Job Interview Question

I recently had the following question on a job interview:

A user is unable access a resource on a Windows 2000 server that is on
another
segment of the network. The user can ping the IP address of the server.
What
troubleshooting steps would you take to resolve the issue?

I've dealt with this kind of situation before, albeit rarely.
Unfortunately, in the interview I just drew a complete blank. I was able to
stumble my way through to a half-way descent answer, but I suspect that my
answer lacked some important points. After the interview was over I thought
that I should have talked about pinging the server by name to see if DNS
would resolve the name to the IP address.

At any rate, in an effort to learn from this experience and be better
prepared next time, I would like to find out how others would answer this
question.

Thanks for any information that you can offer.

--Tom




Thomas M

Good question. I don't know if I am right... but I would guess the answer
involves the WINS service. This would provide NetBIOS resolution across
segments. Possibly this "resource" they talk about uses a NetBIOS name.

-Frank

"Thomas M" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>I recently had the following question on a job interview:
>
> A user is unable access a resource on a Windows 2000 server that is on
> another
> segment of the network. The user can ping the IP address of the
> server.
> What
> troubleshooting steps would you take to resolve the issue?
>
> I've dealt with this kind of situation before, albeit rarely.
> Unfortunately, in the interview I just drew a complete blank. I was able
> to
> stumble my way through to a half-way descent answer, but I suspect that my
> answer lacked some important points. After the interview was over I
> thought
> that I should have talked about pinging the server by name to see if DNS
> would resolve the name to the IP address.
>
> At any rate, in an effort to learn from this experience and be better
> prepared next time, I would like to find out how others would answer this
> question.
>
> Thanks for any information that you can offer.
>
> --Tom
>
>

Yes, since this is "another segment" and also they can ping ip but not name, this is name resolution issue.

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"Thomas M" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
I recently had the following question on a job interview:

A user is unable access a resource on a Windows 2000 server that is on
another
segment of the network. The user can ping the IP address of the server.
What
troubleshooting steps would you take to resolve the issue?

I've dealt with this kind of situation before, albeit rarely.
Unfortunately, in the interview I just drew a complete blank. I was able to
stumble my way through to a half-way descent answer, but I suspect that my
answer lacked some important points. After the interview was over I thought
that I should have talked about pinging the server by name to see if DNS
would resolve the name to the IP address.

At any rate, in an effort to learn from this experience and be better
prepared next time, I would like to find out how others would answer this
question.

Thanks for any information that you can offer.

--Tom

Hi Thomas,

"Thomas M" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> A user is unable access a resource on a Windows 2000 server that is on
>another
> segment of the network. The user can ping the IP address of the server.
>What
> troubleshooting steps would you take to resolve the issue?

Looks like a question from the network certification exam ;-)

Assumed the client has an IP-Address obtained with DHCP I will truly know
that the client has a valid one. Otherwise he would have had an
APIPA-Address

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...j_ipa_hkhg.asp

Secondly I know that my routing is ok, otherwise he could not ping the
target.

The first thing I would do is to let the user run

Start - Run - cmd
ipconfig /all

to see if WINS and DNS are ok. Then he should do a

ipconfig /flushdns

followed again by

ipconfig /all

to see if this changes something.

Then we could try

ipconfig /renew

in order to refresh information for the network.

If the DHCP configuration is valid it must be an ACL problem located on the
remote server.



bis dahin / kind regards

Martin Mewes

--
Microsoft Certified Professional Windows Server 2003
070-291 - Maintaining a Network Infrastructure
070-293 - Designing a Network Infrastructure

Possible problems include DNS, WINS, and services. For a Microsoft box to
connect to a Netware Server it must have a client service for Netware, for
instance.

--
Richard Civil
"Computers, can't live with them, can't get paid without them."
http://spaces.msn.com/members/rcivil

"Thomas M" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>I recently had the following question on a job interview:
>
> A user is unable access a resource on a Windows 2000 server that is on
> another
> segment of the network. The user can ping the IP address of the
> server.
> What
> troubleshooting steps would you take to resolve the issue?
>
> I've dealt with this kind of situation before, albeit rarely.
> Unfortunately, in the interview I just drew a complete blank. I was able
> to
> stumble my way through to a half-way descent answer, but I suspect that my
> answer lacked some important points. After the interview was over I
> thought
> that I should have talked about pinging the server by name to see if DNS
> would resolve the name to the IP address.
>
> At any rate, in an effort to learn from this experience and be better
> prepared next time, I would like to find out how others would answer this
> question.
>
> Thanks for any information that you can offer.
>
> --Tom
>
>

I think it is a stupid question for a job interview. There are too many
possible causes with too many possible solutions. They probably pulled it
out of a book somewhere because they didn't know what else to ask.
Questions like that aren't so bad if you are picking from an open choice
list like most of those exams are, but to leave it open-ended is a whole
other story.

Heck, in addition to the things the other guys listed, the target machine
could have a virus that corrupted or disabled its ability to share anything
or respond by name
....file and print sharing turned off by some fool that didn't know what they
were doing.
....the Netbios over TCP/IP could have gotten disabled
....the Server Service could have crashed or be disabled.
....the Computer Browser Service crashed or disabled.

And the list could probably go on.

--
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com

I agree. One of the things that I mentioned in my answer to this question
is that maybe the user doesn't have permissions on the folder that he is
trying to access.

