TCP/IP Analysis and Troubleshooting Toolkit

Introduction

Why I Wrote This Book

Network engineers face difficult challenges on a daily basis. Servers can crash, WAN links can become saturated, and for unknown reasons, an application's performance can come to a crawl, pitting network engineers against application developers in a complicated blame game, usually without facts. Without the proper tools and training, when something breaks, network engineers often have to ask why: Why can't users obtain DHCP addresses, why can't users log into the server, and—the ever so bothersome question—why is the network slow? During all of this commotion, upper management is usually also asking why—Why haven't these problems been resolved? Most large network infrastructures have a mix of troubleshooting tools at their disposal, but more often than not the wrong tools are selected for the wrong job. How can you best use the tools at your disposal and the knowledge of your networks to assist you in quickly and decisively solving problems on your network infrastructures? The answer to that question is the subject of this book.

I wrote this book for the people on the front lines, the network field engineers. I have a great respect for field engineers. They are the doers, the people that make things work; they are also the first people whose pagers start beeping when things don't work. In my over 10 years of experience supporting desktops, servers, and large complex network infrastructures, I've come to the conclusion that the best field engineers ...