Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of marcum
marcum

asked on

What tools to use to diagnose network disconnections

I have a network running on a watchguard VPN firewall with 2 24 port linksys managed switches. I have several remote locations connecting in to the watchguard device.
I have 3 centrally located servers, 1 is a Windows Domain server, 1 is a ScoUnix server and 1 is a Linux Server. I'm running Powerterm Plus on windows xp machines as well as Neoware Dumb terminals to connect to the Unix servers.
At this time we seem to be intermitentantly losing connection to Unix server.

I would like to start testing the network for this failure but I'm unsure of how to go about it and what tools to use.
I have created both a Linux and a Windows box with network testing software such as Cacti, Wireshark, Aipcap, netdoppler, commview.
I'm not sure if these are the tools I should be using for this problem or how to really use them well. I have only just started to learn about these things.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of greenhacks
greenhacks
Flag of India image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of marcum
marcum

ASKER

Let me clarify, I'm a beginner with complex network tools not with the basics. I've only just started to learn about the above tools.
The problem is intermittent, these tools are not going to give me the insight I need to make an educated desicion on replacing devices. I need to pole the switches and the adapters on the servers 24 hours a day for a week to come up with some quantifiable data to report to management.
Avatar of Rob Williams
I use IPMonitor (now NetGong):
http://netgong.tsarfin.com/
It will allow you to set up a scheduled series of pings, say once a minute, to multiple devices such as a local PCs/servers, routers, ISP gateways, and an Internet IP. It then logs the results and will warn you visually, audibly, and/or by e-mail if a connection is lost. By choosing what devices to monitor it can help you to determine at which point in the chain the break occurred.
It's free for 30 days, and quite affordable to buy, if satisfied.
PS- the log file can be viewed in attractive HTML format for presentation to management.
Marcum surprised you would accept the first answer as a final solution where you said; " these tools are not going to give me the insight I need to make an educated decision".
Robwill, if you read his question, all he need is those basic tools to troubleshoot.
think practically, if you want to check connectiviry issues, why you want to install tons of apps with tons of features.

Even i know all this advanced tools and how to use them. but this basic tools does the trick.
Not arguing that, just they stated these tools are not what they wanted.

Also ping and tracert only help you troubleshoot network issues at the current time. They are not tools you can run and log for weeks to diagnose intermittent connection issues to diagnose specific equipment failures. I have no problem with the grading just curious why an answer that was stated was unacceptable was chosen as an acceptable solution.
my apology, i missed the authors comments. your are right. that doesnt make sence giving me points in that case.
No problem. It's not the points, as I say curious, as well as does the author have a proper solution yet. Not suggesting my answer was any better.
Cheers !
--Rob