Examples of Common Utilities
Hostname, Arp, and Ping are three common TCP/IP utilities. Because
they are frequently used, it is recommended that you know how to
access them.
Hostname
The
syntax to use this utility is
hostname.
To access this utility, type
hostname
at
the command prompt. The system displays the host name of your
computer.
Arp
The
syntax to access information from the ARP cache is
arp -a.
Type
arp -a
at
the command prompt to display the information in your ARP cache.
Ping
The
syntax to test connectivity is
ping.
To test connectivity by using an IP address or computer name, type
ping
[IP_address
or
computer_name]
To test the TCP/IP configuration of your own computer, you use
local
loopback.
Local loopback is the IP address 127.0.0.1. To test system
configuration by using local loopback, type
ping 127.0.0.1
Name
Resolution
TCP/IP identifies source and destination computers by their IP
addresses. However, users are much better at remembering and using
words (user-friendly names) than numbers (IP addresses). There are
different types of user-friendly names by which a computer can be
addressed. The Windows 2003 operating system has different storage
locations where it keeps a record of user-friendly names mapped to
their corresponding IP addresses. This mapping of the IP address of
a computer can be stored in either a static or a dynamic file, based
on the type of name used. Some applications, such as Microsoft
Internet Explorer and the Ftp utility, can use either the IP address
or a user-friendly name to establish communication. When a
user-friendly name is specified, a Windows 2003-based computer uses
a process called name resolution to identify the appropriate IP
address before TCP/IP-based communication with the desired resource
can begin. However, if the IP address is specified, communication
can happen immediately.
