Introduction to the Fix My Network Wizard (FNCW)

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Shawn Sullivan]

In SBS 2003, the CEICW was available to administrators for configuring their firewall, Internet connection, self-signed certificate, and email settings from a single wizard. Re-running the CEICW was a common troubleshooting step in fixing network related problems. However, SBS 2008 has taken the concept of the CEICW and broken it down into several specific wizards in place of one monolithic wizard. Administrators can now address more specific tasks, reducing the likelihood that they may inadvertently change settings that are unrelated to their end goal.

One of these new wizards is the FNCW, which is solely a troubleshooting tool meant to help the administrator resolve network issues. It automatically scans the environment for potential issues with Certificate Services, certificates, DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP configuration, VPN, Exchange, IIS, and Network Discovery. It will either attempt to correct them automatically, or will suggest a course of action to take towards resolution.

The FNCW has been designed to be run by the administrator as the first step in any network related troubleshooting. You can launch it as many times as you require from the Windows SBS Console under the Network > Connectivity sub-tab.

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After it performs its initial scan, it will display a list of issues that require your attention.

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Once you click “Next”, it will attempt to fix the issues automatically. If it is unable to do this, it will suggest a course of action to be taken by the administrator. This may involve running one of the other SBS 2008 wizards, performing manual configurations, verifying the state of underlying components, or performing deeper technical troubleshooting.

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If the wizard is able to fix the issue, it will require no further action from you for that specific item.

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For information on related networking wizards in SBS 2008, please visit: