While this is an excellent approach for building networks, the layered approach falls short in cooperative error reporting. Applications generally must work independently of the network environment, and lower layers of the network do not generally report meaningful errors to upper layer applications. The result is that lower layer network problems can cause upper layer application problems without giving any information about why the errors are occurring.
Applications do not have sophisticated methods for identifying and correcting network related errors. Because specific problems are not identified for the application by the network, no corrective action can be taken. This results in confusion and frustration for consumers, who must then call support professionals to help solve their application problems.
Support professionals must then embark on one of two strategies, depending on accessibility of the machine. One, spend time teaching the consumer command line utilities such as PING, Telnet, and others (frequently used by phone support) or Two, ask the user to allow the support professional to work at the machine while the consumer/user does something else during the troubleshooting process (frequently used by onsite support).
In both cases, fixing network related problems in a timely fashion requires methodical troubleshooting techniques. The first critical step is gathering information about the consumer’s machine. The second critical step is identifying what works and what doesn’t. Many of the tools and techniques used in this process only frustrate a consumer who is not interested in the command line tools and interfaces that are necessary to solve the problem. On the other hand, support professionals generally prefer command line utilities for their speed and batch capabilities.
Question How does the support professional gather the required information unobtrusively and solve the actual problem in a timely fashion, assuring a satisfactory customer experience?
The answer is the new suite of Network Diagnostics Tools. For consumers, there are new graphical HTML–based and windows based tools that are simple to click and use, and for administrators, there are still command line tools for batch execution and scripts. This new suite of tools is effective for both the consumer and the administrator.
Regardless of which Network Diagnostics tool is run, the support professional and consumer will find useful information or the immediate resolution to a problem. These tools help eliminate the necessity for consumers to ever have to use a command line utility, while also providing command line tools for the administrator, making the troubleshooting experience easier for everyone.
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