There\’s nothing like a command prompt tool for getting down and dirty with Windows 2000 troubleshooting. While many of these same functions can be provided in a GUI, some people still prefer the command prompt. Most of these command prompt tools are related to networking, however some potential disaster recovery areas are covered as well. What I will be presenting in this article is a list of some of the more common tools and the information they provide. On any of these tools you can get a listing of the switches and context of the command by using /? as the switch. These Tools are generally for the advanced user, but then aren\’t most people using Windows 2000 advanced users?

Example:

c:ping /?

gives you a list of tools available with the ping command.

Networking Tools

• Ping.exe : The BIG one. This is probably one of the most used tools for TCP/IP. Ping sends ICMP Echo Requests to verify that TCP/IP is configured correctly and that a remote TCP/IP system is available. Ping is very customizable through switches. This should be your first stop during times of networking problems. Using it to test network response time is but one of it\’s many functions.
  
• Arp.exe : allows you to view and modify the ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) cache on the interface of the local computer to detect invalid entries.
  
• Nslookup.exe : Check records, domain host aliases, domain host services, and operating system information by querying Internet domain name servers. When you start Nslookup, it shows the host name and IP address of the DNS server that is configured for the local system, and then display a command prompt for further queries. If you type a question mark (?), Nslookup shows all available commands. You can exit the program by typing exit. To look up a host\’s IP address using DNS, type the host name and press Enter. Nslookup defaults to using the DNS server configured for the computer on which it is running, but you can focus it on a different DNS server by typing server (where is the host name of the server you want to use for future lookups). Once another server is specified, anything entered after that point is interpreted as a host name.
  
• Hostname.exe : Displays the hostname of the computer.
  
• Ipconfig.exe : Displays current TCP/IP network configuration values. You can update or release DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) allocated leases, and display register, or flush DNS (Domain Name System) names. Output can be redirected to a file if desired.
  
• Nbtstat.exe : Check the state of current Netbios over TCP/IP connections, update the NETBIOS name cache, and determine the registered names and scope ID. Nbtstat is designed to help troubleshoot NetBIOS name resolution problems. When a network is working ok, NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) resolves NetBIOS names to IP addresses. It does this through several options for NetBIOS name resolution, including local cache lookup, WINS server query, broadcast, LMHOSTS lookup, Hosts lookup, and DNS server query.
  
• Netstat.exe : Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections. Very cool utility. Try running it while connected to the net.
  
• Pathping.exe : Trace a path to a remote system and report packet losses at each router along the way. Pathping combines features of Tracert and ping.
  
• Route.exe : Display the IP routing table, and add or delete IP routes.
  
• Tracert: Trace a path to a remote system. This tool gives you the number of hops a packet must make to get there, and the IP address of each hop. It does this for a maximum of 30 hops. This tool is very useful for seeing where a problem with a slow response time may lie.
  
• NetDiag.exe : a diagnostic tool that helps isolate networking and connectivity problems by performing a series of tests to determine the state your network client and whether it is functional. Using the /l switch will output results to netdiag.log as the results can be lengthy. This tool will likely not be installed on your system by default. What you must do is go into your Windows 2000 CD in the support/tools directory. Run the setup file there for full access to the Windows 2000 Support Tools. I had problems with getting this program running due to fatal errors from it, but see how you make out. I\’ll keeps troubleshooting it to see what I can do.

Non Networking Tools

            /? switch displays options on these utilities as well.

• Sfc.exe : System File Checker. This utility scans protected system files and replaces files overwritten with the correct system files provided by Microsoft. This could prove to be an invaluable tool for repairing your system after some of those search and replace programs that we all know so well get through with your system files.
  
• Verifier.exe : Driver Verifier. This utility runs a series of checks in the Windows 2000 Kernel to expose errors in kernel-mode drivers. It can gather statistics from the kernel, which are displayed by the GUI or logged in a file. Running verifier with no command line switches starts Driver Verifier Manager, which is in a GUI interface.
  
• Drivers.exe : Lists all drivers currently running on a system from the %SystemRoot%System32drivers folder. You can use this tool to identify a driver that may be causing problems due to corruption or because it is missing, not loaded, or outdated.

By no means are these the complete set of tools. However, these should nicely cover the basics and get or keep you running. I highly recommend playing around with these tools to get a feels for them. 

If you have any other tools you would like spotlighted, send me an email with your favorites and I will try to do another column like this in the future.

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