Workshop

You can display the names and numbers of IPX/SPX services your Novell network knows about by
typing the following command at a NetWare server prompt:
display servers
Similarly, if you want to see the addresses and quantity of IPX/SPX networks, type the following at the
console prompt:
display networks
These are also good commands to ensure your NetWare server is seeing the network in general.
Summary
It would be nice if you could simply concentrate on improving your network neighborhood each day.
Unfortunately, grim reality dictates that in addition to taking proactive measures to avoid or ameliorate
trouble, you also need to know how to react. Fine-tuning your reaction habits every day is a good way to
lower your stress level and make you a more effective troubleshooter.
Telephone and “trouble call” skills play a large part in determining whether a problem is systemic or
local. Sometimes, however, you need to go take a look for yourself, use a remote control program, or let
the user guide you to re-create the problem on your workstation.
Once you’ve ruled out a local problem, you’ll want to practice your connectivity-checking habits. Tools
such as ping, traceroute, arp, and nslookup, in conjunction with the TCP/IP loopback
mechanism, can show you where on the network a problem lies. As you make your way from the local
loopback device to the ultimate destination, you’ll continue to gather good information about what the
problem is—and what it is not. Always troubleshoot numerically before bringing name services into the
picture so as not to confuse an issue that may already be quite complex.
IPX/SPX troubleshooting is fairly simplistic, and the few tools you have can point out connectivity
problems quite quickly. Some problems can be related to router table overflow, and you can either use
router commands or NetWare server-based commands to show you the number of SAP and route entries
on your IPX/SPX network.
Workshop
Q&A