TCP/IP First-Step [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Chapter 14. Taking the Next Step

What You Will Learn

After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:

What is troubleshooting?

What command verifies that TCP/IP is configured correctly on your computer?

Which TCP/IP utility tests the reachability of any given destination on the Internet?

Which tool would you use to see if your computer's Ethernet connection is working properly?

Which tool would you use to see if your computer's TCP/IP protocol suite is working effectively?

How would you find out if the computer you are trying to access (or the network it is connected to) is experiencing heavy congestion?

Which tool tracks the path your packets take through a network?

Nobody with any measure of self respect wants to abdicate responsibility for their own lot in life. When it comes to TCP/IP networks, most users unfortunately do just that. When something doesn't work, they simply swallow their pride, reach for the phone, and put themselves at the mercy of the local support organization. With a little bit of guidance, there is no reason every single user of TCP/IP networks can't take the next step and assume some responsibility for his or her own internetworking actions. If nothing else, your local support organization will appreciate a more carefully thought-out trouble call instead of the usual "Help! My network doesn't work."

To assist you in taking that next step, there's another group of tools that almost defy categorization (except that they are quite useful)! This collection of miscellany can help you find out the exact path your data takes to any given destination, find out if a server is reachable or in service, determine the name of a remote device, and discover how your computer is configured with respect to its TCP/IP settings. All this information can come in handy and can even help you transition beyond being just a user of TCP/IP networks. They are quirky utilities, to be sure, but they can help you take the next step into diagnosing network troubles.

This chapter introduces you to some of those quirky utilities and shows you how to use them. These utilities might be a bit obscure and are probably also not as feature rich or user friendly as some of those you've become accustomed to, but they are invaluable if you know what to do with them.