Discussion on:

Five free tools for network diagramming

While I am no stranger to network admin, I will admit the networks I deal with most are much smaller than what a lot of people deal with. That said, the need for diagrams has never been critcial, but that does not mean someone should not have them, so for a person who has little to no experience creating them, what would be best to start with? Obvously ease of use or at least ease of figuring out would be most important for starting out, but also the ability to get everything needed. Fortuantly, the "everything needed" would be very basic items as they are not very complex.
Thanks,
Rob

It doesn't have fancy icons or shapes, but it has 'connectors' so you can move objects around with the lines attached. I haven't used it much so maybe it's more capable than I know.

I've used THE DUDE for a about a year now and have been satisfied with it. Also, it is free.

Network Mapping And Monitoring
The Dude is a unique network monitor that incorporates an interactive map of your network layout, that helps you visualize the structure of your network and provides direct access to network functions specific to each item. It can automatically discover your local network and draw a preliminary layout that can be further customized and saved.
You can manually add items, customize the icons and captions used for each device and connect nodes with lines and other drawing tools. The program supports various network monitoring tasks from simple ping checks to port probes and service checks.
Other features include history logging, outage notifications (email, beep, popup, eventlog), SNMP support, map export to PDF or PNG as well as customizable interface layouts and more.

I've been needing something like this for some time! Wished I'd had it is cert school!

Jack,
Thank you for providing a link for the Blog Version of this article. Some of us have a real hard time with Slide Shows. I have to pass them up completely, no matter how important the subject matter is to me.
Thank You.