In theory, this command allows you to view information about users logged onto a remote computer. The finger command is old and is no longer widely used. The netstat utility can show you the open connections on your computer, which programs are making which connections, how much data is being transmitted, and other information. It’s available on Windows, Mac, and Linux - each version has its own command-line options you can tweak to see different types of information. This command displays incoming and outgoing network connections as well as other network information. This information is also available from many websites that can perform whois lookups for you.
This command isn’t included with Windows itself, but Microsoft’s Windows Sysinternals provides a Whois tool you can download. This can show you more information about who registered and owns a domain name, including their contact information.
The whois command looks up the registration record associated with a domain name. For example, nslookup 208.43.115.82 will show you that this IP address is associated with. Nslookup also allows you to perform a reverse lookup to find the domain name associated with an IP address. This command just allows you to do it manually.
Your computer is constantly querying its DNS servers to translate domain names to IP addresses. For example, you can run nslookup to see the IP address of How-To Geek’s server.
The nslookup command will look up the IP addresses associated with a domain name. RELATED: What Is DNS, and Should I Use Another DNS Server? This utility can quickly display your computer’s IP address or help you troubleshoot problems. Other commands can force your computer to release its IP address and get a new one from its DHCP server. Or, you can use the ipconfig /flushdns command to flush your DNS cache, forcing Windows to get new addresses from its DNS servers every time you contact a new hostname. These commands allow you to configure your network interfaces and view information about them.įor example, you can use the ipconfig /all command on Windows to view all your configured network interfaces, their IP addresses, DNS servers, and other information.
The ipconfig command is used on Windows, while the ifconfig command is used on Linux, Mac OS X, and other Unix-like operating systems. RELATED: 10 Useful Windows Commands You Should Know For example, if you can’t communicate with a server, running traceroute may show you where the problem is occurring between your computer and the remote host. This tool can help troubleshoot connection problems. This will show you the path packets take when you send them between your location and a destination. traceroute sends packets to a destination, asking each Internet router along the way to reply when it passes on the packet.
The traceroute, tracert, or tracepath command is similar to ping, but provides information about the path a packet takes.
RELATED: How to Use Traceroute to Identify Network Problems
This tool can help you troubleshoot Internet connection problems, but bear in mind that many servers and devices are configured not to reply to pings. You’ll see a “request timed out” message if packet loss is occurring, and you’ll see an error message if your computer can’t communicate with the remote host at all. You’ll be able to see how long the round-trip time is between your computer and the destination. If the remote destination is configured to reply, it will respond with packets of its own. These packets ask the remote destination to reply. For example, you could run ping or ping 173.194.33.174 to ping a domain name or IP address. The ping command sends ICMP echo request packets to a destination. RELATED: How To Troubleshoot Internet Connection Problems