Networking Related Tidbits
Last edited March 23, 2009
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Resources

glossary - Cyber Tech Help Support Forums
www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1338...
 
Some basic networking related terms.
 If you find something missing from the glossary, let me know and I'll try to add it.
Online Speed Tests
www.dslreports.com/speedtests
How To...

Access Network Connections on Windows XP

 There are several ways to get to Network Connections on Windows XP and here are a couple.

   1)  Right click on a network connection status icon in the system tool tray and select Open Network Connections.

If you are using the default category view for the Control Panel, you can:
   2) Open the Control Panel and select Network and Internet Connections. Then select Network Connections.

If are using the classic view for the Control Panel, the steps are:
   2) Open the Control Panel and select Network Connections.

Use ipconfig & Wntipcfg.exe
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displayla...
 
Run ipconfig on Windows

ipconfig display basic network related configuration information, such as IP address, DNS servers, and DHCP settings.  It is a command line utility and as such it must  be run through XP's command window.  There are two basic ways to do this:

Either,
1)  Go to the Start menu and select Run...
     In the the Run dialog enter cmd /k ipconfig

Or
2)  Open a command window and then run ipconfig in the window

Running ipconfig with no options will provide just the basic information, while running it with the /all option provides more detailed information.

ipconfig also has a /release and a /renew option.  They are only of use if DHCP is enabled and are used release the currently assigned IP address and to request an assignment of a new IP address.  It is normal that a request for a new IP address results in the same IP address being assigned.

Note: For versions of windows earlier than XP, use command instead of cmd

Note: A GUI based version of ipconfig exists on  Windows  95/98/ME and is called winipconfig.

Note: Windows NT/XP/2000 do not come with a GUI version, but it can be downloaded from this noted page.
ipconfig/release clears the  DHCP assigned (automatic) IP address
ipconfig/renew gets a DHCP assigned IP address or renews the current DHCP assigned IP address

If you have a static IP address, then ipconfig/release ipconfig/renew are not needed and will fail if you run them.


 Run ping on Windows

 ping is a command line utility and as such it must  be run through XP's command window.  There are two basic ways to do this:

Either,
1)  Go to the Start menu and select Run...
     In the the Run dialog enter cmd /k ping hostname or ip address

Or
2)  Open a command window and then run ping hostname or ip address in the window

ping is most commonly used with no options, run this way it will try reaching the given host 4 times.  ping with the -f and -l options is sometimes used to determine the MTU for a given connection, but that is another discussion.

Note: For versions of windows earlier than XP, use command instead of cmd
 Sample output from the ping command

C:\Documents and Settings\Manny>ping 192.168.1.21

Pinging 192.168.1.21 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.21: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.21: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.21: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.21: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.21:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Manny>

 Run tracert on Windows

 tracert is a command line utility and as such it must  be run through XP's command window.  There are two basic ways to do this:

Either,
1)  Go to the Start menu and select Run...
     In the the Run dialog enter cmd /k tracert hostname or ip address

Or
2)  Open a command window and then run tracert hostname or ip address in the window

Note: For versions of windows earlier than XP, use command instead of cmd
Sample trace to a local machine

C:\Documents and Settings\Manny>tracert tanayalake

Tracing route to tanayalake [192.168.1.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  TanayaLake [192.168.1.107]

Trace complete.


Sample trace to a remote machine

C:\Documents and Settings\Manny>tracert www.google.com

Tracing route to www.l.google.com [64.233.161.103]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  helms_deep [192.168.1.21]
  2     8 ms     9 ms     7 ms  10.80.32.1
  3     8 ms     7 ms     8 ms  172.20.15.105
  4     8 ms     7 ms     7 ms  172.20.15.101
  5    11 ms     9 ms    10 ms  so-7-1.car2.Boston1.Level3.net [4.79.0.89]
  6    17 ms    17 ms    17 ms  ae-5-5.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.132.250]
  7    15 ms    16 ms    13 ms  ae-91-91.csw4.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.134.78]
  8    17 ms    17 ms    17 ms  ae-93-93.ebr3.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.134.109]
  9    28 ms    35 ms    21 ms  ae-3.ebr3.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.132.89]
 10    30 ms    21 ms    32 ms  ae-73-73.csw2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.134.166]
 11    20 ms    20 ms    19 ms  ae-21-79.car1.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.17.67]
 12    20 ms    22 ms    22 ms  GOOGLE-INC.car1.Level3.net [4.79.228.38]
 13    21 ms    21 ms    22 ms  64.233.175.171
 14    24 ms    24 ms    23 ms  216.239.49.214
 15    23 ms    22 ms    21 ms  od-in-f103.google.com [64.233.161.103]

