The 12 most popular Windows command-line tools

The following list depicts the most common command-line network utilities that most administrators use when troubleshooting systems and network connectivity problems. It helps to get a list of common commands in one place just in case one tool which you are unfamiliar with may match a particular task better.

getmac – This tool enables you to display the MAC address for network adapters on your system.

hostname – This tool enables you to display your computer name.

ipconfig – this tool allows you to display and change your TCP/IP configuration settings, or to purge DNS cache and renew DHCP leases.

nbtstat − This tool allows you to displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

net – This tool gives you a set of commands for interacting with Windows network functions.

netsh – This is a powerful utility that allows you to adjust many network settings such as, firewall, lan, interface, winsock, etc.

netstat – This tool allows you to displays immediate networks statistics, such as all connections and listening ports and routing table information.

nslookup – This tools allows you to display DNS server entries, very useful when troubleshooting DNS server related issues.

ping – This tool allows you to troubleshoot limited network connectivity issues.

route – This tool allows you to modify and display network routing tables on your system.

tracert – This tool allows to identify network connectivity problems by tracing the route to a host.

pathping – This tool allows you to troubleshoot advanced network connectivity issues with additional routing info (rich statistics) and settings.

You are welcome to drop a message if you want to add more commands or comment about this list