Click Next. Choose Verify Data after Backup. Tip

Chapter 22 ✦ Using Network Management Tools Figure 22-10: Quickly locate the IP address and other configuration information. Using Network Diagnostics on Windows XP Windows XP includes a Network Diagnostics program that tests your network connection for different types of information. You can use the program to help diagnose a problem or to pro- vide information to a tech support professional over the phone, for example. Network Diagnostics enables you to set options for scanning your computer and the network connections. You can choose to scan the following actions: ✦ Ping — Sends a basic command-line signal to another computer on the network to make sure the network connections are working ✦ Connect — Attempts to connect to another computer on the network to make sure the other computer is networkable ✦ Show — Displays certain information about your computer ✦ Verbose — Displays more advanced information about your computer ✦ Save to Desktop — Saves a file of information to your desktop for viewing later You can also diagnose various categories in addition to the networking actions, including mail or news service, computer and operating system information, modems, network clients, and so on. You can save the options you checked so that the next time you use the Network Diagnostics program, you use the same options. To use Network Diagnostics, follow these steps:

1. Click Start ➪ Help and Support Center ➪ Use Tools to view your computer information

and diagnose problems. A list of tools appears in the window. 2. Click Network Diagnostics, as shown in Figure 22-11. 3. Set any scanning options. Save the options, if you want. 4. Click Scan your system. A resulting dialog box shows you the information. 5. Click the plus sign beside any category to view more information, as shown in Figure 22-12.

6. Close the Help and Support Center.

Part VI ✦ Managing the Network Figure 22-11: Diagnose your network connections. Figure 22-12: View the network diagnosis. Chapter 22 ✦ Using Network Management Tools Looking at other network monitors You can purchase network monitors for 10 to thousands of dollars, depending on what you need and want. For your home network, or even a small-business network, you do not need an expensive program to monitor your network. Generally, you can perform monitoring with the programs Windows supplies, or you can find some shareware to help you in your task. ✦ One such shareware program is Active Network Monitor. For around 30, you can gather information from every computer on the network. ✦ Another program, Essential NetTools, is freeware and contains many network tools for diagnosing and monitoring networks and connections. Essential NetTools uses com- mands such as PING, NETSTAT, TRACEROUTE, and so on to monitor the network. You can monitor your own network using commands on your computer without these pro- grams. For more information, see Appendix B. Using System Monitor You can use the System Monitor to view your computer’s network or disk access in a graphi- cal picture. The program enables you to monitor running processes, memory usage, dial-up access, and more. Most Windows operating systems automatically install the System Monitor. Watching network traffic gives you an idea of where the bottlenecks are and the cause of some of the user’s problems. You can use the System Monitor in Windows 2000 or Windows XP to see how network traffic affects your computer. If you have a clientserver network, you can use the System Monitor to view each computer’s connections and network traffic. To use the System Monitor over the network, you need specific administrative permissions, user-level security, a remote service installed on your computer, and so on. If you plan to use the System Monitor over a clientserver network, see the Windows 2000 Server documentation. For your home or small-business network, you most likely won’t need anything so complex and complicated. Using the Windows 98 System Monitor You can use the Windows 98 System Monitor to see how your computer works with others on the network. Basically, you connect to a specific computer and then watch the interaction between the two on the System Monitor. The monitor records system processor activity, such as the amount of data flowing between the two computers, memory used, details of open files and transactions, and so on. To start the System Monitor, click Start ➪ Programs ➪ Accessories ➪ System Tools ➪ System Monitor. To exit the program, click File ➪ Exit. Figure 22-13 shows the System Monitor on a Windows 98 computer. The peak shown in the Kernel Processor category shows heavy processor usage during that time. For more informa- tion about the System Monitor, consult the Windows 98 documentation. Cross- Reference