QICWARE Best Practices

This document covers some suggested 'best practices' for QICWARE administrators. While these guidelines are not part of any requirement, they are a good idea for those who wish to keep their systems operating properly.

• Have a method for quickly loading QICWARE released

Running the latest QICWARE release gives users the the benefit of stopping problems before they start. Often times it is necessary for troubleshooting QICWARE issues. Its best to upgrade QICWARE when things are running smoothly because upgrading QICWARE while in the middle of an investigate can make troubleshooting a problem even more difficult.

• Have a functioning TCP/IP network (e.g. proper resolution of DNS / NetBIOS names if they are used)

NetBIOS names and DNS names are not the same thing. If you are running a network of Microsoft machines and introduce a UNIX machine or vice versa make sure the fundamental network operations like traceroute and ping work between the two before introducing higher level network protocols like http or ftp.

• Connectivity to Qantel support representatives using Microsoft VPN and to the server (and any other machines requiring support) with NetMeeting for windows machines; telnet otherwise

Allowing Qantel Support access to your machine makes takes the a lot of the guess work out of troubleshooting support problems.

• Any the necessary support software: email, WinZip, Acrobat etc

Often times it is necessary to exchange files and documents. Adobe Acrobat is often used to share document files and UNIX compress / Window Winzip are often used to gather and compress the files.