IP Configuration command line Tool for windows (ipconfig)

Earlier versions of windows had “winipcfg” tool for performing ip configuration activities. “winipcfg” was replaced by “ipconfig” windows IP configuration tool from windows XP onwards. It is used to display the TCP/IP network configuration values.

To run it, enter “ipconfig” in the command prompt. This will display your IP address as follows:

In case your computer is part of a LAN using a router, the IP displayed by this command will be your Computers IP on the LAN and not the IP that connects to teh internrt. To obtain the IP address of your LAN on internet, you can try any DSL Reports whois.

The IP given is the local address on the network. This information can be used in diagnosing network problems. The “gateway” or router address on the local network is also displayed by this command.

Various switches that can be used with IPConfig

ipconfig switches can be invoked by entering “ipconfig /{switch}”. To display a list of all available switches, enter “ipconfig/?” or “ipconfig -?”. The most commonly used switches by a home user are :

•  all – to display a detailed ip configuration you can use ipconfig/all
• release- to release your IP address.
• renew – asking your network adapter to renew your machine’s ip address
• flushdns- this switch is used to clear all DNS info

The above mentioned switches are very handy for trouble shooting your internet connection issues.

ipconfig

Ipconfig is a Console Command which can be issued to the Command Line Interpreter (or command prompt) to display the network settings currently assigned to any or all network adapters in the machine. This command can be utilised to verify a network connection as well as to verify your network settings.

www.computerhope.com/ipconfig.htm

For Windows 95,98,ME use winipcfg
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;141698

netstat

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). Used without parameters, netstat displays active TCP connections.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/netstat.mspx

tracert

The tracert command is used to visually see a network packet being sent and received and the amount of hops required for that packet to get to its destination.

Users with Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP who need additional information network latency and network loss should also consider using the pathping command.

www.computerhope.com/tracert.htm

ping

Helps in determining TCP/IP Networks IP address as well as determine issues with the network and assists in resolving them.

www.computerhope.com/pinghlp.htm

pathping

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.

www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/pathping.mspx?mfr=true

telnet

Telnet is software that allows users to remotely access another computer such as a server, network device, or other computer. With telnet users can connect to a device or computer, manage a network device, setup a device, transfer files, etc.

www.computerhope.com/software/telnet.htm#03

ftp

FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol, this page contains additional information about the FTP command and help using that command in Unix and MS-DOS (Windows).

www.computerhope.com/software/ftp.htm

route

The function and syntax of the Windows ROUTE command is similar to the UNIX or Linux route command. Use the command to manually configure the routes in the routing table.

www.computerhope.com/routehlp.htm

arp

Displays, adds, and removes arp information from network devices.

www.computerhope.com/arphlp.htm

nslookup

Displays information that you can use to diagnose Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure. Before using this tool, you should be familiar with how DNS works. The Nslookup command-line tool is available only if you have installed the TCP/IP protocol.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/nslookup.mspx

nbtstat

MS-DOS utility that displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT.

www.computerhope.com/nbtstat.htm

netsh
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/netsh.mspx

One common way of using netsh is to reset the TCP/IP in Windows 2k/XP

Type this in Run or DOS Window – “netsh int ip reset”

In Windows XP you can run a graphical diagnostics by typing “netsh diag gui” into the run dialogue box. (This may take a little time to startup)

getmac

DOS command used to show both local and remote MAC addresses. When run with no parameters (ie. getmac) it displays MAC addresses for the local system. When run with the /s parameter (eg. getmac /s \\foo) it displays MAC addresses for the remote computer. When the /v parameter is used, it also displays the associated connection name and network adapter name.

Included with Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, and Windows 2000 Resource Kit. Can be downloaded for the Windows 2000 here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/getmac-o.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/getmac.mspx

Find All Active/Used IP Addresses on Your Network

There is a really neat way that you can quite easily find all active/used IP Addresses on your network without the need for any third party applications or worse, pinging each IP Address individually.

Open the Command Prompt and type in the following:

FOR /L %i IN (1,1,254) DO ping -n 1 192.168.10.%i | FIND /i “Reply”>>c:\ipaddresses.txt

Change 192.168.10 to match you own network.

]]> http://www.imrozbaig.com/common-networking-commands/feed/ 1 http://www.imrozbaig.com/changing-my-pictures-and-my-music-locations-in-vista/ http://www.imrozbaig.com/changing-my-pictures-and-my-music-locations-in-vista/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:10:04 +0000 imroz http://imrozbaig.com/?p=315

Changing My Pictures and My Music

Normally, when you open up the Start Menu, below Documents, is shown My Pictures and My Music

If you want, you can change these to any other locations you may use more frequently.

