Automatic Error Diagnostic for Network Connection Problems

Customer support inquires about software and network settings takes time and costs money, both for the customer and the vendor giving the support. Doing troubleshooting and problem solving automatically can lower the need for inquires, and when needed, raise the quality of the contact for the customer. Can a nearly automatic program do sufficient network diagnostic and let an end user alleviating the problem found all on their own? I surveyed the offerings of such functionality by the current desktop operating system in use. I also developed a prototype that could do automatic error diagnostic of network software settings and the connection to important network services. The newest operating systems (Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard) have good automatic error diagnostic facilities for generic network problems, but older versions like Windows XP has only limited capability. The prototype look at the same problem, but also take it a step further and test the availability and connection quality to a vendor’s specific network service. For solving generic network problems and when having the newest version of the operating system the benefit of a separate tool is not great. But when a company requires more specific network testing related to their product, and possible retrieve other valuable information for the customer support about the computer setup, a custom developed tool has its benefits