Networking for Systems Administrators

Book excerpt: Stop waiting for the network team!If basic TCP/IP was hard, network administrators couldn't do it. Servers give sysadmins a incredible visibility into the network-once they know how to unlock it. Most sysadmins don't need to understand window scaling, or the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 echo requests, or other intricacies of the TCP/IP protocols. You need only enough to deploy your own applications and get easy support from the network team.This book teaches you* How modern networks really work*The essentials of TCP/IP*The next-generation protocol, IPv6* The right tools to diagnose network problems, and how to use them*Troubleshooting everything from the physical wire to DNS* How to see the traffic you send and receive* Connectivity testing* How to communicate with your network team to quickly resolve problemsA systems administrator doesn't need to know the innards of TCP/IP, but knowing enough to diagnose your own network issues will transforms a good sysadmin into a great one.Fungi are among the most networked creatures in the world. If a mushroom can do it, so can you!