Hands On - Networks - Run IMC

This month, it's back to my mini-series on mail servers. I thought would expand briefly on the configuration of the Internet Mail Connector (IMC), with particular emphasis on those of you with dial-up connections rather than a routed link over ISDN or leased line.

The first thing you need to do is configure IMC to use RAS (Remote Access Server) rather than the network:

- Go to the Connections container.

- Select New Other from the File menu (Fig 1).

- From the pop-up menu, select MTA Transport Stack. It will display a list of available transports and servers (Fig 2).

- Select RAS MTA Transport Stack (if this isn't in the list, run Exchange Set-up again and make sure you've installed it).

- Select the server you wish to install this on. When you confirm, the RAS protocol will be installed in the appropriate Server container.

- Back to the Connections container now.

- Select New Other from the File menu, and select Dynamic RAS Connector.

- A multi-tabbed dialogue box will appear (Figs 3 to 5). The following tabs are available:

- General

Use the General property page to specify the connector name, directory name and remote server name. Here you will select the transport stack you have just created in the previous step, and will specify a number to dial from your RAS phone book. You can also set a message size restriction and add an administrative note.

- Connected sites

When the Dynamic RAS Connector is used to connect to an existing Microsoft Exchange Server organisation, use the Connected Sites property page to ensure that directory replication can take place and that other connectors in the organisation can be accessed.

Note that connected sites should list only those sites that are directly adjacent to the connector. Knowledge of all other sites will be inherited automatically through directory replication.

Fields on this tab allow you to specify the Exchange Server Organisation, Site, and Routing Address.

- Delivery restrictions

Use the Delivery Restrictions property page to accept or reject messages from any sender listed in the directory. For example, if a message is addressed to a remote Microsoft Exchange Server site, it is returned to the sender if the sender's address is in the Reject Messages From box.

Separate fields allow you to specify from whom the connector should accept or reject messages.

- MTA override

Use the Override property page to change the default Microsoft Exchange Server MTA attributes for the Dynamic RAS Connector. Override options should be used only when necessary to match the configuration of the remote Microsoft Exchange Server, otherwise the default settings of the MTA can be accepted.

- Permissions

Use the Permissions property page to specify the rights that users or groups have on this Dynamic RAS Connector. You delegate permissions to a user or group by assigning them a role. Roles are sets of rights that define how much and what type of access a user or group has on this Dynamic RAS Connector. This property page provides various default roles, and you can also create custom roles.

- RAS override

Use the Override property page to provide authentication credentials to connect to the remote site.

- Schedule dynamic

Use the Schedule property page to control when and how often this Dynamic RAS Connector becomes active. This tab contains a schedule grid with rows representing days, and columns representing one-hour blocks or 15-minute blocks depending on the detail view that you select. You can use the schedule grid to designate specific times or blocks of time when the Dynamic RAS Connector will become active.

- Gigabit deeper

Having just returned from the bright lights of Las Vegas and this year's Networld+Interop show, I was interested to note the lack of emphasis on ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). There are plenty of vendors making products, it's just that there isn't the same song and dance about it. This can mean one of two things: either the technology has matured enough to become mundane, or it's already on its way out.

Whichever view you care to adopt, the technology that has eclipsed ATM is most definitely Gigabit Ethernet.

Why should this be? Well, for starters, it's good old Ethernet - only faster. Same basic technology, meaning the same sort of skill set is required to look after it, and the same sort of monitoring tools can be used. It also fits pretty seamlessly into an existing Ethernet network, and is reasonably priced.

None of this is true of ATM, which tends to be complicated to implement, especially in a mixed Ethernet and ATM network where you have to mess around with LAN Emulation (LANE) and stuff. ATM also tends to be a tad expensive.

The other factor that has pushed Gigabit to the forefront is the internet - or more specifically, TCP/IP. IP was designed and built for Ethernet and doesn't do well on ATM. And with that other great darling of the industry, Voice Over IP (VOIP), we'll begin to see more voice/data integration over Ethernet networks, further eroding one of the touted advantages of ATM, that of mixed media networks.

Will ATM disappear? Doubtful, since it is already blessed with the 'legacy' tag, thanks to its wide adoption in campus backbone environments.

Will it be as big as the pundits originally predicted? Also doubtful, since Gigabit Ethernet seems to offer most of the features of ATM, with far fewer hassles and lower costs.

FREE NETWORK ANALYSER ON THIS MONTH'S COVER DISK If you have ever commissioned a LAN Health Check Report, you will doubtless appreciate the value of the information that such reports contain, and the usefulness of that information in support of refining and redesigning networks.

LANTREK Reporter, from UK-based LAN monitoring tools vendor Chevin Software Engineering, makes it possible for anyone to produce Network Health Check Reports without a requirement for specialist skills or equipment. It runs on standard PCs, uses ordinary Network Interface Cards, and runs under Windows 95/98 and NT.

Installation and setup are easy. You simply decide on the time period over which you want data to be gathered for the report, and LANTREK Reporter does the rest.

Once all the data has been collected, LANTREK Reporter takes you through a series of easy-to-follow steps that export your data to Microsoft Excel in order to generate graphs, which are in turn exported to a Microsoft Word template. And there you have it: a comprehensive Network Health Check Report as often as you want, for less than half the cost of a day's consultancy.

If you want to try out LANTREK Reporter, you can download a seven-day trial version from the Chevin website. The report is divided into a number of easy-to-read sections, covering such areas as:

- Bandwidth Utilisation, Top Ten Peaks/Talkers, Errors correlated with bandwidth utilisation.

- Top 10 conversations, Protocol count/Usage, Data Volumes.

- Packet throughput, Packet size, Number of packets per second.

- Packet size distribution, Broadcast Profile, Multicast Profile.

- Numbers of nodes correlated with conversations.

- Another great product from LANTREK is Insight. Insight gives you a graphical and numerical representation of your network status, and there's an event log to record alarms for historical assessment if you're away from the network.

There's a free version of Insight on this month's cover disc for PCW readers.

In terms of hardware, Chevin recommends a Pentium 200MHz or above with 32Mb RAM for Windows 95/98. For NT, a Pentium 200MHz or above with 64Mb RAM is recommended.

LANTREK Reporter will run with most Network Interface Cards which support the NDIS driver specification.

- For further information on the range of network monitoring and analysis tools provided by Chevin, visit the company's website at www.chevin.com or phone 01943 465378.

PCW CONTACTS

Bob Walder welcomes your comments and feedback on the Networks column.

Contact him via the PCW editorial office or email networks@pcw.co.uk.

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