Sams Teach Yourself MCSE Windows NT Server 4 in 14 Days
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): David Schaer, et al
ISBN: 0672311283
Publication Date: 12/15/97

This window gives you a snapshot view of current connections to each device configured for your RAS server. This includes such information as the speed and duration of the connection, the statistics of the connection, and the accumulated errors since the connection was made. This tab also enables you to Reset the connection statistics, Hang up the device (disconnecting any users), and view the Details of the connection (see Figure 13.13)

Figure 13.13.  View the details of a dial-up networking connection in this window.

The Details view gives you protocol-specific information, such as the IP address for a TCP/IP connection, the network number for an IPX connection, and the NetBEUI name for a NetBEUI connection.

You can view a summary of all current dial-up connections and see which devices are associated with each by choosing the Summary tab on the Dial-Up Networking Monitor utility (see Figure 13.14).

Figure 13.14.  View a summary of a dial-up networking connection in this window.

The only thing you really must know about the Dial-Up Networking Monitor is that it exists and can give you a current view of RAS activity.

13.6.2. Performance Monitor

Whereas the Dial-up Networking Monitor gives you a nice snapshot of what’s going on with RAS Server at the moment, the Performance Monitor utility is a bit more powerful, giving you the ability to chart very detailed levels of performance over time and keep a log or make a report of this performance. A full discussion of Performance Monitor is beyond the scope of this chapter, but a few RAS-specific counters are available to you. Some of the important counters that the RAS service adds are summarized in Table 13.1.

Although there also are many other counters available for these three objects, the counters listed here should provide you with most of the information you need to track when monitoring your RAS service.

There also are many counters for monitoring the activities of your network in general and specific protocols that you might have configured on your RAS server. These also can be helpful to you in monitoring RAS performance.

Performance monitoring, especially in RAS, is another subject that the NT Server exam does not cover in much detail. Again, this subject is tested more heavily in the Enterprise exam.

13.7. Routing via RAS

Routers enable computers from one network (or individual computers) to communicate with computers on another network. You can configure any Windows NT Server with two or more network interfaces (including modems and ISDN adapters, as well as network adapter cards) as a router on your network. A computer with multiple network interfaces also is known as a multi-homed computer. There are several reasons for configuring your RAS server as a router, including allowing access to your network for remote clients, allowing access to the Internet from your network, and connecting two or more LANs across a distance to create a WAN.

Because WANs are beyond the scope of the NT Server exam, you should not find any question on the NT Server exam that comes from the information in this section. Routing via RAS is more pertinent to the Enterprise exam.

13.7.1. Dial-Up Networking

You use the dial-out feature of the RAS Server via a utility called Dial-Up Networking, which you can use to access a RAS Server on another network, access the Internet, or access other types of networks by using various protocols. Dial-Up Networking is enabled by default when you install RAS. You configure this feature by opening the Dial-Up Networking utility found under My Computer (see Figure 13.15).

Figure 13.15.  The Dial-Up Networking feature enables you to use the dial-out feature of the RAS Server.

RAS Server manages its connections intelligently. After a service has been dialed into using a particular phonebook entry, RAS remembers which entry was used and uses it automatically the next time.

13.7.2. Allowing Access to Your Network

The simplest form of routing with RAS is allowing remote users to dial in to your RAS Server and connect through that computer to the rest of your network (see Figure 13.16).

Figure 13.16.  Allow remote users to connect to your network with RAS.

You must do only two things to enable this form of routing:

•  Grant the remote user dial-in access.

•  Allow remote users to access the entire network using the appropriate protocol (refer to Figure 13.6 through 13.8).