Novell's Guide to LAN/WAN Analysis: IPX/SPX

The basic idea behind network analysis is that you can get a very good idea of what's happening on a network by looking at the actual data that travels over it, packet by packet. Novell's Guide to LAN/WAN Analysis: IPX/SPX is the definitive guide to performing network analysis on networks that use the IPX and SPX protocols.

Surprisingly, Laura Chappell assumes that the reader has little knowledge of the subject. She goes into great detail on what analysis is and why it's useful. She then explains how Ethernet and Token Ring networks should operate and reveals the best places to install an analyzer (she reviews many kinds) in each type of network in order to get the most meaningful data. Chappell then dives into individual protocols, explaining IPX, SPX, and SPX II in glorious detail. Rather than limit her coverage to the major protocols, Chappell also describes SAP, RIP, NLSP, IPXWAN2, and NCP completely. If you want to know what's being said on your network in any Novell protocol, this book will help you with the decoding more than any other. Text and diagrams explain almost every possible network transmission.

The companion CD-ROM includes the trace files collected during the author's research. These files prove useful for educational purposes as well as for comparison. The CD-ROM contains a demo version of LANalyzer for Windows. --David Wall