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Network Basics

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:01:53 +0000

When dealing with networks one has to understand the different types and how they are used along with the advantages and disadvantages of each.

A mesh network allows for redundancy in that if one node goes down all terminals are able to still communicate with
other terminals and networks by taking several possible paths. The mesh network will be more complex and time consuming
to install, but is also the more reliable than other topologies. If each terminal having reliable connectivity is mission
critical, the knowledge is available and cost is not really a factor then a mesh would be the preferred network.

Bus topology is probably the least preferred topology to implement. If one node is removed or non-operational on the bus
then all terminals will not be able to utilize the network. According to Annabel Dodd (2005) “Prior to hubs, each device
in a LAN was wired to another device in a “bus” arrangement.”(p. 26)
Circumstances that may play a factor in this use of this particular topology would be cost savings in regards to cable and
the importance of that particular network to the department’s mission, as well as the network’s size as well as security.
Required speed, number of attachments, cable length, and use play a factor in determining the use of the bus topology.
Bates & Gregory (2000) tell us that bus speed is limited to “10Mbits/s with effective throughput of 3.3-4 Mbits/s” and that
attachments cannot exceed “1024 addressable nodes” and are “limited to cable lengths of 1500 meters.” They continue on to
say that “collisions when the network gets 40% busy, resulting in less throughput.” It seems that the bus topology is also
the least secure in respect to the fact that all transmissions are a broadcast to the entire network.

The star topology is another network architecture. Circumstances to install this type of network would be similar to those of the bus topology. The star topology would be
primarily used with hubs and switches. This topology allows for all terminals to continually communicate on the network
when a terminal is dropped or goes down. This type of topology is important when connectivity of each terminal in the
network is important and is mission critical to operations.

Combinations of all the various topologies will be seen in MAN, WAN, and even some larger LANs. An example would be a
college campus in which each department uses a star topology internally, but meshes with all the other outlying departments.
So in the case of a college campus all departments would still be able to access records from other departments on campus
when one or more departments lose connectivity.

By: Joseph Brochin

Network Inventory and Software Audits With NEWT Professional

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:30:12 +0000

As many IT professionals know, when a business expands, so does the need to keep track of the growing number of computers within that network. With the increase in computer systems comes an equally increased difficulty in managing them. Once upon a time, conducting software and hardware inventory involved physically visiting each machine to record configuration data by hand. Even though this is thankfully no longer required due to improvements in operating systems and third party software, IT professionals can still use the help of better software to assist in PC auditing and network inventory.

NEWT Professional has been in development since 2003, with continuous improvements to speed and ease-of-use, and is now capable of scanning 100 computers in less than 5 minutes. The time and effort savings offered by the speed along with its numerous scannable items is valuable to organizations of many sizes. That value has even increased with the recent addition of the first 25 nodes for free.

There are two basic methods used within network management products. First is using an agent to collect data from each machine, second is the agent-less method. The agent method usually requires software to be installed on each system within a network, and must be updated manually. On the other hand, agent-less products often still require visiting individual machines to correct security issues. They may also take hours or days to inventory the entire network. However, NEWT Professional’s advanced network inventory techniques have reduced problems often encountered using agent-less technology, reducing audit time from hours or days to just minutes.

NEWT Professional works with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and even Windows NT 4. Read/write access to the ADMIN$ share (administrator or “admin dollar” share) is usually the only requirement for successful audits. Improvements in the inventory engine has greatly reduced network bandwidth usage so that even slower Internet-based connections such as a WANs (Wide Area Networks) can be audited with little impact.

Because NEWT Professional is so useful for providing total network inventory on a wide variety of networks, many consultants and Managed Service Providers (MSP) have found the software useful for gathering information about customer networks. In addition to the usual software and hardware inventory data, such as CPU info, Windows and Office product keys and system serial numbers, NEWT Professional also offers unique low-level information such as USB type (1.x or 2.0), accurate hard drive types (IDE, SATA or SATA-II), true hard drive serial numbers, monitor type (LCD vs. CRT) and even CPU & hard drive temperature.

