Part V: Troubleshooting

Chapter 19: Using Windows 2003 Troubleshooting Utilities

Chapter 20: Nixing Network Problems

Chapter 21: Reactivating Active Directory

In this part

Despite your best intentions and all the prevention in the world, networks occasionally get weird. Sometimes, they even stop working altogether. That's when troubleshooting is required - when there's trouble to shoot! What you should discover in Part V is that troubleshooting is as much a state of mind as it is any particular set of tried and tested tools, tricks, and techniques for solving problems.

Part V kicks off with a review of key Windows 2003 troubleshooting utilities and continues with similar coverage of tools to help you handle network problems. After that, you find out how to tackle troubles arising from an inactive or wacky Active Directory.

Part V covers the important bases when it comes to troubleshooting a Windows Server 2003 machine and the networks to which it is attached. Although we don't address every problem you might ever encounter, we do our best to steer you clear of the best-known (or at least the most-often- encountered ) bumps in the road to networking success.

Troubleshooting is something everyone must do from time to time. Remember not to panic and to perform a systematic survey of the symptoms. You must try to identify what kinds of problems are manifesting themselves before you can figure out what might be amiss. Keep a record of problems and their solutions as you encounter and correct them. That way, you'll be able to not only solve most problems yourself, but also build a knowledge base that will help you out for the rest of your networking career!