The Hindu Business Line : Be armed to the hilt before you go to troubleshoot

ACCORDING to Mynul Hoda, you can be a network troubleshooter in more ways than one. "Some people take a systematic approach and try to understand the products in greater depth, and then troubleshoot the issue efficiently; others learn it on the job without in-depth understanding of the product." Thus explains Hoda in Cisco Network Security Troubleshooting Handbook, from Cisco (www.ciscopress.com) .

A third approach, which I'd suggest, is a study of Hoda's book, a veritable tome running to more than a thousand pages, and covering topics ranging from firewalls to network access, from virtual private networks to intrusion prevention.

(For starters, the word `troubleshooting' means "the act or process of identifying and eliminating problems or faults, especially in electronic or computer equipment," as Encarta explains.)

Hoda outlines an eight-step problem-solving model to systematically troubleshoot. The steps are: define the problem, gather facts, consider possibilities, create an action plan, implement the plan, observe the results, repeat the earlier six steps if necessary, and document the changes after the issue is resolved. By then, the next trouble should be waiting!

You need tools to troubleshoot. Hoda begins with device diagnostic commands such as show and debug. Know that `show' can do many things: It can help "monitor device behaviour during initial installation; monitor normal network operation; isolate problems with interfaces, nodes, media, or applications; determine when a network is congested; and determine the status of servers, clients, or other neighbours." Another set of commands are for testing; these include ping, traceroute, telnet, and nslookup, to assist in determining connectivity between devices, and the route that packets take, for instance.

The chapter on `PIX firewalls' explains the underlying architecture ASA (adaptive security algorithm), which is "a set of rules and policies that the packet has to conform to while traversing the firewall." The author explains that PIX (Private Internet Exchange) is a stateful firewall; it works based on connections, not on a per-packet basis. "It remembers every connection through the firewall."

The book scores in providing apt flowcharts, informative tables, and ample examples. Plus useful tips, as for instance this: "The capture command on the PIX firewall is useful only if the packets are reaching to the PIX interface. So you need to rely on external sniffer capture software." Hoda mentions Ethereal (www.ethereal.com) as "very popular free downloadable sniffer software".

Also, you can mine further value in case studies, `best practices' and `common problems and resolutions'. Check if you can answer questions like these that Hoda handles: What is the configuration recommendation for the HTTP next token? Can I customise the prompt to show to users for Cut-Through Proxy Authentication? What do I do when the administrator password is forgotten? Where is the Compact Database log? And in Promiscuous mode, why does the IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) sensor send 100 resets to both client and server?

`Best practices' are concisely worded and easy to understand. For example, to manage `Common Services' efficiently, Hoda suggests the use of a separate partition for the purpose, and securing the registry of the Windows platform. "Apply all hot fixes and patches as soon as they are available. Disable unused and unneeded services. Disable all protocols except TCP/IP," are among other tips.

The deeper you go into the network, the knottier it gets with abbreviations. Thus AAA is `authentication, authorisation, and accounting', and CBAC is `context-based access control'. Enrich your jargon GK with EAP (extensible authentication protocol), ESP (encapsulating security header), IBNSs (identity-based network services), NARs (network access restrictions), and PAM (port application mapping).

Valuable reference to arm you to the hilt before you go to troubleshoot!

IT quiz from marketing angle

MS-DOS launch, Boeing 747, IBM PC, or Apple Mac launch - which of these broadcast its ad only once? The clue is that the ad was out `during the Superbowl', and was based on `George Orwell's science fiction classic, 1984.'

Or, try your luck with question: "Which computer and software company advertises itself with the line, `Enabling the Information Age'?" The four options are Microsoft, Sun, Oracle and Novell

These are just two of the many IT-related posers among the 1,350 multiple-choice questions in The Marketing Quiz Book, by Bijay Bhujabal and Rashmi Ranjan Tarenia, from Vision Books (www.visionbooksindia.com) .

Here are more:

Which portal did Alyque launch in 2000 to provide creative solutions for marketing problems: brandquiver.com or was it bigideasunlimited, apconsolidated, or apassociates?

VSNL, MTNL, Reliance Infocomm or AirTel - which of these got A.R. Rehman to endorse its product/service and also compose "five ring tones that could be downloaded by the users"?

"Any idiot with a screwdriver could manufacture a __________." Complete this quote of Michael Dell with PC, Monitor, CPU, or hard disk drive.

"Karen, wife of Motorola executive, Bary Bertiger, convinced her husband of the need for a worldwide mobile wireless system, when she could not use her cellular phone while on vacation in the Caribbean. Her suggestion led to the birth of a new mobile telephony system." What's that?

SPOT is a new `objects technology' (the last two words!) aimed at bringing enhanced functions to wristwatches and such other ordinary devices. What's SP for: small personal, smart personal, special or super?

Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Vishwanathan Anand or Azim Premji. Whom among the four did Epson name as `brand ambassador in India'?

Code name Willamette is associated with which IT brand - Windows 95, MS-Office, Pentium 4, or tablet PC?

A Web site that can create pages dynamically for a specific user's request is of which stage: I, II, III or IV?

`______ Capitalism' is how Bill Gates refers to `hyper competition and the use of the Net to make market places highly efficient'. Is the missing word Cyber, Net, New Economy, or Friction-free?

Want answers?

Tailpiece

"After solving Y2K, we now have the 10K problem on hand!"

"Isn't it eight thousand years away?"

"Not the year, but the Sensex, because our software can accommodate only four digits for the index!"

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in