Network Audit and Troubleshooting

Network Audit Definition

Network Audit service is a thorough review and report of your network conducted by an audit engineer  who studies, diagnoses and analyzes the performance of your information enterprise. The Network Audit service consists of a project plan, data collection using Network General Tools, cable check and a network performance report detailing specific recommendations for improvements. This service can be performed onsite or remotely; it can also be conducted as an individual project or as periodic check ups within a regularly scheduled maintenance plan. 

Objectives of Network Audit

To better understand the Customer’s network condition and optimize/fine-tune the network for future network expand , a Network Audit service is required. By providing a complete review and report of the network’s vital signs, Network Audit gives a clear, current and comprehensive under-standing of the network. From traffic volume to transmission issues to loading patterns, Network Audit provides the information needed to locate a problem, analyze trends, and make more informed network management decisions. With visibility into the who, what, when, why and how of the network, the Customer IT team will have actionable information necessary to maximizing performance and ensuring a high level of service to end- users.

Pre-implementation Planning

Network Audit service begins with a project planning. This is the point at which PT.TIMAH team and our audit engineer work together in developing the procedures, activities, and objectives of the project.   Planning items include: 

• Defining the scope of work of the Network Audit that describes what segments to be audited. 
• Defining the objectives of Network Audit. 
• Identify the problems experienced by users under the current network condition. 
• Defining testing and measuring methods. 
• Listing the procedures and identify what action shall be carried out first. 

Data Collection Phase 

After the planning phase, implementation of Network Audit is started with collection of data from the designated network segment. Using Network General’s  expert network fault and performance tools, our audit engineer proceeds with the systematic, thorough collection of data in accordance with the established goals. This procedure, which occurs over  a period of 24 hours per network segment, typically includes: 

• An initial assessment through trace file and expert data review. 
• A 24-hour monitoring period for traffic load patterns 
• Expert statistical analysis; data harvest and load out 

Area addressed by Network Audit

• Transmission reliability: Pinpoints re-transmission errors, congested routes and connection problems 
• Loading patterns : Analyzes network utilization, average frame sizes, and errors per megabyte 
• Type of traffic : Determines protocols and frame size distribution 
• Station traffic and error statistics : Uncovers slow response times 

Analysis Phase 

With the data collected, a thorough analysis of the network condition can be done. The report provides actionable information on network traffic for each measured segment;  the summary and analysis to be  presented includes:

• Usage history for a specific period of observation 
• Traffic (byte/frames) to and from observed active stations 
• Most active and or error prone station
• Distribution of frame size and protocol type 

The information collected serves well as the baseline data of the current network. All aspects of the data shall be analyzed to identify network bottleneck, network overload and other errors that might contribute to the slowdown of the performance. Recommendations to improve, optimize and fine-tune network will be provided. 

Propose Solutions and Recommendations

From Network Health Check results, we will propose solutions: 

• Alternative 1 : Network Audit Baselining
• Alternative 2 : Network Audit Troubleshooting 

With the recommendations obtained from the analysis phase, fine-tuning steps shall be carried out. Exactly what fine-tuning steps will be performed depends very much on the data collected and thus will only be known at that time.

After the fine-tuning steps, the network will be monitored and measured again. The data obtained shall be compared to the previous measurement. Network optimization is achieved when the measurement after fine-tuning shows better reading than before. 

Notes: Hardware or software that might be needed to upgrade or fine-tune the network is needs to be purchased separately.