Remote Access Services

Remote Access Services or RAS is a system that allows you to access the information on the services from a remote area. With the increasing number of internet users, the importance of RAS has grown considerably. RAS allows internet users the convenience of access the files located on the services from a remote location such as your home. It requires a RAS client program in order to be able to use RAS from a remote location and this program is mostly built in different versions of Windows and PPP client software.

What RAS can do for you

- RAS allows a user to log into an NT-based LAN environment using a modem, X.25 connection or WAN link. It is a built-in feature of Windows NT and works efficiently with any major network protocols including TCP/IP, IPX, and Netbueui.

- The user can dial into any network and use any dial-up connection just like a network connection.

Procedures of Accessing to RAS

Once you are connected to RAS, you can access the network in a usual manner. For instance, to connect to a drive on network you can use My Computer on the Window NT 4.0 from you remote computer with the help of the map network drive. Alternatively, you can access the network neighborhood. If you want to run a program available on the host computer, you can do so by downloading and running the executable code on your remote computer. So, in a nutshell, RAS works just like any other network connection.

Network Monitoring

Networking Monitoring is the process of checking computers and network systems. It is a part of Microsoft System Management Server which is also known as SMS. Network Monitors oversee the Wide Area Network, Local Area Network, servers, switches, applications and many other components. It helps the network administrator to streamline the entire network within the environment.

How Does this work?

Interestingly, network monitors warn you regarding the future network problems and offer guidance on how to improve the network. It brings the log files and assigned charts that haven been assigned to check the system’s performance. Network monitor software helps you identifying existing as well as upcoming networking problems and it composes them in form of expanded log files. It also takes suitable actions by rebooting the system and running a script to monitor the problems which are primarily caused by crash or due to overloaded servers.

Most of the network monitors have the ability to supervise Internet usage and register fingertips of each network connection in the database. Hence, it helps the user in tracing out browser toolbars, worms, plug-ins, viruses, etc.

The network monitor software sends a text message through SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to see if the condition of the e-mail server is okay. In order to ensure the condition of the web server, the network monitor software sends a request to HTTP to get a webpage. Besides, it has the ability to detect issues such as failed logins, if someone is using specific protocols or browsing a particular site.