IT Lecture Notes by Mark Kelly, McKinnon Secondary College

Internet Tools You Already Have

Yes, your Windows computer probably has several internet tools you never knew you had. Here are some of them and what they do. They are all DOS commands, so if you don't know DOS or how to get into it, you'll have to learn! hehehehe

Note: Most identifying IP addresses have been changed to protect the innocent!

ipconfig.exe [Win2000]or winipcfg.exe [Win 9x]

What it does: Tells you your current IP address and gateway.

IPCONFIG EXAMPLE

C:\>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : vic.optushome.com.au
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 201.29.72.89
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 201.22.71.9

C:\>

nslookup.exe

Looks up the name server associated with a domain.

NSLOOKUP EXAMPLE

C:\>nslookup www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
Server: dns.meb.optusnet.com.au
Address: 198.142.0.51

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
Address: 210.11.190.152

C:\>

ping.exe

Times how long it takes to connect to and get a response from a computer on the internet. Gives an indication of internet conditions and server speed. Good to see if a server is down or not. It's also a quick way to find the IP address of a site.

PING EXAMPLE

C:\>ping www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au

Pinging www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au [210.11.190.152] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 210.11.190.152: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=248
Reply from 210.11.190.152: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=248
Reply from 210.11.190.152: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=248
Reply from 210.11.190.152: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=248

Ping statistics for 210.11.190.152:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 17ms, Average = 13ms

C:\>

tracert

Traceroute shows the nodes between you and a destination address.

TRACERT EXAMPLE

C:\>tracert mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au

Tracing route to mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au [210.11.190.152]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1	8 ms	10 ms	6 ms	10.37.0.1
2	7 ms	7 ms	7 ms	ms meb1-pos3-3.gw.optusnet.com.au [198.142.192.17]
3	9 ms	7 ms	11 ms	pos0-0-0.mn1.optus.net.au [202.139.18.5]
4	17 ms	11 ms	12 ms	ConnectCom.mn1.optus.net.au [202.139.7.6]
5	16 ms	12 ms	11 ms	pos0-0.bdr1.bur.connect.com.au [210.8.219.98]
6	14 ms	12 ms	12 ms	vlan2.cor2.bur.connect.com.au [210.8.219.113]
7	18 ms	20 ms	11 ms	myi139576-1.gw.connect.com.au [210.11.58.180]
8	12 ms	17 ms	12 ms	ftp.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au [210.11.190.152]

Trace complete.

C:\>

netstat.exe

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).

NETSTAT EXAMPLE

C:\>netstat

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP mypc-sv1ihr234:1027 localhost:1028 ESTABLISHED
TCP mypc-sv1ihr234:1028 localhost:1027 ESTABLISHED
TCP mypc-sv1ihr234:1505 news-vip.optusnet.com.au:nntp ESTABLISHED
TCP mypc-sv1ihr234:1542 microsoft.net:http ESTABLISHED
TCP mypc-sv1ihr234:1544 microsoft.net:http ESTABLISHED

C:\>

pathping.exe

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. 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. Pathping performs the equivalent of the tracert command by identifying which routers are on the path. It then sends pings periodically to all of the routers over a specified time period and computes statistics based on the number returned from each.

PATHPING EXAMPLE

C:\> pathping microsoft.com

Tracing route to microsoft.com [207.46.249.190] over a maximum of 30 hops:

0 mypc-sv1lrk234.vic.optushome.com.au [200.21.67.45]
1 10.37.0.1
2 meb1-pos3-3.gw.optusnet.com.au [198.142.192.17]
3 meb2-ge1.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.28.96.66]
4 61.88.143.37
5 GigEth3-0.mg1.optus.net.au [202.139.188.1]
6 ge-wan4-1.mg3.optus.net.au [202.139.124.118]
7 pos7-1.sg3.optus.net.au [202.139.124.125]
8 gi3-0.ig6.optus.net.au [61.88.178.8]
9 bpr2-so-6-0-0.LosAngeles.cw.net [208.173.55.149]
10 dcr1-so-4-2-0.Anaheim.cw.net [208.172.44.105]
11 acr2-loopback.Seattle.cw.net [208.172.82.62]
12 bpr2-so-0-0-0.SeattleSwitchDesign.cw.net [208.172.81.185]
13 microsoft-hotmail-exodus.SeattleSwitchDesign.cw.net [208.173.50.86]
14 pos0-0.core1.sea1.us.msn.net [207.46.33.13]
15 207.46.36.210
16 207.46.155.10
17 * * *

Computing statistics for 425 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link

Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address

0 mypc-sv1lkr234.vic.optushome.com.au [200.21.67.45]
0/ 100 = 0% |
1 11ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 10.37.0.1
0/ 100 = 0% |
2 9ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% meb1-pos3-3.gw.optusnet.com.au [198.142.192.17]
0/ 100 = 0% |
3 9ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% meb2-ge1.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.28.96.66]
0/ 100 = 0% |
4 14ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 61.88.143.37
0/ 100 = 0% |
5 11ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% GigEth3-0.mg1.optus.net.au [202.139.188.1]
0/ 100 = 0% |
6 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% ge-wan4-1.mg3.optus.net.au [202.139.124.118]
0/ 100 = 0% |
7 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% pos7-1.sg3.optus.net.au [202.139.124.125]
0/ 100 = 0% |
8 26ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% gi3-0.ig6.optus.net.au [61.88.178.8]
0/ 100 = 0% |
9 176ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% bpr2-so-6-0-0.LosAngeles.cw.net [208.173.55.149]
0/ 100 = 0% |
10 175ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% dcr1-so-4-2-0.Anaheim.cw.net [208.172.44.105]
0/ 100 = 0% |
11 197ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% acr2-loopback.Seattle.cw.net [208.172.82.62]
0/ 100 = 0% |
12 195ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% bpr2-so-0-0-0.SeattleSwitchDesign.cw.net [208.172.81.185]
0/ 100 = 0% |
13 198ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% microsoft-hotmail-exodus.SeattleSwitchDesign.cw.net [208.173.50.86]
0/ 100 = 0% |
14 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% pos0-0.core1.sea1.us.msn.net [207.46.33.13]
0/ 100 = 0% |
15 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% 207.46.36.210
0/ 100 = 0% |
16 200ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 207.46.155.10
100/ 100 =100% |
17 --- 100/ 100 =100% 0/ 100 = 0% mypc-sv1lrk234 [0.0.0.0]

Trace complete.

There are other tools such as ARP, Telnet (which lets you log in to and control a remote server) and Finger but they are too complicated, need login permission or are usually disallowed by remote servers for security reasons.

Back to the IT Lecture Notes

Back to the last page you visited

Created June 8, 2003

Last changed: September 3, 2003 12:53 PM