Network Commands

Question 1

What does the command Ping do?

Answer 1

Sends ICMP echo request to a host & listen for a reply

If reply is received, displays this, if not will get a timeout message

Question 2

What does the command Traceroute/tracecert do?

Answer 2

Displays each hop (router) in a numerical list

Question 3

What can the ping command be used for?

Answer 3

Good for measuring latency and troubleshooting connectivity with other devices

Question 4

What is the command traceroute/tracecert used for? Which one is used for Linux vs Windows?

Answer 4

Traceroute/tracert is used to trace the route an IP packet takes to a destination.
This can be used to determine where a ping fails.

Question 5

What does ipconfig do?

Answer 5

Provides the user with the IP, subnet mask, and default gateway for each network adapter by default with the /all option information.

Question 6

What is ipconfig used for?

Answer 6

Used to release all connections and renew all adapters. This is primarily used on windows

Question 7

What does ifconfig do?

Answer 7

Similar to ipconfig, ifconfig used to configure kernel network interfaces.

Question 8

What is ifconfig used for?

Answer 8

once interfaces are configured, used for debugging or tuning the system.

Question 9

What does arp do?

Answer 9

displays and modify entries int eh Address resolution protocol cache. Displays the IP to physical MAC address mappings.

Question 10

What does netstat do?

Answer 10

displays info about active ports and their state

Question 11

What is netstat used for?

Answer 11

useful in troubleshooting and capacity management

Question 12

what does nslookup do?

Answer 12

name server lookup which displays DNS info

Question 13

What is nslookup used for?

Answer 13

Troubleshooting DNS problems

Question 14

dig
What does it stand for?
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 14

Domain information groper.
queries the DNS name server
useful for troubleshooting DNS problems

Question 15

whois
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 15

whois is used to lookup who owns a domain or block of IP addresses.
This includes the name, email address and physical address

Question 16

route
what does it do?
why use it?

Answer 16

Used to display the current route tables on a host

Can be used to determine where to send traffic

Question 17

scp
What does it stand for?
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 17

scp = secure copy protocol

used to securely copy files between servers and leverages SSH for authentication and encryption

Question 18

ftp
What does it stand for?
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 18

ftp = file transfer protocol
copies file from one host to another, data is unencrypted
FTPS uses SSL/TSL for encryption
Transfer uses TCP for reliability

Question 19

tftp
What does it stand for?
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 19

trivial file transfer protocol

transfers a file from either a client to a server or from a server to client using UDP instead of TCP

Question 20

finger
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 20

displays info about a user or users on a remote system

includes thing such as last log-in time and username

Question 21

nmap
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 21

network mapper
scans network to see what it can find in terms of hosts and open ports
used to determine what is deployed on a network for vulnerability analysis, security scans and related activities.
not related to windows or Linux but can be downloaded

Question 22

tcpdump
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 22

displays tcp/ip packets and other network packets that are being transmitted over the network.
its a form or protocol analyzer and designed to show the contents of network packets in a human-readable form (for troubleshooting and security analysis)

Question 23

telnet/ssh
What does it do?
Why use it?

Answer 23

allows user to manage accounts and devices remotely

ssh is encrypted and thus all data is secure from eavesdropping while telnet is unencrypted