Introduction

You should feel by now that using Sniffer Pro is almost as commonplace as logging in to a workstation. You should feel comfortable with the Sniffer Pro functionality. Although it takes a long time, spent with various protocols stacks, to become a master at using this application, you are definitely now at the professional level. If you were already doing analysis work, then you should have some pretty well honed skills by now. To this end, we are going to conclude this book by looking at and troubleshooting traffic for the purpose of fine-tuning and optimizing your networks. This chapter will offer you the final topical look at Network and Protocol Analysis using the Sniffer Pro LAN Analyzer, as well as review some of the very important skills you learned earlier.

We have looked at many issues in a granular way in each chapter; this is the chapter where you tie all of those pieces together to make sure you are comfortable working with Sniffer Pro. It s very common to find unneeded protocols, too many broadcasts, or just plain old unexplainable messes that need your attention.

Fine Tuning Your Network and Performing Proactive Maintenance

In the early days of networking services, just being connected to other systems was enough for most users. The ability to transfer files from one desktop to another, print to remote printers, and connect to the Internet was so new and exciting that people didn t consider complaining about the speed. In those early days, outages...