting and the host being reached. So that would exclude need for hitting firewall, right? And wouldn’t implicate my DNS provider either, right?

I’m going to replace some of the unmanaged switches with managed Brocade switches (running Ruckus Unleashed WLAN).

Suggestions on how to test different links in the chain?