They must have liked my answer because not more than about 4 hours ago they
offered me the job, which will be about an $8,000 pay raise to start.

--Tom

"Phillip Windell" <@.> wrote in message
news:uXg%(E-Mail Removed)...
> I think it is a stupid question for a job interview. There are too many
> possible causes with too many possible solutions. They probably pulled it
> out of a book somewhere because they didn't know what else to ask.
> Questions like that aren't so bad if you are picking from an open choice
> list like most of those exams are, but to leave it open-ended is a whole
> other story.
>
> Heck, in addition to the things the other guys listed, the target machine
> could have a virus that corrupted or disabled its ability to share
anything
> or respond by name
> ...file and print sharing turned off by some fool that didn't know what
they
> were doing.
> ...the Netbios over TCP/IP could have gotten disabled
> ...the Server Service could have crashed or be disabled.
> ...the Computer Browser Service crashed or disabled.
>
> And the list could probably go on.
>
> --
> Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
> www.wandtv.com
>
>

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has responded to this
question thus far, and anyone who responds in the future. There have been a
number of points brought up which I had not previously thought about, so I
have learned something from this thread.

As it turns out, they must have liked me because about 4 hours ago I got a
job offer. It will be about an $8,000 raise, with the upper end of the pay
band about $9,000 above that, and a commitment for about $7k-$8k of training
per year.

--Tom

"Thomas M" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> I recently had the following question on a job interview:
>
> A user is unable access a resource on a Windows 2000 server that is on
> another
> segment of the network. The user can ping the IP address of the
server.
> What
> troubleshooting steps would you take to resolve the issue?
>
> I've dealt with this kind of situation before, albeit rarely.
> Unfortunately, in the interview I just drew a complete blank. I was able
to
> stumble my way through to a half-way descent answer, but I suspect that my
> answer lacked some important points. After the interview was over I
thought
> that I should have talked about pinging the server by name to see if DNS
> would resolve the name to the IP address.
>
> At any rate, in an effort to learn from this experience and be better
> prepared next time, I would like to find out how others would answer this
> question.
>
> Thanks for any information that you can offer.
>
> --Tom
>
>

In news:(E-Mail Removed),
Martin Mewes had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> Hi Thomas,
>
> "Thomas M" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> A user is unable access a resource on a Windows 2000 server that
>> is on another
>> segment of the network. The user can ping the IP address of the
>> server. What
>> troubleshooting steps would you take to resolve the issue?
>
> Looks like a question from the network certification exam ;-)
>
> Assumed the client has an IP-Address obtained with DHCP I will truly
> know
> that the client has a valid one. Otherwise he would have had an
> APIPA-Address
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...j_ipa_hkhg.asp
>
> Secondly I know that my routing is ok, otherwise he could not ping the
> target.
>
> The first thing I would do is to let the user run
>
> Start - Run - cmd
> ipconfig /all
>
> to see if WINS and DNS are ok. Then he should do a
>
> ipconfig /flushdns
>
> followed again by
>
> ipconfig /all
>
> to see if this changes something.
>
> Then we could try
>
> ipconfig /renew
>
> in order to refresh information for the network.
>
> If the DHCP configuration is valid it must be an ACL problem located
> on the
> remote server.
>
>
>
> bis dahin / kind regards
>
> Martin Mewes

If I recall the class correctly you win the kewpie doll.

(I'm really only reading this to learn more... Thought I'd mention it
though.)

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

In news:(E-Mail Removed),
Thomas M had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> As it turns out, they must have liked me because about 4 hours ago I
> got a job offer. It will be about an $8,000 raise, with the upper
> end of the pay band about $9,000 above that, and a commitment for
> about $7k-$8k of training per year.
>
> --Tom

I am, thankfully, out of the trenches and have been for a few years almost
now. One thing to be grateful for (and for other people to look for if
they're interested in the field) is the training benefits. My last real job
was an approval with pretty much automated approval for anything tech
related... Of course those were different times but the point's the same.
Education/training benefits are as important (in this field at least) as
health care and more important than stock options or the likes in my
opinion. Now that you've had the offer? Call them back and ask for their
turn-over ratio for an insight to the longevity. IT workers used to be
expected to move about and such was seen as a bonus by some companies as it
meant you'd likely stayed current with a valid skill-set. These days, we're
getting older maybe, they tend to want people to remain with the company.

Next to last, but certainly not least, it's also my opinion that you should
consider (even if you're not a family person at this time - those things
change) their policy concerning overtime and look for the term "mandatory"
in anything less than business critical situations. Maybe it's me who's
changed but it seems (I still get silly headhunter emails and requests even
a few years later actually) they want us to work longer for less (or the
same) income and salaried employees are generally immune to OT regulations
as it's a contractual agreement.

And last, but certainly not least either, read the NDA (if applicable) to
see if when you separate with the company you will be restricted from
working for a competing company, for how long, and what the process is to
work in the same industry for a similar company during that time frame. This
is from very intrusive personal experience and definitely something I think
all job hunters should consider prior to looking at the income improvements.
When you see a non-compete clause read it carefully and if you're unfamiliar
with the verbiage take it to a liar (lawyer) to have it read and explained
to you. The cost is minimal and the benefit is priceless.

And thus ends my off-topic digression. Just a bit of opinionated gibberish
that might be of value to you before you sign...

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes