Windows operating system comes with some build in windows command line tools. Tools that you can use for all kind of tasks.
In the following article, I will write about some windows command line utils related to networking. You should be familiar with the tools. It can be helpful in many cases.
All the command line tools that I will talk about are free. The tool’s interface in the windows commands line.
Steps to open the command line:
Here are the steps you need to do for opening the command line:
- Press the windows button on the keywords or press the start button or the small 4 windows button.
- Type cmd
- Search for an icon that looks like a black window (may have the name Command Prompt)
- Right-click the icon and select run as administrator (press the Yes option if you get a popup window).
- A back window will open with option to type text in it.
- Type the command line you need to run.
- Press the enter key to execute the command.
Build in windows command line tools:
1) Net use command: The net use command can be used to map a drive over the network, an example can be if you have more then one computer on the same network. Using it you can share a folder on one of them. You can use the net use map drive command to add it as a mapped network drive. Every time your system is connected to the local network it will have a drive letter to that shared folder.
You can also use this command to map a printer over the network.
Type net use /? on the command line for more info about that command.
2) Net time command: The net time command line can be used to get the current local time from your system, it can also be used to get the current time from a remote system over the network.
You can also use the SET command line switch to change the system time.
Net time example:
net time \\localhost – will show you the current localhost (your computer) time.
3) Ipconfig command: The ipconfig command line tool can be used to get the current IP address for IPv4 and IPv6 of your network adapter.Ipconfig can be used to release (delete) and renew the current IP address. It can also clear DNS cache please read more about it at ipconfig page.
4) Netstat command: The netstat command line tool can show you network statistics, you can use it to see what port are open on your system and where are they connected to.
For full information about this tool check our netstat page.
Windows command line tools continue:
5) Nbtstat command: The nbtstat command can also show you network statistics and a network connection from NetBIOS over TCP, more about it can be found on the nbtstat page.
6) Traceroute command: The tracert command line is the traceroute windows command that can trace the way – hops – it takes to reach a destination like a website or other device.
For detail information about the command please see on the Wikipedia traceroute page.
7) Ping command: The ping command can tell you if a target host or device is currently connected to the network or not.
Ping command uses a special protocol called ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) to perform the test.
More about it on the ping page.
We also have a free PingUI tool that you can download, a ping tool with a user interface.
8) ARP command: The address resolution protocol aka ARP, can be used to displays the current ARP entries in the ARP table.
You can use it to add and delete ARP entry from the ARP table from the command line.
We also have a page name ARP.
The conclusion from windows command line tools:
In your daily computer tasks, you encounter in all kinds of problems and situations while using your computer. Knowing the built in windows command line tools that mentioned above, you will able to fix them when needed.