CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1)BACKGROUND

The Information age has brought about so much reliance on information and data communication in many respects, and the focus seems to culminate on the internet and on various networks. Local Area Networks (LAN) are now common in interconnecting offices, firms or organizations within a location; Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) are employed over cities or such large geographical areas; Wide Area Networks (WAN) are employed over much larger geographical regions. All these technological advances are all geared towards efficient communication/dissemination of information at the fastest possible time. 

Hence, networks (especially, Local Area Networks or LAN) have become a common feature for most modern firms or organizations – whether it is an office, hospital, hotel, church premises, educational institutions, or even residential premises, etc. A network can be defined as a set of devices or nodes connected by communication links. These nodes or devices can be a computer, printer, or any other such device capable of transmitting and/or receiving data [1]. LANs are commonly used to interconnect different computers to provide for collaborative computing and knowledge management within a firm. Sometimes this interconnectivity can be linked through an internetwork. In such cases, the local network of computers is linked to the internet through appropriate hardware (router, modem, etc). 

However, a major hitch in this success trend is the fact that networks have shown to be easily vulnerable to break-down. This could be attributed to several factors – problems from the interconnecting nodes (computers, printers, etc), or the physical cable connections, or from the communication hardware equipment, etc. These all contribute to the vulnerability of the network. Another major reason for this vulnerability lies on the fact that because of the interconnected nature of a network system, a problem affecting any node on the network could possibly spread to other nodes within the network, thereby shutting down the entire system. This is especially true for certain network topologies such as the Star and Ring network topologies. 

                       This     vulnerability     precipitates     a     need     for     provision     of

continuous/scheduled repairs and maintenance of the network, especially in the event of a fault. Thus, troubleshooting and maintenance is to be an integral part of the network administrative process. 

1.2) AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 

The major objectives of this project are to provide for the following:

•        An expert system in the form of a software package, which can run on any system in the computer network and assist in the troubleshooting and maintenance of the LAN.

•        The software package to serve as a guide to its users in carrying out troubleshooting and maintenance functions through the help of its step by step instructions.

•        An expert system that can function as a tutor/trainer for getting knowledge and insight into the operation of networks (especially LANs)

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