Author: Neftaly Malatjie

Another useful addition to the network diagnostics family is the network tab within Task Manager. This tab displays each network adapter on the machine, LAN or WAN, and displays the percentage network utilization and other metrics for the adapter. This is useful in those situations where a user is not sure whether the network traffic is high or whether a server is just slow in responding. By using this tool, users have a quick guide to how well their network is performing.

Quite possibly the coolest network diagnostics tool yet, the repair link performs a series of safe configuration repair steps that support professionals normally ask a customer to perform during the first few minutes of a support call. By automating these initial repair steps into a single task, users now have considerable troubleshooting and problem fixing power within one click of a mouse.

This addition to the network connection status page promises to become widely used for resolving network problems. This enhancement provides all of the information and tasks that the Win9x support tool Winipcfg.exe used to provide while improving it in the process.

The Network Diagnostics Web Page in Windows XP was designed to make it easy for both the consumer and the support professional to quickly gain usable information about the consumer’s home network environment.

This tool provides a wealth of information to the user. It includes computer and operating system information, adapter information, ping and connect tests, and many other features for diagnosing network problems.

A New Wealth of Tools

With the emerging importance of networks within the home, it has become necessary to provide a wide range of troubleshooting and diagnostics tools that are easily run and easily understood. Along these lines, the Network Diagnostics Team now offers several mechanisms for helping diagnose and fix network related problems. The current tool set now includes four primary additions to the Windows XP operating system. These are the Network Diagnostics Web Page, the Network Connections Support Tab, the Network Connections Repair Link, and the Task Manager networking tab. Each of these are summarized below and are further detailed in respective sections that appear later in this document