Windows Network Troubleshooting Utilities for the A+ Certification Exams

CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One For Dummies

When problems arise on a Windows network, you can use the following utilities to do your troubleshooting. Having a clear understanding of all of them will help you on the A+ Exam.

ipconfig: Display basic TCP/IP configuration, such as IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway.
ipconfig /all: Display TCP/IP settings, including your Media Access Control (MAC) address, domain name system (DNS) server, and lease information.
ipconfig /release: Release your IP address.
ipconfig /renew: Renew your IP address.
ping or ping : Send four test messages to the IP address or host name you specify; verify whether the other system is up and running.
netstat: Display TCP/IP protocol statistics and connection information. Can be used to see who is connected to your system; what ports are open; and if you use an -o switch, what the process ID is of the program that opened the port.
nbtstat: Troubleshoot NetBIOS over TCP/IP. For example, you can view a remote NetBIOS name table using nbtstat -a <IP address>.
nslookup: Troubleshoot DNS problems. For example, you can get a listing of all the records in DNS using nslookup.
arp: Troubleshoot ARP. For example, you can use arp -a to view your Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache.
Tasklist: View a list of running processes.
Taskkill /PID /F: Terminates a process when you supply the process id.

About This Article

About the book author:

Edward Tetz has worked with computers as a sales associate, support tech, trainer, and consultant. He holds the Cisco CCNA and numerous other certifications, and has provided system and LAN support to both large and small organizations. Ed is coauthor of CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One For Dummies.

Timothy Warner, MCSE, MCT, A+, is an IT professional, technical trainer, and author.