Home Network Pro - The Site for Home Network 'Professionals'

Ask yourself these questions?

• Do you have a network diagram of your home network?
• Is your home network diagram current?
• Have you documented your workstation/server software installation?
• Have you documented your home network hardware configuration in the event of failure, theft or disaster?

You really should have a home network diagram for a number of reasons. There are times when you may need to decide how to troubleshoot a failing device, or provide information to a third party for configuration or integration issues.

There are a few benefits we should cover here:

The ability to troubleshoot the network

A good documentation set allows you to find answers to problems and reduces the need to research the same problem each time the same problems occur. A network diagram can help identify problems in a more efficient timeframe..

Documents what is in the network

Important network information is saved for future use.

Improved network design

A network diagram helps when it is time to consider add-on equipment and decide what services already exist and what needs to be changed.

Information that needs to be included in the network documentation set:

• Logical network diagram of all components
• Device logs that show pertinent information helpful to the discovery of network information
• Physical network diagrams of all hardware like routers, switches, modems and servers/workstations
• Hardware information and hardware settings or manuals
• Configuration information for all networking components
• Protocols used on all workstations
• DNS settings
• Information related to all security information and accounts on all systems.
• Passwords should be stored in a secure area but the location noted
• Procedures used on the network for starting up, shutting down, adding routes, etc.
• Security policies being used on routers and servers/workstations
• Insurance information, photos of the equipment, receipts and software licenses

This month: The Physical Network Diagram

In order to understand your network completely, you should be familiar with the physical layout and connectivity between all of the devices on the network. If you had to recreate the network from scratch, how would all of the pieces fit together and work together. The best to way to find out and capture this information is to do a physical walkthrough of your network from the point where your ISP connection comes into your home/office all the way to the last piece of hardware in the system.

What information should I include?

List all network hardware and all terminating equipment whether it be a terminating device like a workstation/server or a communication device like a modem/router/switch, etc..

Where to start:

The best place to start is where your network connects to the network outside your building. For example, the cable modem or DSL connection coming into your home..

Verify and document how each additional piece of hardware is connected from there. Keep a piece of paper handy and draw this information for later input to a computer.

While you are creating this diagram you can label each device and then use either hand printed or eletronic labels for each device. Assign a meaningful name to each device. Remember that cables are devices as well as the cards installed in each server or workstation.

The documentation should be as thorough as possible without being overdone. Make up a labeling scheme to use for the hardware and software. Remember that any time something in the network changes, the information needs to be updated.

If you do decide to use a software package, pick one that does what you want and do not pay for features that you will not use. It may sound really cool to put all this information into an SQL database with a Java or ActiveX front end page, but a simple Excel spreadsheet or even Access database would do fine. You can also use other tools besides Windows based products.

Check back next month for continuation of this article series....