Chapter 9
Although the graphical user interface (GUI) of Microsoft Windows XP has quite a few tools to help you get your network up and running, the hard-core power user is going to turn to the command line when it’s time to get serious networking configuration and diagnostics done. One of the design goals for Windows XP was to make almost every GUI command also available from the command line to facilitate scripting for system administrators. For networking power users, there is an entire range of commands—from a complete File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client to detailed control over file sharing—all available from the command line.
Add to that the ability to perform networking diagnostics with such commands as ipconfig, arp, and netsh, and knowledgeable users get a huge amount of control over the networking functions and behaviors of their Windows XP computers.
In this chapter, we outline the command-line tools that are available to you, including the following:
To execute any of these commands you need to access the command prompt. You can do this by performing one of the following two actions:
Click Start, and then select Run. In the Open text box, type cmd, and click OK. This opens a command prompt window.
Click Start, point to All Programs, Accessories, and then select Command Prompt.
NOTE
Almost all the sample data that you’ll see in this chapter will be slightly different on your computer. Details such as IP information and routing are specific to each individual computer.
