TAP Into Network Analysis

Investigate
When a customer calls DataPlus for help in testing and monitoring the network, the engineers stop and ask questions. The investigation helps engineers understand the problem and determine whether the solution falls under the company's area of expertise. Engineers ask questions to probe what the customer needs from the network, what kind of applications are running and what the customer is seeing. It's important to understand what is in the network—the number of terminals and users, whether it's a Gigabit core, the WAN and LAN setup—in order to select necessary equipment. Learning what the customer is expecting to see happen is almost as important as knowing the exact problems the customer is seeing on the network. Depending on the kind of answers the customer gives, engineers can schedule a face-to-face meeting at the customer site to discuss the solution in greater detail.

At the meeting, customers can draw a rough map of how the network looks on a whiteboard, or demonstrate the actual issues and setup. Performing the investigation themselves to learn the customer's network is critical at this point, Hagerty said. The meeting presents a clear picture of the situation so that consultants and engineers don't get blindsided later on. "I tell my engineers, 'Don't go out there without knowing the client or you waste a day,'" he said.

Solution providers should keep in mind that there may be cases where throwing analysis products at a problem won't solve it. "Too many times, we get a call where they can't even get into the network," Hagerty said. It matters where this kind of analysis equipment is connected to the network. Merely plugging it in at any old place will not give accurate or complete data.

It's important to understand the customer's switching infrastructure. While troubleshooting the network shouldn't depend on the switches in place, the troubleshooting group often does not have configuration access to the switch to make changes. A separate out-of-band solution like a network TAP means changes can be made to the network without affecting the switch configuration.

Next: STEP 2 Choose The Products