Windows Users Should Know These Network DOS Commands

Some of us remember working from the command prompt, but we many not want to admit that, since that was before Microsoft Windows became the standard, and it might reveal something about our age!  This is far from an exhaustive list, but rather just a few of the network related DOS commands you should have in your arsenal of tricks.

To issue these commands you have to get to a command prompt.  In Windows 7 you will find the Command Prompt program under the accessories from the start menu.  In Windows 8 you can search for “command”.

Once you have the command prompt, here are a quick summary of some network related DOS commands that you may find useful.

IP CONFIG, or IPCONFIG /ALL

This command will give you a quick listing of the local IP address that your computer is currently using, along with subnet and gateway.  Keep in mind that if you’re behind a router, like most computers today, you will not receive the public IP address.  Ipconfig becomes even more powerful with a few options ( leave off the “:” when issuing these commands; These are usually typed in lower case).

• ipconfig /release:  This will force your computer to release it’s ip.
• ipconfig /renew:  This will force your computer to request a new ip address.  These two commands issued in this sequence is handy to troubleshoot network connection problems.
• ipconfig /flushdns:  This is handy to force a refresh of your DNS address.

These commands are great if the Windows network troubleshooter does not resolve your network connection problems or if you just want to solve network connection problems more quickly.

PING

Commit this one to memory for sure, there is no better way to determine if your computer has access to the internet or more specifically to a specific networked device.  Basically ping is saying to the recipient “Are you there?”.

• ping google.com:  This will quickly determine if your computer can talk to the Google.com server.  It will tell you the ip address of google.com and the speed in which it communicates.
• ping 192.168.1.125:  This will determine if your computer can reach ip address 192.168.1.125. Of course this will work for any valid ip address.

In each case typing “ping” followed by an IP address or web domain will send a series of test packets to the specified address. If they arrive and are returned, you know the device is capable of communicating with your PC.  If it fails you will know that there is something preventing this from happening.  Usually it indicates a network connection problem on your end.

PATHPING