Chapter 19: Solving Network Problems


Overview

Face it: Networks are prone to breaking.

They have too many parts. Cables. Connectors. Cards. Switches. Routers. All these parts must be held together in a delicate balance; the network equilibrium is all too easy to disturb. Even the best-designed computer networks sometimes act as though they're held together by baling wire, chewing gum, and duct tape.

To make matters worse, networks breed suspicion. After your computer is attached to a network, users begin to blame the network every time something goes wrong, regardless of whether the problem has anything to do with the network. You can't get columns to line up in a Word document? Must be the network. Your spreadsheet doesn't add up? The @@#$% network is acting up again. The stock market is down? Arghhh!!!!!!

The worst thing about network failures is that sometimes they can shut down an entire company. It's not so bad if just one user can't access a particular shared folder on a file server. If a critical server goes down, however, your network users may be locked out of their files, their applications, their e-mail, and everything else they need to conduct business as usual. When that happens, they beat down your doors and don't stop until you get the network back up and running.

In this chapter, I describe some of the most likely causes of network trouble and suggest some basic troubleshooting techniques that you can employ when your network goes on the fritz.




Networking For Dummies
Networking For Dummies
ISBN: 0470534052
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 254
Authors: Doug Lowe

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