Describes an issue in which you can't use the Remote Connectivity Analyzer tool to test connectivity to Office 365. Provides a resolution. Utilities & tools Wish list. I am thrilled to present the new Connectivity App with over than 200.000 downloads. It has been restarted from scratch and done for Windows Phone 8. Connectivity has changed in this new version. It is better, faster and more powerful but it is still simple to use. This are the most important features for.
Formally released as Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer, Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a tool that allows you to analyze, troubleshoot and fix Office 365 apps & other. The tool has two components: a browser-based UI that collects basic connectivity information, and a downloadable Windows 10 application that runs advanced tests and returns additional assessment data. The Forgotten (or Lost) Microsoft Tools for Office 365 Connectivity Troubleshooting. Microsoft used to provide more tools for troubleshooting connectivity and Office 365. But some are difficult to find or have been deprecated (no longer supported or maintained). We’ll briefly discuss them here for posterity and provide links where we can.
The Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer (MCA) is a diagnostics tool for troubleshooting and testing connectivity to several Microsoft messaging products from a client machine on an organization's network.
MCA checks common connectivity symptoms from a local Windows machine behind an organization's firewall by replicating different logon and mail flow processes. MCA stores results in a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) file that team members in an IT department can share to troubleshoot an issue. MCA supports connection tests for Outlook, Office 365 and Skype for Business.
Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer tests and features
MCA runs diagnostic tests for several scenarios:
- 'I can't log on with Office Outlook.'
- 'I can't send or receive email on my mobile device.'
- 'I can't log on to Lync on my mobile device or the Lync Windows Store App.'
- 'I can't send or receive email from Outlook (Office 365 only).'
- 'I can't view free/busy information of another user.'
- 'I am experiencing other problems with Outlook (English Only).'
- 'I can't set up Federation with Office 365, Azure or other services that use Azure Active Directory.'
Desktop tool attempts to diagnose
Outlook connectivity problems.
For example, an enterprise that uses Exchange Online as its messaging platform would run the 'I can't send or receive email from Outlook (Office 365 only)' test for users with email problems in Outlook. For this issue, MCA checks both inbound and outbound Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mail flow and tests connectivity to the domain and Office 365 servers.
Microsoft released version 1.0 of MCA in February 2013 with tests for the first five scenarios, adding two additional tests in subsequent versions. Microsoft released the latest version, 2.6, in October 2014.
Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer vs. Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer
Microsoft provides a similar diagnostic tool called Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer.
Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer -- originally released as Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer -- is a more comprehensive collection of connectivity testing tools. The main difference is the Remote Connectivity Analyzer runs outside the organization's firewall from a Microsoft web-based application. The Remote Connectivity Analyzer also presents its troubleshooting options in a tabbed menu layout rather than a wizard interface.
The Remote Connectivity Analyzer tests various functions unavailable in the Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer, such as checking that the correct server ports respond to outside queries and remote access authorization works as expected.
While I can’t say I have to do it all that often, there are occasional times when I need to test connectivity from a machine back to SQL. The question then comes up, how to easily get that done? Installing SQL tools is the most obvious, but not always handy and I really don’t want to be installing SQL tools on every machine I do this from. The easy answer is to use a UDL file.
How do I use a UDL file?
While you can use a UDL file to test various connectivity scenarios, as an System Center Configuration Manager admin I’m mostly concerned with connections back to the SQL database so I set it up on the provider tab to use the “Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL.”
The next step is to fill out the necessary information on the connection tab.
![Connectivity Connectivity](/uploads/1/2/5/0/125062753/888649581.jpg)
Test the connection, and troubleshoot as necessary if it fails to connect.
I’m sure you can do all kinds of fancy other things with the tool.. heck, we only used two of the four tabs, but I’m an SCCM guy and not a SQL guru so I leave that for other folks to blog about.
Where do I get this cool UDL file?
I saved the best for last. This cool tool… you already have it. It is part of every windows OS that I have used. Create a simple text file, rename the extension from TXT to UDL, and TADA… you got yourself a handy utility. Delete the file when you are done to clean-up after yourself.
Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer Tool
Credit goes to Faruk Celik for clueing me into this from his blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/farukcelik/archive/2007/12/31/basics-first-udl-test.aspx