You Are Not Done Yet: Network Connectivity

You are not done testing yet unless...you have verified how your application handles various network configurations and events. In times past you could more or less count on stability in the network - if the computer was connected to a network when your application started, it would almost certainly remain connected to that network while your application was open. Sure, some doofus might cut the main feed with a backhoe or yank the wrong cable in the router closet. The chances of something catastrophic happening were low enough, however, that bugs of the form "Disconnect your computer from the network while the application is opening a twenty megabyte file from a network share" tended to be Won't Fix'd with dispatch under the premise that "No user is going to do that".

Oh how times have changed! Users these days are more likely than not to be connected to a wireless network which drops out on a regular basis. Users who start out connected to a wired connection may undock their computer and thus disconnect from that network at any time. Net-over-cell phone is becoming ever more prevalent. Network-related "We'll fix that if we have time, maybe" issues are now problems which directly affect your customers on a regular basis. And so it is important to check the following:

• Connecting over a network which supports only IPv4
• Connecting over a network which supports only IPv6
• Connecting over a network which supports both IPv4 and IPv6
• Connecting over an 802.11a wireless network
• Connecting over an 802.11b wireless network
• Connecting over an 802.11g wireless network
• Connecting over an 802.11n wireless network
• Connecting over a GPRS (cell phone) network
• Connecting from a multi-homed machine (i.e., one which is connected to multiple networks)
• Connecting via a 28.8 modem
• Connecting via a 56k modem
• Connecting over a network other than the one inside your corporate firewall
• Connecting over a network which requires user authentication on first access
• Connecting over a network which requires user authentication on every access
• Passing through a software firewall
• Passing through a hardware firewall
• Passing through Network Address Translation
• Losing its connection to the network
• Losing its authority to connect to the network
• Joined to a workgroup
• joined to a domain
• Accessing documents from a network location which requires user authentication
• Performing a Print Preview to a network printer which is disconnected or otherwise unavailable

Posted by The Braidy Tester at 07:30 AM  Permalink