Over the years, thousands of tools have been developed for debugging
TCP/IP networks. They range from very specialized tools that do one
particular task, to generalized suites that do just about everything
except replace bad Ethernet cables. Even better, many of them are
absolutely free. There's only one problem: who has time to track them
all down, sort through them for the best ones for a particular purpose,
or figure out how to use them?Network Troubleshooting Tools does the
work for you--by describing the best of the freely available tools for
debugging and troubleshooting. You can start with a lesser-known version
of ping that diagnoses connectivity problems, or take on a much more
comprehensive program like MRTG for graphing traffic through network
interfaces. There's tkined for mapping and automatically monitoring
networks, and Ethereal for capturing packets and debugging low-level
problems.This book isn't just about the tools available for
troubleshooting common network problems. It also outlines a systematic
approach to network troubleshooting: how to document your network so you
know how it behaves under normal conditions, and how to think about
problems when they arise, so you can solve them more effectively.The
topics covered in this book include:
- Understanding your network
- Connectivity testing
- Evaluating the path between two network nodes
- Tools for capturing packets
- Tools for network discovery and mapping
- Tools for working with SNMP
- Performance monitoring
- Testing application layer protocols
- Software sources
If you're involved with network operations, this book will save you
time, money, and needless experimentation.
