Network diagnostics.

If a situation arises where unexpected errors or failures occur in your network connection, you can eliminate them using connection diagnostics. The diagnostic tool can be found in the Network Connections window.

Select the window " Troubleshooting", which, analyzing the connection status, offers a choice of possible faults and troubleshooting methods. To start diagnostics, you need to right-click on the network connection and select the “Diagnostics” command in the context menu.

Figure 9. Opening the Local Area Connection Troubleshooting Wizard.
The second way to start checking your network connection parameters is to select the desired network and click on the “Connection Diagnostics” button. The button can be seen on the toolbar.
In the dialog box that opens, to diagnose the connection, just follow the steps of the wizard to troubleshoot errors and problems. Nothing complicated.

Disabling a network device (network adapter).

Sometimes situations arise when network connection problems are resolved not with the help of an error resolution wizard, but by simply disconnecting the network adapter from the computer. This can be easily done by doing one of the following:

1. Select a network connection and click on the “Disable network device” button located on the toolbar;
2. Right-click on the network connection and select “Disconnect” in the context menu that appears;

Conclusion.

The article details how to configure, connect and diagnose network connections.
If you have any doubts about your own network setup and connection capabilities, it is better to seek help from specialists, or carefully read the article again.

General remarks. All operations are considered for the Windows XP OS environment with Service Pack 1 installed. In this text, when describing the procedure for selecting interface objects, it is assumed that the mouse cursor is placed on the specified object and a single click is performed with the left mouse button (pre-configured for right-handed users). All other cases of impact on interface elements will be discussed separately. Important! To perform some network settings, the user must have domain administrator (system administrator) rights.

Configuring connection settings

To connect your computer to a local network, you need to install a network adapter and install the necessary drivers. This procedure is described in section 2.2 "Input and Output Devices". Next, you need to configure the network adapter to work on the local network. The minimum setup is to specify the parameters of the user's computer's IP address. The easiest way is to use a DHCP server. IP address settings are configured in the connection properties window.

In order to open the properties window for a local network connection, select “Connection” from the “Start” menu and left-click on the “Display all connections” line. In the “Network Connections” window that opens (Fig. 22), right-click on the connection that needs to be configured and select the “Properties” line in the context menu that appears. The properties window that opens (Fig. 23) indicates which network equipment is used for this connection and what software it needs to perform tasks solved by the user. In the specified window, when you click the “Settings” button, you are provided with options for configuring the network adapter, similar to those discussed in section 2.2 “Input and output devices”. The Component Descriptions section lists the software components installed for this network adapter.

"Client for Microsoft Networks" allows a user working on a local computer to access network resources (subject to access rights). "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks", on the contrary, provides the opportunity for other network users to work with the resources of your computer. If there are no computers running other operating systems on the local network to which your computer is connected, this is quite enough. Typically, these components are installed and configured automatically by Windows XP.

The TCP/IP protocol is also installed automatically, but requires configuration in accordance with the rules adopted in a particular local network. To configure the TCP/IP protocol, you must select the appropriate line in the components section and click the "Properties" button. In the protocol properties window that opens (Fig. 23), with the DHCP service running, you must set the switch to the “Obtain an IP address automatically” position.

For more stable and faster network operation, it is advisable to refuse to automatically obtain the DNS server address and set the addresses manually. Before setting addresses, you must obtain their values ​​from your network administrator. If this computer is part of another network, the parameters of its “membership” in this network are configured on the “Alternate Configuration” tab. Additional protocol settings can be seen by clicking on the "Advanced" button. In the window that opens, the “IP Settings”, “DNS” and “WINS” tabs show the corresponding settings. WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) provides a dynamic, replicated database service that can register and resolve NetBIOS names used on a network to IP addresses. The settings tab allows you to set control over the network traffic (exchange) of this computer.

TCP/IP protocol settings can be configured manually. To do this, you need to find out from your system administrator the IP address allocated to your computer, set the switch to the “Use the following IP address” position and specify its value manually, and then click the “OK” button. After setting the IP address, the computer will require a reboot.

To view the status of a network connection, you need to right-click on the connection of interest in the “Network Connections” window and select “Status” from the context menu. The "General" tab indicates the duration of the connection since the last OS boot, the connection speed and the number of processed packets. Clicking the "Properties" button opens the properties window described above; the "Disconnect" button stops the functioning of this connection, but does not destroy its settings.

By clicking on the "Details" tab, you can reinitialize the connection by clicking the "Fix" button and view some TCP/IP addressing parameters. You can see them in more detail by clicking the "Details" button. The "Network Connection Details" window (Fig. 24) displays the MAC address of the network adapter (physical address) and network service configuration details.

