Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 9
■ ■ ■
Network Troubleshooting
W
e'll wrap things up with a look at some of the tools and tricks involved in network trouble-
shooting. Troubleshooting is one of those tasks that is often an art as much as it is a science;
you learn through trial and error to recognize common issues and their cures. In this chapter,
we will give you an overview of some of the most common troubleshooting scenarios you'll
encounter on a Windows Server 2003 network, and tools that you can use to correct them.
In the majority of cases, network troubleshooting boils down to one simple problem state-
ment: “I can't reach Machine
X
to do Task
Y
.” This makes a lot of sense when you think about
it, since the entire purpose of network operating systems like Windows Server 2003 is to enable
access to resources across some type of wired or wireless network connection. To begin trouble-
shooting network issues like these, it's best to begin at one end of the network “conversation,”
yourself, and work your way to the other end of the network until you can determine where and
why the failure is occurring.
Using a Graphical User Interface
There are two particularly useful GUI tools that you can use for troubleshooting:
PortQryUI: This is a GUI front end to the portqry command-line tool that enumerates
listening ports on a local or remote computer. This tool is freely downloadable from the
Microsoft website.
Replmon: Available as part of the Windows Support Tools, Replmon provides a GUI
front end to the powerful repadmin command-line utility. Replmon provides a graphical
view of your Active Directory domain controllers and replication topology, and is useful
in troubleshooting issues associated with sites, subnets, site links, and other elements of
AD replication.
Using a Command-Line Interface
While there are a few GUI tools that you can use for network troubleshooting, the most valu-
able utilities will require you to do a bit of work at the command line. Some of these tools are
built into the Windows operating system, while others are freely available as downloads from
the Microsoft website or as a part of the Windows Support Tools.
The command-line tools that we will cover in this chapter include the following:
361
