Windows 2000 provides a wide range of utilities for use in a managing, configuring, and troubleshooting the TCP/IP environment. I have listed the TCP/IP-related utilities below, along with an outline of their uses and some important switches.
Ping – A simple diagnostic utility that verifies connectivity with a remote computer.
Pathping – An advanced ping utility, it also does a traceroute and provides stats of packet loss at intermediary routers.
Arp – displays and allows modification of the Address Resolution Protocol cache, where information on IP to MAC address mappings for local hosts are stored.
Route – displays and allows modification the locally configured routing table
Tracert – traces the route that a packet takes in reaching its final destination.
Nslookup – a command-line resolver for querying a DNS server.
Netstat – displays current TCP/IP session information. For example, information on connected hosts and port numbers used.
Nbtstat – displays the local Netbios name cache. When used with the –RR switch, causes the client to re-register itself with its configured WINS server.
Ipconfig – displays the current TCP/IP configuration of the local machine.
/release – releases a DHCP-obtained IP address
/renew – obtains a new DHCP IP address
/all – displays all TCP/IP configuration information
/flushdns – purges the local DNS resolver cache
/regsiterdns – refreshes DHCP leases and re-registers with DNS.
/displaydns – shows the contents of the DNS resolver cache.
Hostname – displays the locally configured TCP/IP hostname (note this may be different that the locally configured computername (also referred to as a netbios name).
LPQ – checks print queue status on an LPD-based printer.
LPR – sends a print job to a remote UNIX printer running the LPD service
Ftp – a client program to transfer file between the client and a system configured as an FTP server via TCP.
Rcp – used to copy files between a client and a server running an RCP service.
Rexec – used to execute a command or process on a remote computer
Rsh – used to execute a command or process on a remote computer running remote shell (RSH) service.
Telnet – a client program used to logon and execute command remotely on a system running a telnet service.
Tftp – a client program to transfer small files between the client and a system configured as a TFTP server via UDP.
