Help with ping, winipcfg, and other network

commands
Updated: 05/05/2017 by Computer Hope

Below is a listing of the various network related commands used in MS-

DOS, Windows command line, Linux, Unix, and other operating systems. Each
command includes additional information to what the command does, the
command's syntax, and miscellaneous information.
Note: If you are not the root or admin of a computer, these commands may not work.
 Arp
 Finger
 Hostname
 Ipconfig
 Nbtstat
 Net
 Netstat
 Nslookup
 Pathping
 Ping
 Route
 Tracert and Traceroute
 Whois
 Winipcfg
Arp
Display or manipulate the ARP information on a network device or computer.
 See the arp command page for further help and information.
Finger
The finger command available in Unix and Linux variants allows a user to find sometimes
personal information about a user. This information can include the last time the user
logged in, and when they read their e-mail, etc. If the user creates a .PLAN or other
related file the user can also display additional information.
 See the Unix and Linux finger command page for further information and help.
Hostname

The hostname command displays the host name of the Windows XP computer currently
logged into.
 See the hostname command page for further help and information.
Ipconfig
Ipconfig is an MS-DOS utility that can be used from MS-DOS and an MS-DOS shell to
display the network settings currently assigned and given by a network. This command
can be utilized to verify a network connection as well as to verify your network settings.
Windows 2000 users should use this command to determine network information.
 See the ipconfig command page for further information and help.
Pathping

Pathping is an MS-DOS utility available for Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP
users. This utility enables a user to find network latency and network loss.
  See the pathping command page for further help and information.
Ping

Ping is one of the most commonly used network commands that allows you to ping a
network IP address. Pinging an IP address helps determine if the network card can
communicate within the local network or outside network.

 How to ping an IP address or website.

 See the ping command page for further help on the MS-DOS and Windows command line command.
 See the Unix and Linux ping command page for further information on this command.
Nbtstat

The nbtstat MS-DOS utility that displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP
connections using NBT.
 See the nbtstat command page for further help on this MS-DOS and Windows command.
Net
The net command is available in MS-DOS and Windows and is used to set, view, and
determine network settings.
 See the net command page for further information on this command.
Netstat
The netstat command is used to display the TCP/IP network protocol statistics and
information.
 See the netstat command page for further help with this MS-DOS and Windows command.
 See the Unix and Linux netstat command for further help with this command.
Nslookup

The nslookup MS-DOS utility that enables a user to do a reverse lookup on an IP address
of a domain or host on a network.
 See the nslookup command page for further help on this MS-DOS and Windows command.
 See the Unix and Linux nslookup command page for further help with this command.
 Linux users may also be interested in the host command that performs a similar task.
Route

The route MS-DOS utility enables computers to view and modify the computer's route
table.
 See the route command page for further information and help with this command.
Tracert and traceroute

The tracert command in MS-DOS and Windows (known as traceroute in Unix-like

operating systems) is a useful tool for diagnosing network issues. It allows you to view a
listing of how a network packet travels through the network and where it may fail or
slow down. Using this information you can determine the computer, router, switch or
other network device possibly causing your network issues.
 See the tracert command for further help with the MS-DOS and Windows command.
 See the Unix and Linux traceroute command for further help with this command.
Whois
The whois command available in Unix and Linux variants helps allow a user to identify a
domain name. This command provides information about a domain name much like the
WHOIS on network solutions. In some cases the domain information will be provided
from Network Solutions.
 See the Unix and Linux whois command for further information on this command.
Winipcfg

The winipcfg command available in Windows allows a user to display network and
network adapter information. Here, a user can find such information as an IP address,
Subnet Mask, Gateway, etc.
 See the winipcfg command for further information on this command.
Tip: Windows 2000, Windows XP and above users do not have winipcfg. Instead,
use ipconfig.

