Why Do You Need Computer Network Monitoring?
The Internet is a source of information as well as a security threat to any computer network. Due to this major threat, as also due to signal degradation and delays caused by heavy traffic in network cables or failed or disrupted network connections, computer network monitoring is mandatory. Further, such monitoring is also done to keep a check over the activities of company employees.
So why is computer network monitoring needed?
In the first place, monitoring is necessary due to degradation of signals transmitted through computer network cables. This is true, irrespective of the medium used for transmission. Attenuation, impulse noise, thermal noise, cross-talk, inter-modulation noise, radiation, radio frequency interference, and signal interference are some of the reasons for degradation of signals transmitted over a computer network cable.
Further, the computer which receives the signal needs to check the signal for transmission errors. Such monitoring is performed by including derived, redundant information in the transmitted signal. This information can then be re-derived from the received signal and the values of the two signals can then be compared. Such monitoring checks are known as parity checks in network monitoring parlance. In actual practice, cyclic redundancy checks (CRC) are used, in place of parity checks. Long transmissions are broken up into manageable data packets, for each of which the routine of transmission, checking, acknowledgement, and, if required, retransmission follows. Otherwise, an error in transmission of a long signal would cause the whole transmission to be resent. The above process gives rise to a protocol agreement between the message transmitting computer and the message receiving computer. Most computer networks now use packet switching as a mechanism for message communication to take place between any two computers in the network. During heavy loading of network cables due to heavy traffic of signals, node delays and queuing delays take place. Such delays have a severe impact on network performance. So these delays need to be monitored. Most computer networks have a gateway through which they connect to the Internet. It is very important that a firewall be set up at the gateway so that security threats such as unauthorized access, hacking, and viral and worm attacks from the Internet can be minimized. This is also a method of monitoring threats to a computer network. The firewall examines every data packet that attempts to make a connection, although it can also check each data packet that enters or exits the network. Firewalls can be software-based or hardware-based or a combination of the two. However, a firewall is not a fool-proof policing method. Some external intrusions can still get past firewalls. Company employees using the network are wont to access those Web sites or network files that do not form part of their official work domain. Monitoring of such activities is also performed. Details of some of the tasks performed in computer network monitoring have been covered in this article. For other details, you can search the Internet.
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