Once data is collected, it may be viewed in NEWT’s easy-to-read spreadsheet views, saved to NEWT’s proprietary format, exported to text, HTML or Excel, or a fully relational MS Access (MDB) database. In short, NEWT professional is a useful tool for network professionals, allowing them to perform network audits quickly and affordably.

By: Neyda Tayner

How to Setup File Sharing in Windows 7

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:55:52 +0000

If you have multiple computers at home and want to network them together to share files and devices then this article is for you! In this article I’ll show how to setup file sharing in a mixed environment consisting of Windows 7 and Windows XP.

The computer that will be sharing (serving) the files will be the Windows 7 computer. The computer that will be accessing the shared files on the Windows 7 PC will be a Windows xp computer. This article assumes that you either:

A: have your internal software firewalls disabled since they can often obstruct network access. Only do this if you access the internet through a router (or a wireless router).

or

B: know how to allow network access to your internal subnet. Since you’re reading this article it’s pretty safe to assume that you have no idea what I’m talking about in point B. Just go ahead and turn off your firewalls (for now at least).

On your Windows 7 computer:

1. Click the Windows globe on the bottom left (the old start button).
2. Right-click “Computer” and click properties.
3. Take note of the Workgroup name.

On your Windows XP computer:

1. Click Start.
2. Right-Click “My Computer” and click properties.
3. Click Computer Name.
4. Click Change.
5. Select Workgroup.
6. Type in the same workgroup name.
7. Click Ok twice.
8. Reboot.

Back on your Windows 7 computer lets share your documents folder to everyone in your workgroup:

1. Click Start.
2. Click Computer.
3. On the left window, under libraries, right-click documents and click share with: specific people
4. Click the drop down.
5. Select Everyone.
6. Click Add.
7. Click Read and change it to read/write
8. Click Share
9. Select My Documents
10. Click Next.
11. Sharing your documents may take awhile depending on how many have.
12. Click Done.

Back to your Windows XP PC:

You may now access documents on the Windows 7 computer by

1. Opening your “My Computer”.
2. Click “My Network Places” on the left.
3. Click “Entire Network”.
4. You should now see the name of your Windows 7 computer.
5. Double click the Windows 7 computer and you’ll see any shared files plus any shared devices.

You can follow the steps above to share any other files or folders on your Windows 7 computer.

By: Matthew Rizos

Why Use Monitoring Network Software?

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:32:20 +0000

Monitoring a network is an important part of keeping one of your most valuable business resources happy and healthy. But did you realize that a good bit of the monitoring process can be an ongoing phenomenon with the aid of monitoring software? The fact is that there are a couple of excellent reasons to invest in monitoring network software to help you maintain your valuable network components.

Monitoring network software acts as a constant watchdog for your network equipment. Once installed, the software will be constantly monitoring the functionality of each of your programs, as well as the efficiency of your servers, the connected work stations, and other components that make up your entire network. The advantage is that you get real time information about some emerging problem, such as a new and as yet unidentified virus that has infected the network due to an attachment being opened. With the ability to see something odd is happening when it happens, it is possible to take steps to minimize the damage and contain the problem.

There is more to the monitoring process than simply making sure the network is working at optimum levels of efficiency. Network software also makes it possible to determine when work stations are being used to purposes other than work. Depending on the standards set in place by the company, this could be a serious breach of both work ethics and company guidelines. Knowing that something is going on that is not work related can provide the chance for employees to be discreetly counseled, or possibly terminated if the circumstances merit that course of action. The network monitoring software will provide all the documentation necessary to warrant the action.

Relatively inexpensive and easy to install, monitoring network software can aid network administrators in making sure operations remain at optimum levels and that the resources of the company are being utilized in a professional manner. The software will often pay for itself in a very short time, based on increases in productivity, and less down time due to network issues.

By: Terry Edwards