Windows Network Diagnostic Commands

The following are common Microsoft Windows network commands

ipconfig
Ipconfig is a Console Command which can be issued to the Command Line Interpreter (or command
prompt) to display the network settings currently assigned to any or all network adapters in the
machine. This command can be utilised to verify a network connection as well as to verify your
network settings.

www.computerhope.com/ipconfig.htm

For Windows 95,98,ME use winipcfg

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;141698

netstat
Displays active TCP connections, ports on which the computer is listening, Ethernet statistics,
the IP routing table, IPv4 statistics (for the IP, ICMP, TCP, and UDP protocols), and IPv6 statistics
(for the IPv6, ICMPv6, TCP over IPv6, and UDP over IPv6 protocols). Used without parameters,
netstat displays active TCP connections.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/netstat.mspx
tracert
The tracert command is used to visually see a network packet being sent and received and the
amount of hops required for that packet to get to its destination.

Users with Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP who need additional information network
latency and network loss should also consider using the pathping command.

www.computerhope.com/tracert.htm

ping
Helps in determining TCP/IP Networks IP address as well as determine issues with the network and
assists in resolving them.

www.computerhope.com/pinghlp.htm

pathping
Provides information about network latency and network loss at intermediate hops between a source
and destination. Pathping sends multiple Echo Request messages to each router between a source
and destination over a period of time and then computes results based on the packets returned from
each router.

www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-
us/pathping.mspx?mfr=true

telnet
Telnet is software that allows users to remotely access another computer such as a server, network
device, or other computer. With telnet users can connect to a device or computer, manage a network
device, setup a device, transfer files, etc.

www.computerhope.com/software/telnet.htm#03

ftp
FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol, this page contains additional information about the FTP
command and help using that command in Unix and MS-DOS (Windows).

www.computerhope.com/software/ftp.htm

route
The function and syntax of the Windows ROUTE command is similar to the UNIX or Linux route
command. Use the command to manually configure the routes in the routing table.

www.computerhope.com/routehlp.htm

arp
Displays, adds, and removes arp information from network devices.

www.computerhope.com/arphlp.htm

nslookup
Displays information that you can use to diagnose Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure.
Before using this tool, you should be familiar with how DNS works. The Nslookup command-line tool
is available only if you have installed the TCP/IP protocol.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/nslookup.mspx

nbtstat
MS-DOS utility that displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT.
www.computerhope.com/nbtstat.htm

netsh
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/netsh.mspx

One common way of using netsh is to reset the TCP/IP in Windows 2k/XP

Type this in Run or DOS Window – "netsh int ip reset"

In Windows XP you can run a graphical diagnostics by typing "netsh diag gui" into the run dialogue
box. (This may take a little time to startup)

getmac

DOS command used to show both local and remote MAC addresses. When run with no parameters
(ie. getmac) it displays MAC addresses for the local system. When run with the /s parameter
(eg. getmac /s \\foo) it displays MAC addresses for the remote computer. When the /v parameter is
used, it also displays the associated connection name and network adapter name.

Top 10 Basic Network Troubleshooting Tools

Network troubleshooting tools are a necessity for every network administrator. When getting started
in the networking field, it is important to amass a number of tools that can be used to troubleshoot a
variety of different network conditions.
While it is true that the the use of specific tools can be subjective and at the discretion of the
engineer, the selection of tools in this article has been made based on their generality and common
use. This article reviews the top 10 basic tools that can help you troubleshoot most networking
issues.

10. Ping
The most commonly used network tool is the ping utility. This utility is used to provide a basic
connectivity test between the requesting host and a destination host. This is done by using the
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) which has the ability to send an echo packet to a
destination host and a mechanism to listen for a response from this host. Simply stated, if the
requesting host receives a response from the destination host, this host is reachable. This utility is
commonly used to provide a basic picture of where a specific networking problem may exist. For
example, if an Internet connection is down at an office, the ping utility can be used to figure out
whether the problem exists within the office or within the network of the Internet provider. Figure 1
below shows an example of the ping utility being used to obtain the reachability status of the locally
connected router.
Figure 1: Ping utility

9. Tracert/traceroute
Typically, once the ping utility has been used to determine basic connectivity, the tracert/traceroute
utility can used to determine more specific information about the path to the destination host including
the route the packet takes and the response time of these intermediate hosts. Figure 2 below shows
an example of the tracert utility being used to find the path from a host inside an office to
www.google.com. The tracert utility and traceroute utilities perform the same function but operate on
different operating systems, Tracert for Windows machines and traceroute for Linux/*nix based
machines.

