What kind of information will a protocol analyzer provide to help troubleshoot or maintain the overall health of my LAN or Switch?
Protocol analyzers should provide three main sources of information about your LAN or switch traffic. 1. Network Statistics about traffic flow, station health and network or station line errors. This information helps identify trends and general conditions that may signal an unexpected network problem condition, or a load issue that is causing slowdowns. Additionally if you are considering adding a switch, the statistical traffic breakdown can show how best to implement the new switch. If you currently have a switch installed, statistical analysis can show if your switch is configured correctly and your ports are supporting a balanced load of LAN traffic. 2. Packet Capture and Decode displays LAN traffic (packets) decoded into specific function and sub-function for LAN or protocol problem isolation. Being able to view the specific packet-by-packet conversion can show exactly what is happening during a system-to-system communication, both when things are functioning correctly and when t