Nowadays, every user is faced with the question of setting up a network in the Windows 7 operating system. If you are a home user, you will someday be faced with the task of setting up an Internet connection, synchronizing with the XBOX game console, and if you have several pieces of computer equipment at home, then in any case, you will have to set up a wired or wireless network, and one computer will have to distribute the Internet to all the others. If you work as a system administrator in a small office, you will need to set up a network with static or dynamic addresses. Unfortunately, many users usually try to set up a local network without having any networking skills, and therefore carry out the setup at random, which causes them to have many problems during subsequent work. This series of articles is devoted to various methods of setting up a local network, terminology, and connecting to the World Wide Web.

Often, setting up a local network in the operating systems Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 begins with such an area of ​​configuring network properties as the component. With this network configuration tool, you can select a network location, view a network map, set up network discovery, file and printer sharing, and configure and view the status of your current network connections. In this article you will learn about managing this component.

Opening the Network and Sharing Center component

In order to use the functionality of the network configuration tool, you first need to open it. To open a window "Network and Sharing Center", Perform one of the following actions:

The following illustration shows the window "Network and Sharing Center":

Rice. 1. “Network and Sharing Center”

Network location concept

Before you start working with this component, you should understand such a concept as network location. This setting is set for computers when they first connect to a network, and during the connection, firewall and security settings are automatically configured for the type of network to which you are connecting. Unlike the Windows Vista operating system, which uses the strictest network hosting firewall profile for all network connections, the Windows 7 operating system supports multiple active profiles, allowing you to more securely use multiple network adapters connected to different networks. There are four types of network location:

home network. This network location is intended for computer use in the home or on networks where users know each other very well. These computers can create and join home groups. For home networks, network discovery is automatically enabled.

Enterprise network. This network location is used in a small office hose (SOHO) network. This network location also has network discovery enabled, but you cannot create or join a computer to a homegroup.

Community Network. This network location is intended for using the computer in public places such as coffee shops or airports. This is the most restrictive placement and has homegroup join and network discovery disabled by default.

Domain network. If the computer is joined to an Active Directory domain, the existing network will automatically be assigned a network location type "Domain". A domain type of network location is similar to a work network, except that in a domain, the configuration of Windows Firewall, Network Discovery, and the network card is determined by Group Policy.

The network locations available for user selection can be seen in the following illustration:

Rice. 2. Select a network location

Network map

A network map is a graphical representation of the location of computers and devices that allows you to see all the devices on your local network, as well as how they are connected to each other. In the window "Network and Sharing Center" Only the local part of the network card is displayed, the layout of which depends on the existing network connections. The computer on which the map is being created is displayed in the upper left corner. Other computers on the subnet appear on the left. Infrastructure devices such as switches, hubs, and gateways to other networks appear on the right. You can see an example of a network map in the following illustration:

Rice. 3. Example of a network map

Two components are responsible for the operation of the network map in operating systems:

Link Layer Topology Discover Mapper (LLTD Mapper) - a component that requests devices on the network to include them in the map;

The LLTD (Link Layer Topology Discover Responder - LLTD Responder) responder is a component that is responsible for requests from the LLTD Mapper component.

By default, the network map can only be viewed for locations "Home network" or "Enterprise network". When trying to view the network map for locations "Domain network" or "Public Network" you will see the following message:

Rice. 4. Trying to view the network map for the location of the domain network

To enable network mapping on a domain network, you need to do the following on your domain controller:

Rice. 5. Modify Group Policies to Enable Network Mapping

Rice. 6. Network map for domain network location

1. Open the snap "Group Policy Management";
2. Select a GPO (for example, Default Domain Policy, scope - the entire domain) that will apply to a computer located in the domain network, right-click on it and select the command from the context menu "Change";
3. In the snap "Group Policy Management Editor" unfold the knot Computer Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Network/Link Layer Discovery and select a policy "Enables the I/O mapping driver (LLTDIO)";
4. In the properties of the policy setting, set the radio button to the option "Turn on" and check the box "Allow operation for domain";
5. Repeat the same steps for the policy setting "Enable Responder Driver (RSPNDR)";
6. Update policy settings on the client machine using the command gpupdate /force /boot;
7. Update your network map. The result is shown in the following illustration:

Network connections

After installing the driver for each network adapter, the Windows operating system tries to automatically configure network connections on the local computer. All available network connections are displayed in the window "Network connections". A network connection is a set of data required to connect a computer to the Internet, local network, or any other computer.

Open window "Network connections" you can in any of the following ways:

Window "Network connections" are shown in the following illustration:

Rice. 7. “Network connections” window

When you select any network connection, you can do the following with it:

In the dialog box that opens "Windows Network Diagnostics" To troubleshoot problems, follow the steps in the wizard.

Checkboxes next to components indicate that these components are associated with the connection. The Network Connection Properties dialog box is shown below:

Rice. 11. Network connection properties dialog box

Conclusion

This article briefly introduces the components of the Network Properties Configurator for Windows operating systems - "Network and Sharing Center". The concepts of network location and network cards are considered, with the help of which the local part of the network card is displayed, the layout of which depends on the existing network connections. You've also seen the Network Connections window, which allows you to configure network connections on your local computer. In the next article, you will learn how you can configure clients, services, and network connection protocols using a graphical user interface.