1. Start Regedit

2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

3. On the right side, change the location for My Pictures and My Music

4. This new location will now show on the start menu

]]> http://www.imrozbaig.com/changing-my-pictures-and-my-music-locations-in-vista/feed/ 0 http://www.imrozbaig.com/changing-the-desktop-icon-size-in-windows-vista/ http://www.imrozbaig.com/changing-the-desktop-icon-size-in-windows-vista/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:04:58 +0000 imroz http://imrozbaig.com/?p=313 Changing the Desktop Icon Size

By default, the icons on the desktop are quite large.
To change the size

1. Right click on the Desktop
2. Select View
3. Set it to Classic Icons

 You can also hold down the Control key while the desktop is displayed

1. Use the wheel mouse to make the icons larger or smaller
2. This gives more control

1. Start Regedit

2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Policies Explorer

3. Create a new DWORD key NoCDBurning

4. Give it a value of 1

5. Log off and back on again

To see what these may be and make any changes you want:

1. Start / Control Panel

2. Programs and Features

3. Click on Turn Windows features on or off

4. It typically takes a little while for this window to populate

5. Hovering the mouse over an entry gives a short description of it

6. From here you can check or uncheck any entries you want.

7. For example, you may not need Windows Fax and Scan

8. Click the OK button when you are done

1. Boot from the Vista installation CD
2. Although they are likely set correctly, select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click on Next.
3. Click Repair your computer
4. Click the operating system, and then click Next.
5. In System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
6. At the command prompt, type in  Bootrec with the option you want , and then press the ENTER key.

/FixMbr

The /FixMbr option writes a windows vista.-compatible MBR to the system partition. This option does not overwrite the existing partition table. Use this option when you must resolve MBR corruption issues, or when you have to remove non-standard code from the MBR.

/FixBoot

The /FixBoot option writes a new boot sector to the system partition by using a boot sector that is compatible with Windows Vista. Use this option if one of the following conditions is true:
The boot sector has been replaced with a non-standard Windows Vista boot sector.
The boot sector is damaged.
An earlier Windows operating system has been installed after Windows Vista was installed. In this scenario, the computer starts by using Windows NT Loader (NTLDR) instead of Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr.exe).

Typically you would run either bootrec /fixmbr or bootrec /fixboot

Want to perform a Vista speed up procedure? I often think of new ways to make my computer run faster. The problem with our lightning quick, just out of the box CPU is it gets slow and sluggish over time. And Windows Vista especially which has a lot of hardware resources that can slow down CPU speeds. Here are some simple speed tweaks you can make to speed up Windows Vista. There is also a program that can perform these functions for you, which can speed up Vista in no time at all.

Get rid of unused or unneeded programs. We often download lots of different software that sounds cool but we rarely use. Don’t fool yourself, just get rid of them. You also want to remove programs from your startup commands that automatically run every time you power Vista on. You can always run these programs from the Start menu if you need to. This will free up a lot of RAM which will improve Windows Vista speed.

Run a disk defragmenter. Windows Vista actually comes with a built in defrag software. I would not recommend using it. The program has been universally panned by tech critics alike. I would recommend using software like the program below. Once a month, before you go to bed, run the program and let it go overnight. This is an easy way to speed up Windows Vista.

Clean Vista registry. The Vista registry does not have an internal cleaning tool. As you download or install new software and hardware, the registry becomes filled with corrupt and redundant information. This is where a Windows Vista registry cleaner comes in. The #1 step you can take to perform a Vista speed up is scan and remove all errors in your registry. This will clear up the congestion that is slowing down your computer speed.

These are all some Vista speed tweaks that everyone should be conducting to speed up Windows Vista. If you are a little lazy like me, I recommend using software to perform the steps for you. You can completely automate the maintenance of your computer. Not only will it improve Windows Vista speed, it will prevent windows error messages, blue screens, and computer crashing.

Do you want to speed up Vista? Well this is not a surprise. Although Microsoft has made some improvements with their latest OS, Vista can still run very sluggish at times. The problem is Vista cannot perform maintenance on itself. The longer we use our computers the more we need to continually tweak and optimize it in order to speed up Windows Vista. And fortunately for those non computer experts, there is software available to perform the tweaks for you. Here is what you should be doing.

1. Free up as much memory space as you can. This includes hard drive memory and RAM. The best way to do this is target the programs you are not using and remove them. Remove all temporary, partial, and redundant files. Kill those startup programs that launch every time you boot up. This will speed up Vista considerably by increasing RAM availability.

2. Schedule a day to run maintenance features like Windows disk clean up and defragmenter software. Think of these like bringing your car in for a tuneup. Microsoft recommends running each once a month at the least. This will streamline the way Vista processes information and in turn increase Windows Vista speed considerably.

3. Install a Windows Vista registry cleaner and fix all errors. These errors screw with the OS processing. A clean and error free registry will do wonders to speed up Vista performance overall. Vista does not come with a program that can adequately fix up the registry. You need to get one on your own.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesDnscacheParameters]
“CacheHashTableBucketSize”=dword:00000001
“CacheHashTableSize”=dword:00000180
“MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit”=dword:0000fa00
“MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit”=dword:0000012d

Make a new text file and rename it to dnscache.reg. Then copy and paste the above into it and save it. Merge it into the registry.