SSP, Gandhinagar COMPUTER DEPT.

Shree Swaminarayan Polytechnic, Gandhinagar

COMPUTER DEPARTMENT

Subject Name : NETWORK MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

Subject Code : (3360703)
UNIT – V TROUBLESHOOTING OF NETWORKING

1. List Hardware Troubleshooting tools. Explain any one tool.

Ans. Troubleshooting network problems are often accomplished with the help of hardware and software.
• To troubleshoot effectively, you need to know how tools can be used to solve network problems.
• Hardware tools were once very expensive and difficult devices to use. They are now less
expensive and easier to operate.
1. Digital Voltmeters
• The digital voltmeter (volt-ohm meter) is the primary all-purpose electronic measuring tool.
• Voltmeters can determine if:
– The cable is continuous (has no breaks).
– The cable can carry network traffic.
– Two parts of the same cable are exposed and touching (thereby causing shorts).
– An exposed part of the cable is touching another conductor, such as a metal surface.
• The network administrator has to confirm source voltage for the network equipment so problem
occurs due to high voltage and low voltage eliminate.
2.Time-Domain Reflectometers (TDRs)
• A time-domain Reflectometer (TDR) is an electronic instrument that uses time-domain
Reflectometry to characterize and locate faults in metallic cables.
• Time-domain Reflectometer sends sonar like electrical signal into a cable and can determine the
location of a break in the cable. The pulse is reflected back to the TDR and the TDR can tell
where the break is by timing the time it takes for the pulse to return.
• Network performance suffers when the cable is not intact. If the TDR locates a problem, the
problem is analyzed and the results are displayed.
3. Advanced Cable Testers
• Advanced cable testers work in the physical layer, data-link layer, network layer, and even the
transport layer of the OSI reference model.
• Advanced cable testers doesn't only measure where a break is located in a cable, but can also
gather other information, including a cable’s impedance, resistance, and attenuation
characteristics.
4. Oscilloscopes
• Oscilloscopes are advanced pieces of electronic equipment that measure signal voltage per unit of
time and display the result on a monitor.
• When used with TDRs, an oscilloscope can display:
– Shorts.
– Sharp bends or crimps in the cable.
– Opens (breaks in the cable).
– Attenuation problem (loss of signal power).
5. Crossover Cables
• Crossover cables are used to connect two computers directly with a single patch cable. The send
and receive wires are reversed at one end, the send wire from one computer is connected to the
receive port on the other computer.
• Crossover cables are useful in troubleshooting network connection problems.
• By using a crossover cable easily check the problem lies with network cable, and not with the
workstation’s software or hardware.
6. Hardware Loopback
• A hardware loopback device is a serial port connector that enables you to test the communication
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capabilities of a computer's serial port without having to connect to another computer or
peripheral
• Instead, using the loopback, data is transmitted to a line, and then returned as received data.
7. Tone Generator and Tone Locator
• A tone generator is used to apply an alternating or a continuous tone signal to a cable or a
conductor.
• The tone generator is attached to one end of the cable.
• A matching tone locator is used to detect the correct cable at the other end.
• These tools are also able to test for wiring continuity and line polarity.

2. List and explain the troubleshooting tools in networking.

Ans. Troubleshooting network problems are often accomplished with the help of hardware and software.
• To troubleshoot effectively, you need to know how these tools can be used to solve network
problems.
1. Hardware tools
• Hardware tools were once very expensive and difficult devices to use. They are now less
expensive and easier to operate.
• They are helpful to identify performance trends and problems.
2. Software tools
Software tools are needed to monitor trends and identify network performance problems.
• These tools have fallen into two main categories:
– Performance monitoring Tools
– Protocol Analyzers
 Performance monitoring Tools
Performance monitoring Tools are software tools that track all or a selected part of
network traffic.
• They examine data packets and gather information about packet types, errors, and
packet traffic to and from each computer.
• They are very useful for establishing part of the network baseline.
 Protocol Analyzers
Protocol analyzers, also called "network analyzers," perform real-time network
traffic analysis using packet capture, decoding, and transmission data.
• Protocol analyzers have built-in TDR to help determine the network’s status
• The protocol analyzer can provide insights and detect network problems
including:
– Faulty network components.
– Configuration or connection errors.
– LAN bottlenecks.
– Traffic fluctuations.
– Protocol problems.
– Applications that might conflict.
– Unusual server traffic.
– Identify the most active computers.
– Identify computers that are sending error-filled packets.
– View and filter certain types of packets. This is helpful for routing traffic.
 Ex. Of Protocol Analyzers Network General Sniffer
Sniffer, which is part of a family of analyzers from Network General.
• It can decode and interpret frames from 14 protocols, including AppleTalk,
Windows NT, NetWare, SNA, TCP/IP, VINES, and X.25.
• Sniffer measures network traffic in kilobytes per second, frames per second, or as a
percentage of available bandwidth.
• It will gather LAN traffic statistics, detect faults such as beaconing, and present
this information in a profile of the LAN.

