Working in a new server farm, it’s inevitable that you’ll have a moment where somebody (application) or something (server) is not talking to each other. Windows Firewall, Hardware Firewalls, ISA Server, Named Instances, Non-Default ports, Load Balancing, Multiple Nics, IIS Ports, and more. When you take all of these different points of communication failure and add in the biggest danger (human error), there will be a communication breakdown.
It’s happened more times than once to me in SharePoint environments, especially the more integration that you start to do (RMS, SSRS, etc…).
When things are not going correctly, I rely on this utility to help me pinpoint what is wrong, PortQry Command Line Port Scanner Version 2.0. It’s very useful for determining if a TCP/IP port is listening or not, specifically LDAP, SQL Server, and ISA.
From Microsoft:
PortQry is a command-line utility that you can use to help troubleshoot TCP/IP connectivity issues. This utility reports the port status of target TCP and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports on a local computer or on a remote computer. PortQry version 2.0 also provides detailed information about the local computer's port usage.
Enjoy. :)
