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Wireless Home Computer

Network Tools Can Verify Your
Host Connection And Much More

Ping is part of the network tools a command line tool that let's you verify the connection to a remote computer.

It's available in all version of windows and requires the TCP/IP protocol.

Ping works by sending a Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request message to a remote computer.

 

 

ICMP is error-reporting protocol that uses IP datagram's, and the message is processed by the IP software which is not seen by the user. The messages
all request a reply, and the user can see whether a reply is received and the
length of the time it takes to receive that reply you an use ping to check for
a variety of tasks

  • To make sure that the TCP/IP protocol is installed and running on your computer

  • To see if your computer is correctly connected to the network and
    receiving an IP address from the DHCP server - dynamic hosting
    control protocol

  • To see if your computer can connect to the internet host computer
    (ex: yahoo. COM) on the LAN (local area network) or the internet

TCP/IP – Troubleshooting
The more you know about TCP/IP, the easier it will be resolve your problems,
you can access these utilities from the command prompt, This page has some
large images for the commands, but it' necessary to show you how it's done.
So let them load

C:\netstat -e
or, C:\WINDOWS\system32>netstat -e
We see the Ethernet interface, sent and received some traffic, wait a minute,
then do it again and it should change, if it does that's a good thing.

It means your communicating. Take a a look at the -e in the command line, this
is an option, If you type an "help" in place of the option it will show you some
of the other options that are available
ex: - C:\WINDOWS\system32>netstat /help

 Image of command line nestat in action

 

MAC Address

 Each device on your network has a unique media-access-control - MAC a 48 bit address, which helps deliver data you send reach it's destination.

When you create a connection with your Internet cable or DSL provider, you may have had to register the MAC address of your PC's network-interface card. This is how they control access.

Each time you connect to the Internet, your MAC (Ethernet) address is verified
to make sure that you're still using the same computer/network card/etc that
you've always used.

If you've changed your network card or installed a router, they can block your access. By sending your computer's MAC address to the Wireless Router (using
the Clone button), there is no need to re-register your connection.

Network Tools Checking TCP/IP

One quick way to check and see if your TCP/IP services are running properly on
your computer is to do a loop back test with the ping command.

Note: I use these commands often whenever I have a network problem
they are simple and effective to use for troubleshooting.

To get to a command prompt to use network tools is easy...

  • In windows 98-98SE, start | programs | MS-DOS.
     

  • In windows ME, start | programs | accessories | MS-DOS.
     

  • In windows 2000, start | programs |  accessories | command-prompt.
     

  • In windows XP, start | all programs | accessories | command-prompt.
     

Tip: In the command line window-type ping 127.0.0.1 press enter. This command is a loop back test to your network card.


The network card on your computer, when you run this
 you can be 95% assured that your card is
functioning correctly

Network tools

Network Tools winipcfg

These network tools available in windows 95/98/98SE/ME and presents a graphical view of a computers TCP/IP configuration.

 

It provides a way to renew the computer DHCP of the IP lease to run winipcfg chose start | run type winipcfg and click okay

 

Winipcfg

Is the windows NT/2000/XP version of winipcfg. Unfortunately. it isn't built
into the operating system, but you can download it from... http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/wntipcfg-o.asp

Click the link labeled wntipcfg_setup.exe and save the file on your hard drive.
To install the program, double click the downloaded file and follow the prompts
to complete the installation

To run wntipcfg open windows explorer or my computer and navigate to the folder
in which you installed the program, the default location is c:\program files resource fit double click the programs listing to open windows that offers the same information and tool as winipcfg.

Note: For windows NT/2000/XP a command-line tool ipconfig, is available, this tool
is a more powerful version of wntipcfg.

Ipconfig

Is a command-line that's available in windows 98/ME/NT2000/XP It's a particularly useful tool on systems running DHCP, because it allows you to see which TCP/IP VALUES HAVE BEEN CONFIGURED BY DHCP. To see the current IP address,
open a command-line prompt, type ipconfig press enter

 Ipconfig

The system returns information about the current IP address. These network tools are very powerful, so use them when the need arises.

There are many more command-line tools to use, but they are too numerous to mention here. try this one tracert (trace route)...

Go to a command-line prompt and enter tracert www.yahoo.com try it and use
the image below to guide you.

Image of the netstat command in action

  • Don't like using the DOS prompt, then you can go to... http://download.com and type in the search box for ping-o-meter this is a graphical program using the ICMP ping command.