Congratulations! You are a one-man army and have been asked to manage wired and wireless networks on multiple sites all by yourself. Not only that, but all of them are hundreds of miles away from each other. So now you wonder, how are you going to get any work done when you must spend most of your work week traveling?
One option would be to have local personnel help you out. Still, the problem with that idea is that there might not be anyone on-site with the expertise needed to help you identify the root cause of wired or wireless network problems, resulting in you having to travel to gain the required visibility.
Another option would be to use your infrastructure management system. After all, the infrastructure should know when its components are having problems, right? Well, the problem with that idea is that often the infrastructure doesn’t have enough visibility or can’t provide enough information. Why is this happening, considering that so many technological advancements are designed to eliminate such problems? One explanation is that for every reliability and simplicity improvement in one area, there is an offsetting technology advancement in another that makes things more complex. Consider the ‘technology churn’ from VoIP to unified communications, from WiFi 5 to WiFi 6, 802.3af to 802.3bt Power over Ethernet (PoE), IPv4 to IPv6…the list goes on.
What can you do? The answer is simple, remote network testing and troubleshooting! In this blog we will discuss keep-it-simple strategies that you should consider when looking for ways to test and troubleshoot problems on remote sites when you are the chosen ONE!
Let’s get started!
Start by Planning Ahead
A little planning in advance can help you to develop a solid remote testing strategy that will save time and will also help you with budget allocation for the tools you will need to get the job done.
Here are some questions you should ask yourself when planning your strategy:
- Is there any staff on-site?
- If so, what is their level of expertise?
- Do you have critical and non-critical sites, or a ranking of sites by criticality to the organization?
The criticality of a site may require a range of remote troubleshooting strategies based on available budget and on-site staff skill levels. Once you have had the chance to think about your remote-site staffing situation, you then need to consider what you need to have visibility of to understand and potentially resolve any issue. You should include what you can do from head office (e.g., tasks that can easily be done remotely, such as reconfiguring a switch), by coaching the on-site team to resolve an issue themselves, or by remotely controlling test equipment, eliminating travel time.
For every remote site problem, you should have the following facts validated by the on-site technician using a standardized process, tools, and methodology across all sites:
- Is there a problem with the physical cable or WiFi air quality in the case of WLAN issues? (Always start at the physical layer!)
- What is the switch slot/port/VLAN? (or AP/SSID if WiFi)?
- Are all users affected or just a select group?
- Are network services (DHCP, DNS) obtainable from a given wall jack or access point? What is the response time?
- Is a power-enabled device getting proper PoE voltage at the wall jack?
How do I Test my Network Remotely?
Good news everyone! There are different ways to tackle the challenge of remote site troubleshooting based on what the on-site personnel profile looks like and your budget considerations.
The Benefits of Automated Testing
There are several benefits to automated testing.
- It’s much faster than a typical trial-and-error methodology.
- It’s more thorough than a manual approach, which means it can find problems that the technician may not have even considered.
- It allows anyone, regardless of skill level, to run tests and identify problems.
- It creates a standardized process and workflow, which will be useful if an escalation does occur. The escalation team doesn’t have to start from scratch. There is a standard set of tests already run that can be referenced to identify the problem domain so triage can begin immediately at the failure point – without retesting – saving significant time.
Troubleshooting the Easy Way
While automated testing can uncover a wide variety of problems on its own, it may not be able to immediately identify the root cause of every issue, so you should use tools that also allow you perform more in-depth analysis when needed. Not only that, but all test results collected on-site should always be readily available to help local or remote personnel understand what is happening.
- Wired Tests — Sometimes the physical layer is the culprit so it’s important to be able to verify the cable, PoE, switch and VLAN configuration, and network services. Your tools should also have the ability to inspect fiber-optic connectors for contamination.
- Wireless Tests — It’s important to be able to see all the SSIDs, AP’s and clients in range to quickly identify problems such as incorrect security configuration, interference, bandwidth hogs, overloaded channels, unauthorized devices and more.
Pro Tip: Having tools that can measure key WiFi metrics is good, but having data represented in a heatmap is better!
Collaboration (Teamwork!)
