Need some advice on learning networking

[slimslob]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I wish I was more experienced so I could argue with you about this.

On a serious note, I'm not so sure about that.

Billy, remember you started this thread in the Connectivity Forum, not a copier forum.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Billy, remember you started this thread in the Connectivity Forum, not a copier forum.

I know. People keep telling me I don't need to know this stuff but I think do. You know it. Ken knows it. I want to know it too. And I'm gonna keep asking these questions until I do know it.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

If you ping with the "-n" switch, you can ping a specified number of times. For example, "ping 192.168.1.10 -n 10" will ping 10 times, then stop.

You can also direct the results to a file. For example: "ping 192.168.1.10 -n >c:\pingtest.txt". You will need to run "cmd" as administrator for this, else you will likely get an "access denied" error. You can then drop the resulting file into Excel and look for high response times or failures.

You would need tools outside of the command line if you want to know the time of the pings.

On a somewhat unrelated note, there are actually some Excel plug ins to work with IP issues, such as KuTools. Not free, but not expensive, and there is is trial version. I have actually used it to sort a long list of IP addresses (about 4,000), as Excel cannot natively sort them due to the periods between octets. You can get crafty with some really painful formulas, text to columns or even some VBA code, but the KuTools utility makes life much simpler. KuTools actually shows you how to do so on their site: How to quickly sort IP address from low to high in Excel?

Note that KuTools will NOT put timestamps on ping results, as it is not a network tool.

BTW...Any coders out there would probably snicker at how easy all this would be to do with a simple app. I figure about an hour in Python or C#.

Ken you blow my mind. Where the fuck did you learn all of this? lol

I'm watching videos now about pinging from excel.

[slimslob]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Only had 1 account print to hostname in all my installs not very common and not the recommend way to to setup to print by any copier manufacturer.
Stick with the best practices there always a goat in there on most installs.

I had 3 doctor's offices where the doctor liked to change ISP on a regular basis. Each change with a different internet modem/router using a different local subnet. To avoid having to go out and change the address on every computer each time I set the MFP up for DHCP and set all the computers to print by hostname.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I had 3 doctor's offices where the doctor liked to change ISP on a regular basis. Each change with a different internet modem/router using a different local subnet. To avoid having to go out and change the address on every computer each time I set the MFP up for DHCP and set all the computers to print by hostname.

Thank you. And where would slim have been if he didn't understand how to do this and why he needed to do it? And where would he be if he had a problem and didn't know how to troubleshoot DNS. Helps to understand these things.

[slimslob]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Thank you. And where would slim have been if he didn't understand how to do this and why he needed to do it? And where would he be if he had a problem and didn't know how to troubleshoot DNS. Helps to understand these things.

I knew about it because it was actually taught in one of the Ricoh instructor lead classes that I took.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I knew about it because it was actually taught in one of the Ricoh instructor lead classes that I took.

I was watching Eli the Computer guy and he said something that really resonated with me. He said in order to understand networking that you need to have a problem...that networking was all about solving problems. You gave a classic example of that in your previous post. What I'm trying to do is look at problems that have been posted on this site and find the best solution. And in the process I've found that, yes, I may ask a dumb question here and there, but at the end of the day I learn so much. Just look at what I learned today.

[KenB]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I knew about it because it was actually taught in one of the Ricoh instructor lead classes that I took.

Unfortunately, I fear that a lot of this type of knowledge is no longer conveyed, at least effectively, with almost if not all the training being CBT.

Instructor led training has gone the way of the dinosaur.

[KenB]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

FWIW, it looks like you actually can add timestamps to pings without additional software.

That could come in quite handy when on site, and the customer's IT strictly forbids any "foreign" software to be run. (We all have at least a few customers like that.)

You could even have it run for any number of pings, have it output to a file, and set it up with Time Scheduler to have it run without any intervention at all.

I found a post which claims it can be done with PowerShell, but I tried it on my Windoze 10 machine, and I get errors.

I won't post a link to anything until I can verify that it actually works.

If I can get it to work, I will post it here.

[KenB]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I found another site, and got the timestamps to show using PowerShell.

The big red line below will ping Google.com 10 times, display to the screen, and record the results in a file:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Try the new cross-platform PowerShell Microsoft - Official Home Page


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Ping.exe -n 10 google.com | ForEach {"{0} - {1}" -f (Get-Date),$_} | Tee C:\pingtest.txt7 Ways to Timestamp Ping Results • Raymond.CC

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

FWIW, it looks like you actually can add timestamps to pings without additional software.

That could come in quite handy when on site, and the customer's IT strictly forbids any "foreign" software to be run. (We all have at least a few customers like that.)

You could even have it run for any number of pings, have it output to a file, and set it up with Time Scheduler to have it run without any intervention at all.

I found a post which claims it can be done with PowerShell, but I tried it on my Windoze 10 machine, and I get errors.

I won't post a link to anything until I can verify that it actually works.

If I can get it to work, I will post it here.

I was thinking about customers that won't let anyone install outside software and what to do in that case. Hope you get it figured out.

I've been playing around with EMCO Ping Monitor software. First I used it on the ethernet connection. No big spikes and I let it run overnight. Then I used on the wireless network. Thus far it ranges from about 2ms to a 46ms spike. Nothing critical but I've only been running it for about 20 minutes on the wireless network.

See below:

ping 2.JPG

[slimslob]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I was thinking about customers that won't let anyone install outside software and what to do in that case. Hope you get it figured out.

I've been playing around with EMCO Ping Monitor software. First I used it on the ethernet connection. No big spikes and I let it run overnight. Then I used on the wireless network. Thus far it ranges from about 2ms to a 46ms spike. Nothing critical but I've only been running it for about 20 minutes on the wireless network.

See below:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]47575[/ATTACH]

One thing to consider where the wireless is concerned is that you might be getting interference from other devices in your neighborhood such as neighbor's WiFi or cordless phones. If your router is set to auto select a channel, when a conflict is encountered it will change channels causing a slight delay while network devices catch up with the change.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

EMCO just alerted me by Email that my wireless network was down. And then sent another email saying it was back up. See below:


snip 3.JPG

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

One thing to consider where the wireless is concerned is that you might be getting interference from other devices in your neighborhood such as neighbor's WiFi or cordless phones. If your router is set to auto select a channel, when a conflict is encountered it will change channels causing a slight delay while network devices catch up with the change.

Yes, sir. You are correct. I use an app on my phone to see if there's any overlap on the wireless channels and configure them accordingly. My computer is only about 15ft. from my router and I'm getting some wild swings on ping times. It's brief but it's there. I need to use this tool on a couple of accounts that I have. It's very telling.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

PS - Of course the phone app doesn't show signals from wireless phones and things like that. I don't know how to account for that.