You are a network support technician for Farm Kettle Foods, a specialty food supplier wi...

You are a network support technician for Farm Kettle Foods, a specialty food supplier with five locations across the state. The company relies on its WAN not only for intraoffice communication, but also for scheduling, delivery, logistics, inventory, and communication with suppliers and customers via the Internet. The manager of the Customer Service Department calls your help desk one morning and complains that none of her customer service representatives can send or receive messages from the Internet, although they can receive messages on the corporation’s internal mail system. List the steps you will take to troubleshoot this problem and describe why each step is necessary. Suppose that your troubleshooting methodology leads you to determine that this problem was caused by a malfunctioning Internet gateway, and further, you learn that the gateway malfunctioned because of a faulty NIC. Suggest ways in which the problem could have been prevented or detected before it adversely affected hundreds of customers.