Networking Commands for windows

Switches for ipconfig-

There are different types of switches for ipconfig that add functions These are invoked by entering "ipconfig /{switch}". To Find a list of switches, enter "ipconfig /?" or "ipconfig -?".  The switches of most interest to everyday use are "release" and "renew". Note that IP addresses are typically assigned or "leased" for a period of time, most of a day or more. It sometimes happens that IP addresses are no longer valid or are in conflict. we can often be solved by first releasing the IP address and then renewing it. Sometimes cable or DSL modems that seem to be disabled can be restored this way. If you travel and use broadband connections elsewhere, you will often find this procedure of releasing and renewing the IP address to be necessary.

Tracert-

Tracert  is another old tool taken from Unix. The main path between two computers on the Internet is not a straight line but consists of numerous segments or "hops" from one intermediate computer to another. Tracert shows each step of the path taken. It can be interesting to see just how convoluted it is. The times for each hop and the IP addresses for each intermediate computer are displayed. Tracert shows up to 30 hops. It is convenient for finding if there is one particular segment that is causing a slow or bad connection.

Pathping

This commands combines functions of Ping and Tracert. This will first list the number of hops required to reach the address you are testing and then send diffrent 2  pings to each router between you and the destination. After that, it computes results based on the packets returned from each router. Because pathping displays the degree of packet loss at any given router or link, you can determine which routers or subnets might be having network problems. Note down that whole process can consume 6-11 minutes because many pings are being sent. Here are switches to modify the process and these can be seen by entering  in the command prompt.

Netstat

Netstat Shows the updated TCP connections and ports on which  computer is listening, Ethernet statistics, the IP routing table, statistics for the IP, ICMP, and UDP protocols. It occurs with a number of switches for displaying a variety of quality of the network and TCP connections.  One possible use for Netstat is to determine if virus have established connections that you do not know about. The command "netstat -a" will display all your connections. The command "netstat -b" will show the executable files involved in creating a connection. 

Nslookup

This command helps solve the problem of Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure and occurs with a number of sub-commands. These are mostly for systems admin. The primary interest for average computer users is its use to get the computer name corresponding to a numeric IP. For example, if you want to know who is "216.109.112.135" , enter "nslookup 216.109.112.135" and you will find that it is  a Yahoo computer. My firewall keeps a log of the IPs involved in the attempts to probe my computer and I sometimes look a few up to see who they are. 

Netsh

The network services shell is a large suite of many tools. I discuss it in some depth on another page.