Chapter 13: Troubleshooting a Network

Lesson 1: Understanding the Problem

Given the following scenario, describe how you would research, identify, prioritize, and resolve this network problem:

The network has been running well at the site of a small manufacturer. However, a user in the quality control division now calls to report that she is unable to get the daily status reports printed by the printer in the department. Meanwhile, the shipping department reports that a rerouted print job did not print in the quality control department. What is your strategy for solving this network problem?

The problem involves users in two different departments. They do not report any other problems with their system. Therefore, the problem probably lies with the printer. The priority of this problem is low to moderate.

Inspect the printer. Make sure that the power is attached and the network cable is attached to the printer. It is not uncommon for unusual signals on the network to cause a printer to stop printing. Before taking any disruptive steps, turn the printer off and then turn it on again. If this does not work, ask the users to reroute their print jobs to another printer, if possible, or make it possible for them to do so. Check the print queue for�the presence of�unprinted documents; corrupt print files can become stalled in the queue and prevent further printing. Conduct a self-test of the printer. Send a sample test page to the printer from a different computer than those experiencing the printing problem. Check the print queue for a reference to the sample page. After the cause has been determined, resolve the problem. If your research does not produce a cause, ask for assistance or consult the documentation that came with the device.

Lesson 2: Troubleshooting Tools

1. The _____________ ________________ is the primary all-purpose electronic measuring tool used by computer and electronic technicians.

digital voltmeter

2. _________ - ______________ _______________________ send sonar-like pulses along cables to locate breaks, shorts, or imperfections.

Time-domain reflectometers

3. __________________ are electronic instruments that measure the amount of signal voltage per unit of time and display the results on a monitor.

Oscilloscopes

4. In a crossover cable, the send wire from one computer is connected to the ____________ port on the other computer.

   receive

5. Protocol analyzers, also called "network analyzers," perform __________ - __________ network traffic analysis using packet capture, decoding, and transmission data.

real-time

6. A ____________________ _________________ can help to establish a network's information baseline.

performance monitor

7. A network monitor allows the administrator to capture and analyze network ___________ _______________ to and from the server.

data streams

Lesson 3: Where to Find Help

1. Microsoft _______________ provides information to support all aspects of networking with an emphasis on Microsoft products.

Technet

2. The Web, FTP, e-mail, news, and telnet are all services that are available on the _________________.

Internet

3. An IP address consists of __________ sets of digits separated by dots.

four

4. The domain types for commercial organizations, educational institutions, government organizations, military organizations, network service providers, and organizations are ______, ______, ______, ______, ______, ______.

.com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .net, .org

5. Every Uniform Resource Locator (URL) consists of the _________________, a colon (:), and the ________________ of the resource.

protocol, address

6. The most common protocol used for sending files between computers is the _________ __________________ _________________.

file transfer protocol

7. An e-mail address is composed of the user's __________________, followed by the ___ sign, followed by the _____________ of the recipient's computer.

identification, @, location

8. The difference between Network News and e-mail is that with Network News, conversations take place in a _____________ ____________ called a newsgroup.

public forum

9. The telnet protocol allows your computer to act as a _______________ ___________________ to an Internet host.

remote terminal

1. To isolate a network problem, the engineer can divide the network into _______________.

segments

2. A TDR sends ____________ -like pulses along a cable looking for any kind of a break, short, or imperfection that might affect network performance.

sonar

3. Protocol analyzers look inside the ______________ to determine the cause of a problem.

packet

4. Advanced cable testers will tell you if a particular cable or _______ is causing problems.

NIC

5. One reason it is important to monitor network performance is to provide essential information for ____________________ detection.

bottleneck

6. Windows NT Server Performance Monitor helps a network administrator view operations in both ___________ time and _________________ time.

real, recorded

7. In an SNMP environment, programs called _____________ monitor network traffic.

agents

8. A ___________________ monitor is a tool that is used to track network performance.

performance

9. Windows NT Performance Monitor has the ability to send an ____________ to the network manager when there is a problem.

alert

10. Windows NT Server Network Monitor gives the administrator the ability to ______________ and _______________ network data streams to and from the server.

capture, analyze

11. The best source of information for Microsoft products is ___________________.

TechNet

12. Other useful sources of information for network troubleshooting include _________, ___________ _____________, and __________________.

BBSs, User Groups, periodicals

13. _________ is used to perform simple file transfers on the Internet.

FTP

14. ______________ ___________ ________________ _________________ is an Internet standard protocol defined for distribution, inquiry, retrieval, and posting of news articles.

Network News Transfer Protocol

15. You can use _______________ to act as a remote terminal to an Internet host.

Telnet

16. In addition to URLs, every computer on the Internet has a unique ______ address.

IP