Wireless Network Diagnostic Tools

This is a follow on from another post, in which I am trying to find the
cause of a wireless network issue.

What tools would people recommend for diagnosing and configuring networks in
general, and wireless networks specifically?

The type of thing I am thinking of is a program that will allow one to
discover a network topology, and test that it is configured correctly. This
actually goes beyond my current wireless problem in that I have a network of
several computers, but when I try to access files on one of the others there
is always an initial delay (2 minutes perhaps) whilst the computers connect,
and I don't know what is causing it. If I browse to My Network Places and
drill down, I eventually see my domain name. When I click on it for the
first time it takes ages for the list of computers to appear and even longer
to get a list of available shares. In fact, the first time I get a message
that tells me there are no shares available. I can only get the list when I
have created a manual drive mapping first, and entered a user name and
password, which seems a bit back-to-front.

Anyway, I am wandering away from the point. I would like to be able to run
something that will analyse my network configuration and make
recommendations about changes I should make that will improve performance,
visibility and security. Does such a beast exist?

TIA

Charles

Hi Jack

Thanks for the useful link. Perhaps someone is missing a trick if there is
no program to help in these areas?

Charles


"Jack" <www.ezlan.net> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
>
> The diagnostic Tools that you need for Small Network are included in
> Windows.
>
> There is No Magic program that you can Run and it will tell what is wrong
> in
> the Network. You have to learn to configure your Network Manually.
>
> Log to this page it has a lot of links to instructions to Windows Network
> Settings, and Sharing. http://www.ezlan.net/Installing.html
>
> Jack (MVP-Networking).
>
>
>
>
>
> "Charles Law" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> This is a follow on from another post, in which I am trying to find the
>> cause of a wireless network issue.
>>
>> What tools would people recommend for diagnosing and configuring networks
> in
>> general, and wireless networks specifically?
>>
>> The type of thing I am thinking of is a program that will allow one to
>> discover a network topology, and test that it is configured correctly.
> This
>> actually goes beyond my current wireless problem in that I have a network
> of
>> several computers, but when I try to access files on one of the others
> there
>> is always an initial delay (2 minutes perhaps) whilst the computers
> connect,
>> and I don't know what is causing it. If I browse to My Network Places and
>> drill down, I eventually see my domain name. When I click on it for the
>> first time it takes ages for the list of computers to appear and even
> longer
>> to get a list of available shares. In fact, the first time I get a
>> message
>> that tells me there are no shares available. I can only get the list when
> I
>> have created a manual drive mapping first, and entered a user name and
>> password, which seems a bit back-to-front.
>>
>> Anyway, I am wandering away from the point. I would like to be able to
>> run
>> something that will analyse my network configuration and make
>> recommendations about changes I should make that will improve
>> performance,
>> visibility and security. Does such a beast exist?
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Charles
>>
>>
>
>

You already have
"Command Prompt - ping & ipconfig"

you can google for:
"Angry IP Scanner"
"Network Stumbler"

"Charles Law" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi Jack
>
> Thanks for the useful link. Perhaps someone is missing a trick if there is
> no program to help in these areas?
>
> Charles
>
>
> "Jack" <www.ezlan.net> wrote in message
> news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi
> >
> > The diagnostic Tools that you need for Small Network are included in
> > Windows.
> >
> > There is No Magic program that you can Run and it will tell what is
wrong
> > in
> > the Network. You have to learn to configure your Network Manually.
> >
> > Log to this page it has a lot of links to instructions to Windows
Network
> > Settings, and Sharing. http://www.ezlan.net/Installing.html
> >
> > Jack (MVP-Networking).
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "Charles Law" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> This is a follow on from another post, in which I am trying to find the
> >> cause of a wireless network issue.
> >>
> >> What tools would people recommend for diagnosing and configuring
networks
> > in
> >> general, and wireless networks specifically?
> >>
> >> The type of thing I am thinking of is a program that will allow one to
> >> discover a network topology, and test that it is configured correctly.
> > This
> >> actually goes beyond my current wireless problem in that I have a
network
> > of
> >> several computers, but when I try to access files on one of the others
> > there
> >> is always an initial delay (2 minutes perhaps) whilst the computers
> > connect,
> >> and I don't know what is causing it. If I browse to My Network Places
and
> >> drill down, I eventually see my domain name. When I click on it for the
> >> first time it takes ages for the list of computers to appear and even
> > longer
> >> to get a list of available shares. In fact, the first time I get a
> >> message
> >> that tells me there are no shares available. I can only get the list
when
> > I
> >> have created a manual drive mapping first, and entered a user name and
> >> password, which seems a bit back-to-front.
> >>
> >> Anyway, I am wandering away from the point. I would like to be able to
> >> run
> >> something that will analyse my network configuration and make
> >> recommendations about changes I should make that will improve
> >> performance,
> >> visibility and security. Does such a beast exist?
> >>
> >> TIA
> >>
> >> Charles
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>

Thanks. I'll give it a look.

Charles


"Dave" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) m...
> "Charles Law" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:
>> This is a follow on from another post, in which I am trying to find the
>> cause of a wireless network issue.
>> What tools would people recommend for diagnosing and configuring networks
>> in
>> general, and wireless networks specifically? ...
>
>> Anyway, I am wandering away from the point. I would like to be able to
>> run
>> something that will analyse my network configuration and make
>> recommendations about changes I should make that will improve
>> performance,
>> visibility and security. Does such a beast exist?
>
> Take a look on tool called netcrunch from AdRem Software. It's
> networkk monitoring, diagnosing and reporting soft. It has quite
> developed repoting features that help you analyze your network
> performance.
>
> regards,
> dave