Sams Teach Yourself Network Troubleshooting in 24 Hours, Second Edition

Book description

A practical, hands-on quide to network troubleshooting that emphasizes diagnostic techniques that both professionals and part-time network adminstrators can understand and use in their day-to-day activities. In today's pervasive network environment, many of these people are often responsible for fixing a network if it goes down. This book emphasizes fixing practical networking applications like shared printers, using the Internet, and sharing files. It does not get into the specifics of protocols or specific applications, but provides short, concise overviews of topics like wireless networking, Unix, Windows 2000, Novell Netware, routers, and firewalls.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Author
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Tell Us What You Think!
  5. Reader Services
  6. Introduction: Getting Ready to Troubleshoot
  7. Basic Networking Concepts
    1. Understanding Networking: The Telephone Analogy
      1. Network Interface Cards
      2. Routers and Switches
      3. Protocols
      4. Frames, Packets, and Packet Switching
      5. Name Resolution, or What’s in a Name?
      6. Directory Services
      7. Summary
      8. Q&A
      9. Workshop
    2. The OSI Model of Networking: Understanding the Old School
      1. Layer Definitions
      2. Using the “Important Parts”
      3. Summary
      4. Q&A
      5. Workshop
  8. Black Box Troubleshooting
    1. Documentation: Your Essential Discovery Tool
      1. Navigating a Bad Network Neighborhood
      2. Documentation Dividends
      3. Summary
      4. Q&A
      5. Workshop
    2. The Delta Method: Identifying Network Change
      1. The Fat Finger Factor
      2. Vendors and Change
      3. The Risk/Benefit Ratio
      4. Summary
      5. Q&A
      6. Workshop
    3. The Napoleon Method: Divide and Conquer
      1. Problem Localization
      2. The Network Is Down!
      3. The Numbers Game: Binary Search
      4. Summary
      5. Q&A
      6. Workshop
    4. The Sesame Street Method: Using What Works
      1. Servers, Routers, and Switches
      2. User Objects
      3. Summary
      4. Q&A
      5. Workshop
    5. The SOAP Method: Structured Analysis
      1. Doctor Network
      2. Just the Facts
      3. SOAP in the Real World
      4. Summary
      5. Q&A
      6. Workshop
    6. The Simple Simon Method: Consultations and Support
      1. Tech Support Databases
      2. Web Search Strategies: Finding the Needle in the Haystack
      3. Pay to Play
      4. Being Taken Seriously
      5. Summary
      6. Q&A
      7. Workshop
  9. The Care and Feeding of Network Equipment
    1. Overcoming Hardware Phobia
      1. Typical Workstation Troubleshooting
      2. Plug and Pray
      3. The Cable Is the Network
      4. Out of Gas on the Information Superhighway
      5. Summary
      6. Q&A
      7. Workshop
    2. Ethernet and Switching
      1. Ethernet Evolution
      2. Shared Ethernet Characteristics
      3. Wiring
      4. Ethernet Frames
      5. Switching
      6. Summary
      7. Q&A
      8. Workshop
    3. Wireless Networking
      1. Access Points
      2. Premature Blamestorming
      3. Summary
      4. Q&A
      5. Workshop
    4. Windows Networking Basics
      1. File and Print Foundations
      2. Name Resolution and Server Location
      3. File and Print Services and Authentication
      4. Tools: Command and Conquer
      5. Windows Throughput, Resources, and Rescue
      6. Summary
      7. Q&A
      8. Workshop
    5. UNIX and Linux Troubleshooting
      1. UNIX Functionality Overview
      2. Daemons, at Your Service
      3. Common Services and the Daemons That Love Them
      4. Error Checking
      5. Ports, Sockets, and Netstat, Oh My
      6. The Name Game: Name Service Problems
      7. Physical and Network Driver Problems
      8. Process Tracing
      9. Summary
      10. Q&A
      11. Workshop
    6. NDS and NetWare Troubleshooting
      1. Networking with NDS
      2. The NetWare OS
      3. Summary
      4. Q&A
      5. Workshop
    7. Home and Office Routers
      1. Routers Versus Switches
      2. Router Types
      3. Router Theory
      4. Configuration Methods
      5. Summary
      6. Q&A
      7. Workshop
    8. Firewall and Proxy Server Basics
      1. Top-Secret Definitions
      2. TCP Versus UDP
      3. Packet-Filtering Routers
      4. Proxy Servers
      5. DNS and Firewalls
      6. Summary
      7. Q&A
      8. Workshop
  10. In the Trenches
    1. Where Do You Start?
      1. Reaction Traction: Getting a Handle on a Problem
      2. Diving into Details
      3. Problem Determination Using TCP/IP
      4. Summary
      5. Q&A
      6. Workshop
    2. Managing Change: Establishing Consistency and Standards
      1. Manual Standardization
      2. Power Tool Time
      3. Summary
      4. Q&A
      5. Workshop
    3. Internet and Intranet Troubleshooting: TCP/IP at Work
      1. Typical TCP/IP Troubleshooting
      2. Troubleshooting Out on the Internet
      3. Summary
      4. Q&A
      5. Workshop
    4. In-depth Application Troubleshooting
      1. File and Print Services
      2. The File and Print Blues
      3. I Can’t Print!
      4. That Problematic File Pile
      5. Application Celebration
      6. Summary
      7. Q&A
      8. Workshop
    5. Protocol Analyzers
      1. What the Heck Is a Protocol Analyzer?
      2. Packet Analyzers
      3. Net Therapy 101: Techniques for Using Your Analyzer
      4. Appropriate Analysis: Some Analyzer Scenarios
      5. Packet Analyzer Limitations and Solutions
      6. Summary
      7. Q&A
      8. Workshop
    6. Network Troubleshooters Just Wanna Have Fun
      1. Finding Your Firewall
      2. Troubleshooting Port Access Using Proxies and Port Forwarding
      3. NAT Problems
      4. Some NAT Solutions
      5. Summary
      6. Q&A
      7. Workshop
    7. Network Management Tools
      1. Monitoring
      2. SNMP
      3. Taking a Poll
      4. Baseliners
      5. Summary
      6. Q&A
      7. Workshop
    8. Reverse Engineering, Discovery Tools, and Other Black Magic
      1. Cable Tracing
      2. Network Infrastructure Discovery
      3. Application Discovery
      4. Summary
      5. Q&A
      6. Workshop
  11. Index

Product information

  • Title: Sams Teach Yourself Network Troubleshooting in 24 Hours, Second Edition
  • Author(s): Jonathan Feldman
  • Release date: October 2002
  • Publisher(s): Sams
  • ISBN: 0672323737