Network Diagnostics Shown at CTIA Wireless Expo
I went to the CTIA Wireless Expo two weeks ago with two of our wireless Program Managers, and we showed off the new networking user interface (Network Center) and the Network Diagnostics Framework. For those of you who haven't seen or heard of the Network Diagnostics, it's REALLY cool. It's designed to address many of the top calls to technical support, either Microsoft's, your ISPs, or your corporate help desk. What's cool about it is that it provides the end-user with clear descriptions of the problem and leads the user through solving the problem on his/her own. If the user doesn't have the administrative rights to resolve the problem, Network Diagnostics puts very rich information in to the Event Viewer to enable the help desk to resolve the problem quickly.
Network Diagnostics is NOT the same diagnostics tool which shipped with Windows XP. This is an extensible framework which enables network applications to provide "helper classes" so the diagnostics tool can search for root causes from the context of the application calling it. For example, there is a helper class for Internet Explorer 7, so if the user launches the diagnostics tool (found under the Tools menu in IE 7 or by right-clicking the Network Center icon in the System Tray) the tool will identify what the problem is from the browser's point of view down the stack. It's very comprehensive, and very effective!
Jason Leznek
Sr. Product Manager
Windows Vista Networking
Microsoft Corporation
