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11 networking commands every Windows admin should use

11 NETWORKING COMMANDS EVERY

WINDOWS ADMIN SHOULD USE
Brien Posey A U G U S T 7 , 2 0 1 7  35.0K Views  4

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The Windows operating system contains numerous built-in, command line

networking utilities. These tools range from the obscure to the commonplace.
However, there are 11 built-in networking tools that Windows networking
administrators should be familiar with.

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Ping
Learn about the latest security
I am guessing that the ping command is probably the most familiar, and most threats, system optimization
widely used of the utilities being discussed in this article, but that does not tricks, and the hottest new
make it any less essential. technologies in the industry.

Ping is used to test the ability of one network host to communicate with Over 1,000,000 fellow IT Pros
are already on-board, don't be
another. Simply enter the Ping command, followed by the name or the IP
left out!
address Yof
O Uthe
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or firewalls preventing the ping from completing, the remote host will
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a valid and functional network path exists between the two hosts.
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NetStat
If you are experiencing problems with network communications, then FEATURED FREEWARE
network statistics can sometimes help point you toward the root cause of the
problem. That’s where the aptly named NetStat command comes into play.
This command has a number of different functions, but the most useful of
these is to display network summary information for the device. To see this
type of summary information, just type NetStat -e.

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ARP TFTP Server. The

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The ARP command corresponds to the Address Resolution Protocol. Pros
Although it is easy to think of network communications in terms of IP
addressing, packet delivery is ultimately dependent on the Media Access
Control (MAC) address of the device’s network adapter. This is where the
Address Resolution Protocol comes into play. Its job is to map IP addresses
to MAC addresses. RECOMMENDED

Windows devices maintain an ARP cache, which contains the results of

recent ARP queries. You can see the contents of this cache by using the ARP
-A command. If you are having problems communicating with one specific
FOLLOW US
host, you can append the remote host’s IP address to the ARP -A command.

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11 networking commands every Windows admin should use

NbtStat
As I am sure you probably know, computers that are running a Windows
operating system are assigned a computer name. Oftentimes, there is a
domain name or a workgroup name that is also assigned to the computer. The
computer name is sometimes referred to as the NetBIOS name.

Windows uses several different methods to map NetBIOS names to IP

addresses, such as broadcast, LMHost lookup, or even using the nearly
extinct method of querying a WINS server.

Of course, NetBIOS over TCP/IP can occasionally break down. The NbtStat
command can help you to diagnose and correct such problems. The NbtStat -
n command for example, shows the NetBIOS names that are in use by a
device. The NbtStat -r command shows how many NetBIOS names the
device has been able to resolve recently.

Hostname
The previously discussed NbtStat command can provide you with the host
name that has been assigned to a Windows device, if you know which switch
to use with the command. However, if you’re just looking for a fast and easy
way of verifying a computer’s name, then try using the Hostname command.
Typing Hostname at the command prompt returns the local computer name.

Tracert
Contrary to what a rather infamous YouTube video might lead you to believe,
Tracert isn’t pronounced “Tracer T,” nor can it show you how many people
are using Google right this second. Instead, Tracert, or “Trace Route,” is a
utility for examining the path to a remote host.

Functionally, Tracert works similarly to Ping. The major difference is that

Tracert sends a series of ICMP echo requests, and the request’s TTL
increased by 1 each time. This allows the utility to display the routers through
which packets
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the duration and IP address or fully qualified domain name of each hop.

IpCon g
One utility that I find myself using constantly is IPConfig. At its simplest, the
IPConfig command will display basic IP address configuration information
for the device. Simply type IPConfig at the Windows command prompt, and
you will be presented with the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway
that the device is currently using.

If you would like to see more detailed information, then type IPConfig /all.
Doing so causes Windows to display IP address configuration that is much
more verbose. This is also the command that you will have to use if you want
to see which DNS server the Windows device is configured to use.

The IPConfig command can do much more than just display IP address
configuration information. It also contains options that can help you to
troubleshoot problems related to DNS and DHCP. For example, entering the
IPConfig /FlushDNS command purges the contents of the computer’s DNS
resolver cache.
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NSLookup
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11 networking commands every Windows admin should use

NSLookup is a great utility for diagnosing DNS name resolution problems.

Just type the NSLookup command, and Windows will display the name and
IP address of the device’s default DNS server. From there, you can type host
names in an effort to see if the DNS server is able to resolve the specified
host name.

Route
IP networks use routing tables to direct packets from one subnet to another.
The Windows Route utility allows you to view the device’s routing tables. To
do so, simply type Route Print.

The cool thing about the Route command is that it not only shows you the
routing table, it lets you make changes. Commands such as Route Add, Route
Delete, and Route Change allow you to make routing table modifications on
an as needed basis. The changes that you make can be persistent or
nonpersistent, depending on whether you use the -P switch.

PathPing
Earlier, I talked about the Ping utility and the Tracert utility, and the
similarities between them. As you might have guessed, the PathPing tool is a
utility that combines the best aspects of Tracert and Ping.

Entering the PathPing command followed by a host name initiates what looks
like a somewhat standard Tracert process. Once this process completes
however, the tool takes 300 seconds (five minutes) to gather statistics, and
then reports latency and packet loss statistics that are more detailed than
those provided by Ping or Tracert.

NetDiag
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NetDiag. The NetDiag command is designed to run a battery of tests on the
computer in order to help the technician figure out why the computer is
experiencing networking problems.

One of the things that I really like about this tool is that although there are a
number of optional switches that you can use, you don’t have to use any of
them unless you want to. Entering the NetDiag command by itself will cause
all of the available tests to be run.

In some cases, NetDiag can not only identify problems, but can also fix those
problems. Obviously, NetDiag cannot automatically correct every problem
that it finds, but appending the /Fix parameter to the command will tell
NetDiag to attempt to fix the problem automatically.

The Windows operating system is jam packed with command line utilities.
Many of these utilities are left over from operating systems that were
introduced decades ago. Even so, the utilities that I have discussed in this
article are every bit as useful today as they were when they were first
introduced.

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ADMIN SHOULD USE

AUTHOR

Brien Posey

Brien Posey is a freelance technology author and

speaker with over two decades of IT experience. Prior
to going freelance, Brien was a CIO for a national
chain of hospitals and healthcare facilities. He has also
served as a network engineer for the United States
Department of Defense at Fort Knox. In addition,
Brien has worked as a network administrator for some
of the largest insurance companies in America. To
 
date, Brien has received
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numerous times in categories including Windows
Server, IIS, Exchange Server, and File Systems /
Storage. You can visit Brien’s Website at:
[Link].

4 COMMENTS

Larry September 25, 2017 at 7:08 pm R E P L Y

NetDiag is listed and this article is dated 9/1/2017? NetDiag

hasn't been included with Windows since XP.

jim June 27, 2018 at 12:05 pm R E P L Y

I'm running xp now, and it's not recognizing NetDiag.

Praveen September 26, 2018 at 4:27 pm R E P L Y

Can you explain ARP and RARP difference?

Ata Ul Naseer October 4, 2018 at 1:38 pm R E P L Y

The goal of what is now called Intrusion Detection Systems

(IDS) was to detect a malicious attacker before an anti-
virus, Trojan horse, or worm was used to strike. If the
attacker was able to strike the network, security
professionals would dissect the code. Once the code was
dissected, a response or "fix" was applied to the infected
machine(s).

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