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3. List and explain different types of File and Directory permission.
Ans. Another type of internal security that you need to maintain for information on your network
involves the users’ access to files and directories.
• Network operating systems allow considerable flexibility in setting permissions on files and
directories.
• Examples of generic directory roles include the following:
– Create only This type of role enables users to add a new file to a directory, but restricts them from
seeing, editing, or deleting existing files, including any they’ve created.
– Read only This role enables users to see the files in a directory and even to pull up the files for
viewing on their computer.
– Change this role lets users do whatever they like with the files in a directory, except give other
users access to the directory.
– Full control usually reserved for the “owner” of a directory, this role enables the owners to do
whatever they like with the files in a directory and to grant other users access to the directory.

4. Explain the Process of Troubleshooting.

Ans. Network troubleshooting is the collective measures and processes used to identify, diagnose and
resolve problems and issues within a computer network.
The process of troubleshooting a computer network problem can be divided into five steps.
Step 1: Defining the Problem
– This task is the most critical and also time consuming.
– Troubleshooter might know how the network functions and be able to find the technical cause of
the failure.
– To define the problem:
– Listen to the client or network user is your best source of information.
– Ask questions to the affected client or network user.
– Properly analyze the problem.
– Identify the general symptoms.
– Check for documented repairs and ask coworkers about attempted repairs.
• Step 2: Isolating the Cause
– The next step is to isolate the problem. Begin by eliminating the most understandable problems
and work toward the more complex and unclear.
– For example, be able to eliminate hardware as a problem, so that troubleshooter can focus on
software problems.
– At every opportunity, try to narrow the number of potential problems base of knowledge so this is
helpful for to create an efficient plan of action.
• Step 3: Planning the Repair
– Create an action plan based on the remaining potential problems.
– Start by trying out the most obvious or easiest solution to eliminate and continue toward the more
difficult and complex.
– If the first plan is not successful (always a possibility), create a new plan based on what’s
discovered with the previous plan.
– Once repairing is done, it is important to record each step of the process; document every action
and its results.
• Step 4: Confirming the Results
– Repairing is not complete without confirmation, so ask the user to test the solution and confirm
the results.
– Make sure that the diagnosis (solution of problem) will not generate new problems and negative
impact on any other aspect of the network.
• Step 5: Documenting the Outcome
– Finally, document the problem and the repair.
– Keeping a copy of the repair procedure in the technical library so it can be useful when the
problem (or one like it) occurs again.

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5. Explain Internal Security.

Ans. Internal security is the process of securing your network from internal threats, which are generally
much more common than external threats.
• Examples of internal threats include the following:
• Internal users inappropriately accessing information such as payroll records, accounting records,
or business development information.
• Internal users accessing other users’ files to which they should not have access.
• Internal users impersonating other users and causing mischief, such as sending e-mail under
another person’s name.
• Internal users accessing systems to carry out criminal activities, such as embezzling funds.
• Internal users compromising the security of the network, such as by accidentally (or deliberately)
introducing viruses to the network.
• Internal users “sniffing” packets on the network to discover user accounts and passwords.
1. Account Security
Account security refers to the process of managing the user accounts enabled on the network.
• Following are a number of general steps you should take to manage general account security:
– You should remove guest account and also avoid creating accounts that are obviously for testing
purposes, such as Test, Generic, and so forth.
– Most network operating systems start up with a default name for the administrative account. You
should immediately rename this account to avoid direct attacks against it.
– You should know the steps required to remove access to network resources quickly from any user
account and be sure that all network resources might be contain their own security systems.
– You have to work closely with human resources (HR) department. So you have an idea about any
terminations immediately so you can take proper steps.
2. File and Directory Permissions
• Another type of internal security that you need to maintain for information on your network
involves the users’ access to files and directories.
• Network operating systems allow considerable flexibility in setting permissions on files and
directories.
3. Practices and User Education
• To establish good practices, you need to document security-related procedures, and then set up
some sort of process to make sure that the employees follow the procedures regularly.
• You can easily enforce some procedures through settings on the network operating system, but
you must handle others through education.
• Set up guidelines for the users include choosing secure passwords, not giving their passwords to
anyone else, not leaving their computers unattended for long periods of time while they are logged
in to the network, not installing software from outside the company, and so forth.

6. Write a short note on network monitoring tools

Ans. Some servers include network monitoring software.
• Windows NT Server, for example, includes a diagnostic tool called Network Monitor.
• This tool gives the administrator the ability to capture and analyze network data streams to and
from the server.
• This data is used to troubleshoot potential network problems.
• The packets of data in the data stream consist of the following information:
– The source address of the computer that sent the message.
– The destination address of the computer that received the frame.
– Headers from each protocol used to send the frame.
– The data or a portion of the information being sent.

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