Trace complete.

Note:
You may see lines like "13     *        *        *     Request timed out.", this does not mean there is a problem with the connection to the computer you are trying to reach, it may mean that a router between your computer and the other computer does not support tracert.
Determine and set your MTU
www.dslreports.com/drtcp
 
Set the MTU on Windows 

The first step in setting your MTU is determining what it should be.  This can be done by using 'ping -f -l 1500 www.google.com' and repeating the command, lowering the value after '-l' until the command works.  Once you have the MTU value that works for your network, then DrTCP can be used to set it.
Fixes

WinSock XP Fix
www.cybertechhelp.com/download/file/winsock-xp-fix
 
Repairing Winsock issues for Windows XP and earlier WIndows.
 
For Windows XP SP2 the first step is to run netsh winsock reset catalog in a command window. If that doesn't work or if you are running a version of XP older than SP2, then you should run netsh winsock reset in a command window.


An option available for the various versions of windows is to use a third party tool to fix the winsock problem such as WinSock Fix.
Repairing the Winsock and TCP stack on XP

Windows XP provides several commands to repair issues with the TCP protocol stack.  The commands increase in the degree that they are likely to impact other software on the system, so it is best to progress through them one at a time to limit the other software that has to be reinstalled or repaired afterwards.

First try, "netsh winsock reset catalog" in a command window. If that doesn't work, try  "netsh winsock reset" and finally try "netsh int ip reset ipreset.log".  All three of these commands should be run in a command window.
How do I clear the ARP cache?
www.tech-faq.com/clear-arp-cache.shtml

Fixing Problems with the ARP cache 
 
One aggravation I run into with XP is it not finishing the repair of a network connection.  I was finally able to figure out that this was almost always because of a problem with the ARP cache.  That led me to finding this page which details how to deal with various ARP cache problems.
 [clip from the page referenced above

Clearing the ARP Cache

To fix this error, you will need to clear the ARP cache. This is done with the `netsh` command:

C:\>netsh interface ip delete arpcache
Ok.

Viewing the ARP Cache

If you would like to view your ARP cache, this can be accomplished using the `arp` command:

C:\>arp -a

Interface: 192.168.1.100 --- 0x10004
  Internet Address      Physical Address      Type
  192.168.1.1           00-0f-66-37-22-32     dynamic

If Clearing the ARP Cache Fails

Occasionally, clearing your ARP cache will fail due to a bug in Microsoft Windows.

If you try to use Microsoft Windows to repair the network connection, you will receive an error message that says:

Windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following operation could not be completed:
Clearing the ARP cache
For assistance, contact the person who manages your network

This bug occurs when Routing and Remote Services is enabled. Routing and Remote Services is almost unnnecessary and can be turned off unless you know that you are using it.

To disable Routing and Remote Services:

  • Click the <Start> button
  • Click the <Control Panel> button
  • Switch to "Classic View" if you are in "Category View"
  • Click <Administrative Tools>
  • Click <Computer Management>
  • Double-click <Services and Applications>
  • Double-click <Services>
  • Scroll down to <Routing and Remote Services>
  • Double-click <Routing and Remote Services>
  • Examine the "Startup Type"
  • The options are "Automatic", "Manual", and "Disabled"
  • Set the "Startup Type" to "Disabled"
  • Examine the "Service status"
  • Make sure that the service status is Stopped. If it is not Stopped, click the <Stop> button
  • Click the <OK> button

Now, try clearing the ARP cache again and it should complete with no error messages.
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