Imagine yourself as a network administrator, responsible for a 2000 user network.

             This network reaches from California to New York, and some branches over seas. In .

             this situation, anything can, and usually does go wrong, but it would be your job as a .

             system administrator to resolve the problem with it arises as quickly as possible. The .

             last thing you would want is for your boss to call you up, asking why you haven"t done .

             anything to fix the 2 major systems that have been down for several hours. How do .

             you explain to him that you didn"t even know about it? Would you even want to tell .

             him that? So now, picture yourself in the same situation, only this time, you were .

             using a network monitoring program. Sitting in front of a large screen displaying a .

             map of the world, leaning back gently in your chair. A gentle warning tone sounds, .

             and looking at your display, you see that California is now glowing a soft red in color, .

             in place of the green glow just moments before. You select the state of California, and .

             it zooms in for a closer look. You see a network diagram overview of all the .

             computers your company has within California. Two systems are flashing, with an X .

             on top of them indicating that they are experiencing problems. Tagging the two .

             systems, you press enter, and with a flash, the screen displays all the statitics of the two .

             systems, including anything they might have in common causing the problem. Seeing .

             that both systems are linked to the same card of a network switch, you pick up the .

             phone and give that branch office a call, notifying them not only that they have a .

             problem, but how to fix it as well. .

             Early in the days of computers, a central computer (called a mainframe) was .

             connected to a bunch of dumb terminals using a standard copper wire. Not much .

             thought was put into how this was done because there was only one way to do it: they .

             were either connected, or they weren"t.