What Does a Network Administrator Do?

Network administrators handle many tasks to keep the digital network running smoothly. They usually design, build, support, and maintain the network. Here are some tasks you might find in a network administrator’s job description:

Detect Failure of Interface Card at Host or Router

A router or host has more than one interface to connect with the Internet, and there is a chance that the interface by which we are connected goes down. So to impress and attract users, network administration can detect the problem and inform users about it by using some network management tools. 

Host Monitoring

The network administrator regularly monitors all hosts inside its network and checks whether all hosts are working fine or not. 
Also, it can block a particular host from using particular services (like YouTube, etc) by blocking that port number on the host side. 

Adding or Removing the Host From the Network

The network administrator can add or remove the host from the network, and it can also configure a subnet mask for the host such that the host will be in a network but will act as it is in some other network. All the packets sent to that packet go first to the gateway and the gateway will transfer that packet to that host. 

Monitoring Traffic

Since the standard router has only a physical layer, data link layer, and network layer, it can only perform routing(i.e, making a routing table, with the help of the Link State Routing algorithm, it decides the route) and for routing, LSR does not detect congestion (traffic) on a certain route. So if too many packets follow the same route there will be congestion on that route. 

Detecting Rapid Changes in Routing Tables

When the network administrator configures the router improperly then it will not work correctly and changes routes very rapidly and at last goes down. And from saving the router going down administrator will discover errors by him or herself.

Monitor for Service Level Agreement (SLA)

SLAs are the contract that defines specific performance metrics. Verizon and Sprint are just two of the many network provider that guarantee SLAs to their customers. These SLAs include service availability, latency, throughput, and outage notification requirements. 

Installing, Repairing and Updating Software and Hardware

The network administrator must install new software or hardware into the network if any part of the network (like a router, cable switch, etc) not working properly that administrator will replace or update that component of the network.  

Updating Security Systems and Security Authorization

Intrusion detection and providing extra security is a very crucial duty of network administration. Several systems try to hack or down the server or any system into the network. For example, Any external host tries to down the server by sending too many ping (echo) ICMP packets, and this leads to a decrease in the performance. Network administrators can easily detect such action and block that IP address.

A network administrator is like a caretaker for computer networks. They’re the ones who keep everything running smoothly and make sure everyone can connect to the internet and share information safely. The main work of a network administrator is to keep a network of organizations operating and up to date.

So any company or organization with multiple computers needs a network administrator (or admin) to connect and coordinate different computers or systems. In this article, we are going to study about functionality of network administrators in detail. In this article, we are going to discuss the working of network administrators in detail.