Tip #2461 - WinXP IPconfig Tool
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WinXP
IPconfig Tool
Setting up a home
or small office
network is easy to do. If something goes wrong however, it can be
a nightmare to fix.
This week's download
is a cool little tool or utility that simplifies a common networking tool
called IPconfig. IPconfig is a tool used for troubleshooting
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) errors. It is
the standard by which almost all networks run on. Without getting into
too much detail, TCP/IP is basically a set of rules that all network devices
use when communicating with one another, sharing resources or surfing
the Web.
You may have found
yourself thrown into the position of the home computer tech/ network administrator,
which is all too common lately with the popularity of Broadband and more
than one PC in the house. So, now everyone in the house are all depending
on you to fix the network when one of the PCs can’t get online or
access a shared printer. Well, if you have no formal training in figuring
out what’s causing your problems, that can be more than a little
confusing, even for the computer savvy.
This is where IPconfig
comes in. It is a simple command line tool that is absolutely invaluable
for seeing everything behind the scenes, such as raw connection information.
IPconfig is a command line utility, which means you have to open up a
command prompt in order to use it. (Start, Run,
type cmd and select OK).
For instance, if you
wanted to see if a PC that can’t access the Internet has a valid
IP address, you would type in the command prompt ipconfig /all
and hit Enter. A bunch of text will come up on the screen.
This information is all of your network settings. Here, you will see your
IP address
(private), DHCP server, your DNS
servers, your Mac address, etc.
So, it should be obvious
that the IPconfig is a very useful tool, but you may not feel comfortable
using the command line. That’s fair enough. In my experience, most
users don’t like using the command line for anything if they can
help it.
Well, if you're one
of those people, you’re in luck, because with the WinXP IPconfig
tool, you don’t have to use the command line to get IPconfig functionality.
WinXP IPconfig is a small program that runs the IPconfig commands for
you. So, all you have to do is check what specific IPconfig commands you
want and select OK. A blue DOS looking window will appear
with the results of your query, which will look identical to the output
from the raw IPconfig command.
This is great! You
can put this in your utilities folder (I know you have one) and if you
ever have problems with your Internet connection, you can always launch
it and this will tell you if it’s a local connection problem or
an ISP issue right away. You can then take it from there.
There is also a Help
file in this program, which takes you to the same help that you can access
with the IPconfig. It basically shows you what switches (command options)
produce what output data. The Help file can actually help you get used
to the actual command and what its limitations are.
So, you may want
to test this out on your network if you do download it. Get used to it
and what it can do. This way, when your network crashes, you will be able
to assess the situation and scope out your issue more clearly.
One more thing that
is really cool about the WinXP IPconfig tool is that it is a HTA file
type, which allows you to run it from a thumb drive, a floppy disk or
a CD. The program doesn’t install, but i rather runs in place (portable
application), which makes WinXP IPconfig that much more invaluable for
troubleshooting other PCs.
You can download the
WinXP IPconfig tool here.
I hope you enjoy the
download!
~ Chad
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