* Dr. Internet columnist Steve Blass recommends WinPooch * Help Desk columnist Ron Nutter offers advice on naming network devices
* Looking for Windows troubleshooting tool
By Steve Blass
Q: I’m looking for a Windows troubleshooting and monitoring tool that would act like a firewall at the process level to provide alerts when Dynamic Link Libraries and executable programs are loaded and run. Can you recommend anything?
A: There is an interesting open source program named WinPooch that acts as an antispyware and anti-Trojan watchdog on Windows systems. It hooks into your system-level programs and spies on what those programs do and the executables that they launch.
To read Steve’s response in its entirety, please click here.
* Naming network devices
By Ron Nutter
Q: The network in my company is expanding to where it covers not only multiple floors within a building but to multiple buildings as well. Things have evolved over time to where each person doing the job did things to their liking – which changed as each person took over the position. I am concerned that, to make things manageable and easier to update, that this is something that needs to change before the network grows any further. Some of the network gear is named simply “router”, “switch”, etc. You can also tell where a particular device is located just by its IP address. Is there a recommended way to name the equipment?
A: There is no one right way to name equipment. The first thing I would suggest looking at is Cisco’s Network Design model and how it looks at a network from the Core, Distribution and Access layers. Look at how your current network equipment inventory fits into this model.
To read Ron’s response in its entirety, please click here.
