Connecting to a Remote Network Monitor Agent Across a Router

• Microsoft Systems Management Server versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0

SUMMARY

Network Monitor can capture traffic on another subnet by connecting to a system that is running the Remote Agent software on that subnet. The Network Monitor Agent software is included with both Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server. In Network Monitor, when you click Networks on the Capture menu, Remote is one of the options. Provide the Agent's computer name (with or without "\\") to connect to it.

For Network Monitor to connect to a Remote Agent across a router, the Remote Agent's computer name must be resolved. If the name cannot be resolved, you receive the following error message:

   Failure connecting to <computer name of Agent>

MORE INFORMATION

The Remote Agent registers a NetBIOS name which is 16 characters long. It consists of the computer name followed by 0xBE (extended characters). For example, a machine named "HITME" would be registered as "HITME\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE..."

Use the following steps to connect to the agent across a router:

1. Ensure that the Manager and the Remote Agent systems have a routable protocol such as TCP/IP or NWLINK installed.

2. Install the Network Monitor Agent software on the remote computer.

3. Start the Network Monitor Agent Service by doing one of the following:

         At the command prompt, type the following command:
   

            net start nmagent
   
         -or-
   
         Double-click the Services icon in Control Panel, click Network
         Monitor Agent in the Service list, and then click Start.
   
   

4. If TCP/IP is the protocol that is used, then there are two ways to resolve a NetBIOS name to an IP address. If both the management station and the remote agent are using Microsoft Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) then the name will be resolved by WINS and WINS locates the Agent. If not, then the Lmhosts file on the management station must contain a special entry for the remote agent.

   If TCP/IP is used and WINS is not available, add the Agent's name in the Lmhosts file. Non-printing (extended) characters can be added by using \0xnn format where nn represents the ASCII code for the character.

   Following are some examples from an Lmhosts file.

      130.1.2.3  "MYAGENT\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE"   #PRE
      130.2.3.4  "REMOTEAGENT\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE"                   #PRE
      130.3.4.5  "SEATTLESERVER\0xBE\0xBE\0xBE"                           #PRE
   
      NOTE: Capital letters must be used for the agent name, the agent name
      must consist of 16 characters surrounded by quotation marks, and #PRE
      must end each entry.
   
   

5. The NBTSTAT command can be used to flush and reload the LMHOSTS cache after modifying the Lmhosts file. To reload the cache, type the following command at a command prompt:

         nbtstat -R
   

   Note that the -R is case sensitive and must be uppercase.

   To view the cache, type

         nbtstat -c
   

   After the cache has been updated, you should be able to connect to the remote agent.

6. If NWLINK protocol is used, NameQuery should succeed because most routers are configured to forward broadcasts (packet type 20).