![]() ![]() One thing that many people seem to be forgetting is that you need a complete understanding of your IT infrastructure for you to properly monitor it. It lists the location of routers, Access points, firewalls, VLANs, laptops and other hosts in your network. A Network topology mapper on the other hand automatically detects the network hosts and produces a complete map highlighting how they connect with each other. Yes, there are some system admins that choose to manually draw the architecture but that takes a lot of patience, carefulness, and effort. But the problem is networks are on a constant growth pattern while also increasing in complexity and it can be a bit tricky keeping up with the architecture. The failure of a single component could cause downtime for your entire Network. See, as great as Computer Networking is, you will need to constantly monitor your Network to ensure that everything is working smoothly. The list of networking benefits is endless and I could go on and on but it’s not the point of this post. It allows the sharing of resources that would otherwise need to be purchased in numbers. But more importantly, it is cost effective. It makes communication as well as data sharing easier. Which is why more and more businesses are embracing the concept. With one or more of these tools, you will be able to draw a network diagram and get started building your home or small office infrastructure.The significance of Computer Networking to organizational growth is pretty clear. It cannot be stated enough-having a plan to connect your devices is a critical first step of a small office network setup. Related: 5 Tools for Drawing a Wi-Fi Heatmap After that you have to pay-single user accounts start at $4.95 per month, and a Gliffy Pro account costs $9.95 monthly, and provides unlimited storage and an unlimited number of collaborators. Pricing: Gliffy is free to try for 30 days. There are a number of pre-diagramed networks available in case you needed ideas for designing your own. It can be used to organize, plan, and troubleshoot home or professional networks, and populated with images of typical office items. Gliffy is a browser-based application that features an intuitive drag-and-drop interface for constructing floor plans and network diagrams. Pricing: Check stores for Microsoft Office 2016 or Microsoft Office 365 for appropriate packages for your business. Starting with a grid pattern on a blank presentation helps keep a network diagram looking tidy-to do this, simply navigate to the View tab, and check the box for Gridlines. Download the selected clip art to a device, and in PowerPoint, navigate to the Insert tab and click the Object button to drop icons onto the presentation. There is free clip art dedicated to helping with this task. While technically not free, Powerpoint can be used to rough out a simple network diagram. Pricing: MaSSHandra is free for everyone to download and use, and donations are welcome. It also has features for auto discovery of network assets using SNMP, automating the process of creating the diagram with XML files, and monitoring the status of your networked devices using ping, SNMP, and TCP. Pricing: yED is free to download and use in a business capacity.Īvailable for Windows, Linux, OSX and coming soon for Web, MaSSHandra uses a real 3D environment to create network diagrams-especially handy if your network extends vertically on more than one floor of a building. The yWorks website features extensive instructions and documentation for using the tool-this is very helpful for beginners. A friendly user interface facilitates a variety of functions like diagram creation and auto-layout features, and it accommodates imports from several file formats (GraphML, Excel XLS, GEDCOM, GML, XML). ![]() It seems to be the favorite free resource on the Spiceworks professional IT board. YED is a Java-based resource that run in Windows and Linux. Pricing: CADE is available for free download. Free sample diagrams are available to help you get started. It runs only in Windows and can be used for collaborative work with customers and colleagues. It might not have some of the extras that a paid program like Microsoft Visio features, but it is more than up to the task of diagramming a small office network. CADE EditorĬADE is a primarily a CAD tool, but it also has fairly robust network diagramming functionality. Here are five tools that can do the job for free, or almost free. Good network diagrams are not difficult to construct, and you do not need to spend a fortune on fancy software to draw a network diagram-especially for a small office. It helps you identify the appropriate hardware needed for the task, and logic that goes into installing it. Being able to draw a network diagram is an essential first step for a small office network setup. ![]()
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