For this blog, collaboration will be focused on improving the workflow and information exchange between you and other team members for the purpose of resolving problems faster.
Considerations:
- Centralized Results Database – A centralized results database for both wired and WiFi results will allow cross-functional teams to reference a single source of results data to enable better understanding and discussion of test results. This comprehensive, searchable database should allow you to easily identify changes in the network and see who is testing what, when and where.
- Remote Interface — Since it’s not always possible to get someone with the right skill level to solve a problem at the location where the issue is occurring, your preferred network troubleshooting tool should give you the option to control it remotely. Not only will you be able see what local personnel is seeing, but you will be able to troubleshoot from the comfort of you couch or office. This also serves to enable remote personnel as they watch how network professionals like yourself use the tool to identify issues and solve problems.
- Cameras – Network troubleshooting tools with cameras allow you to see live video of the physical environment local personnel is working in. This could be very useful when in a wiring closet or a data center on which you need to see the switch or patch panel, for example.
- Packet Captures – A network troubleshooting tool with the ability to perform wired or wireless packet captures is essential. After all, having a trace file can be crucial when you are troubleshooting very difficult problems, as it can be used as evidence to provide to an outside group, such as application developers, service providers or equipment suppliers.
Step-by-Step Guide
Remote network testing and troubleshooting with NetAlly testers is simple. For example, did you know that most NetAlly tools support remote control? By connecting to the tester through the network, you can assist on-site “smart hands” right away! Here is how:
- VNC – You can easily access NetAlly testers in your local are network with your preferred VNC client application.
- Go to the “General Settings” in your NetAlly tester and enable the “Allow VNC Connections” option.
- Select the port number that you want to use.
- Enter a “Password” if you want to secure the connection.
- Use your VNC client software to connect the unit.
- Web Browser – You can also use a web browser to remotely control testers anywhere in the world using the web remote (or cloud remote) option through Link-Live. Link-Live is a license free platform for team collaboration, reporting, and analytics.
- Login to your Link-Live account.
- Go to the “Units” section in Link-Live.
- Select the unit you want to remotely control.
- Select the “Remote” option on the upper right of the screen.
Here’s a video that you can follow along with.
Pro Tip: Want to know more about how you can use NetAlly tools to troubleshoot your network remotely? Then make sure to check out our “Remote Network Troubleshooting” or “Link-Live Cloud Service Tutorials” series of videos!
Understanding Return of Investment (ROI)
You may be thinking “Wow! Those NetAlly tools are cool, and easy to use! But what is the return of investment when compared to all the time I spend traveling?”. To help you understand and justify the investment in tools like those from NetAlly that will help you become more efficient when troubleshooting problems at remote sites, we’ll select one of our most full-featured testers, the EtherScope® nXG, to look at the time saved during key troubleshooting processes.
- Automated Testing — Table 1 compares the amount of time it would take to manually perform the AutoTest functions compared to the actual time of the AutoTest. The time of manual testing is representative and is dependent on your skill level as well as how many applications or services would need to be tested.
- Troubleshooting — It is less straightforward to quantify these savings, as it is highly dependent on the actual problem and your skill level. Users of NetAlly tools generally report 30 to 50 percent faster troubleshooting, but we will set that aside and consider it a “bonus” savings in addition to what is demonstrated here.
- Collaboration — To quantify the time savings in these scenarios, we compared time to set up a packet capture using port mirroring (roughly 20 minutes) versus the inline packet capture with the EtherScope nXG and Profitap (five minutes). In instances where the technician does not have access to reconfigure the switch, the time savings would be much greater.
Table 1 is an estimation of the savings expected by using a portable network analyzer such as the EtherScope nXG. You can expect payback in less than four months – not counting the overall improvement in troubleshooting time or the costs of user downtime.
Conclusion
Remote network testing and troubleshooting doesn’t have to be difficult! With a little planning and the right tools, troubleshooting network problems on remote sites can be quick and simple. Now you can use all that extra time you used to spend travelling doing more important work (or playing video games!).
Ready to take your network testing to the next level? Explore NetAlly’s range of wired and wireless testing solutions and start troubleshooting your network remotely, today!
