[thelist] OT: Network troubleshooting tools

John Handelaar genghis at members.evolt.org
Thu Apr 4 11:31:00 CST 2002


> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org
> [mailto:thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Susan Wallace
> Sent: 03 April 2002 21:15
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: [thelist] OT: Network troubleshooting tools
>
> The immediate need is to find out which machine/NIC is trying to steal the
> address from one of the web servers I am responsible for. Long term, they
> have no network diagram, keep losing connection to the PDC,
> connections are
> being dropped on the SQL server, and the internal network has
> been slow for
> a LONG time.

Hi.  There aren't many options here other than the
ones you're probably already familiar with.  I'd be
looking at:

1.  Set up one of the servers to dish out IP addresses
    by DHCP.  On NT/2K server this is very very easy.

2.  Go round the building and reset the client machines
    to receive addresses by DHCP.

3.  Fix the wiring.  That's too many hubs and switches.
    In fact, if you're routing, *one* hub is too many and
    should be replaced with a switch. (The difference, if
    you're not aware, is that on a hub every packet is
    sent to every port, sometimes leading to nasty
    performance issues.)

4.  It's a Windows network?  Hunt down and kill any
    machines using non-IP network protocols.  They only
    blindly bump into each other in the ether anyway. In
    particular, NetBEUI kills high-traffic networks stone
    dead.  Replace it with TCP/IP.  Netware can talk IP,
    so dump IPX if it's on the network.  IP, IP only.
    Be religious :-)

Um... that's all I've got at the moment.

------------------------------------------
John Handelaar

T +44 20 7209 4117       M +44 7930 681789
F +44 870 169 7657   E john at userfrenzy.com
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