Figure 2: Tracert/traceroute utility

8. Ipconfig/ifconfig
One of the most important things that must be completed when troubleshooting a networking issue is
to find out the specific IP configuration of the variously affected hosts. Sometimes this information is
already known when addressing is configured statically, but when a dynamic addressing method is
used, the IP address of each host can potentially change often. The utilities that can be used to find
out this IP configuration information include the ipconfig utility on Windows machines and the ifconfig
utility on Linux/*nix based machines. Figure 3 below shows an example of the ifconfig utility showing
the IP configuration information of a queries host.

Figure 3: Ifconfig utility

7. Nslookup
Some of the most common networking issues revolve around issues with Dynamic Name System
(DNS) address resolution issues. DNS is used by everyone using the Internet to resolve commonly
known domain names (i.e. google.com) to commonly unknown IP addresses (i.e. 74.125.115.147).
When this system does not work, most of the functionality that people are used to goes away, as
there is no way to resolve this information. The nslookup utility can be used to lookup the specific IP
address(es) associated with a domain name. If this utility is unable to resolve this information, there is
a DNS issue. Along with simple lookup, the nslookup utility is able to query specific DNS servers to
determine an issue with the default DNS servers configured on a host. Figure 4 below shows an
example of how the nslookup utility can be used to query the associated IP address information.
Figure 4: Nslookup utility

6. Netstat
Often, one of the things that are required to be figured out is the current state of the active network
connections on a host. This is very important information to find for a variety of reasons. For example,
when verifying the status of a listening port on a host or to check and see what remote hosts are
connected to a local host on a specific port. It is also possible to use the netstat utility to determine
which services on a host that is associated with specific active ports. Figure 5 below shows an
example of the netstat utility being used to display the currently active ports on a Linux machine.

Figure 5: Netstat utility

5. PuTTY/Tera Term
When connecting to a variety of different types of equipment, a telnet, SSH or serial client is required;
when this is required both the puTTY and Tera Term programs are able to provide these
functionalities. The selection of one over the other is strictly a personal preference. Figures 6 and 7
below show both puTTY and Tera Term being used to connect to a host via SSH.
Figure 6: PuTTY

Figure 7: Tera Term

4. Subnet and IP Calculator

One of the most important tools in the belt of a junior network engineer is an IP network calculator.
These can be used to unsure a correct IP address selection and with this a correct IP address
configuration. While this type of tool is used by senior level network engineers, much of the
information obtained from the tool becomes simpler to calculate the longer and more experience you
have in the field. Two of the more commonly used free IP calculators include Wildpackets (Bitcricket)
Network Calculator and Solarwinds Advanced Subnet Calculator which can be found at the links
below.

http://www.bitcricket.com/downloads/IPCalculator.msi

http://downloads.solarwinds.com/solarwinds/Release/FreeTool/SolarWinds-Subnet-Calculator.zip

Figure 8: Subnet calculator

3. Speedtest.net/pingtest.net
A very easy test that can be used to both determine the Internet bandwidth available to a specific host
and to determine the quality of an Internet connection is the use of the tools available at the
speedtest.net and pingtest.net websites. The speedtest.net site provides the ability to determine the
amount of bandwidth that is available to a specific host at a specific point in time; this is often a good
tool to use when measuring how long it is going to take to upload or download information from a
local to remote host. This measurement can also be used to determine whether the connection is
offering the amount of bandwidth that was purchased from the Internet provider; keep in mind
however that some amount of bandwidth difference is expected between the quoted bandwidth
purchased and the measured bandwidth. The pingtest.net website is used to determine the quality of
the connection by measuring the ping response times and jitter amounts over a short period of time.
This information can be used to determine a likelihood of how well the measured connection will deal
with certain types of high demand traffic like Voice over IP (VoIP) or gaming. Figure 9 and 10 below
show example output from both of these sites.

Figure 9: Speedtest
Figure 10: Pingtest

2. Pathping/mtr
In an effort to take advantage of the benefits of both the ping and tracert/traceroute commands, the
pathping and mtr utilities were developed. Both of these tools take the functionality and information
that can be obtained from these types of tools and provide a more detailed single picture of the path
characteristics from a specific host to a specific destination. Figure 11 and 12 below show examples
of these two tools and what information they provide.
Figure 11: Pathping