PowerShell Tools

CLI Tools#

net user#

net user

Sample Output:

User accounts for \\COMPUTER-NAME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrator  Guest  Student

• Create a new user Try:

net user newuser /add

• Delete User You Created

net user newuser /delete

net use#

The net use command is used to connect to, manage, or disconnect from shared network resources (such as shared drives or printers). It allows you to map network drives, view active connections, or remove them.

net use

Sample Output:

New connections will not be remembered.

Status       Local     Remote                    Network
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK           X:        \\Server\SharedFolder     Microsoft Windows Network
OK           Y:        \\Server\Printer          Microsoft Windows Network

hostname#

Displays the name of the host system you are on

hostname

Sample Output:

BestHostNameEver

Fun Fact: On Linux hostname -i - Displays the IP address of the system (for systems with a configured DNS).

However when run on PowerShell you will get the following error:

PS C:\Users\ellma\Documents> hostname -i
sethostname: Use the Network Control Panel Applet to set hostname.
hostname -s is not supported.

If you want to find your IP address in Windows PowerShell you need to use ipconfig or Get-NetIPAddress.

ipconfig#

The command ipconfig run alone displays your IP address.

ipconfig

or

Get-NetIPAddress

Example Output:

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : yourdomain.com
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::d4a5:2cfa:e3b5:cf2d%12
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.5
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::d4a5:2cfa:e3b5:cf2d%15
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.10
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:3487:1200:38b7:e0aa:9f9b:f288
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::38b7:e0aa:9f9b:f288%3
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 

Tunnel adapter isatap.{D94BB44D-CA8C-4DF7-82C9-C52F897B56AC}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 

ping#

Test connectivity between your computer and a remote system. Ping can also measure latency, the time it takes for packets to travel to the destination and back in milliseconds.

Ping can help you troubleshoot. If the ping command fails, it can indicate an issue with network configuration or routing. (It may also be the target system is down or blocking ICMP traffic, but that’s a conversation for another time.)

• Syntax ping [hostname or IP address]

Example:

ping 8.8.8.8

Sample Output:

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=118
Request timed out.
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=118
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=118

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 37ms, Maximum = 46ms, Average = 40ms

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data: I pinged 8.8.8.8 (Google’s public DNS server and a 32 bytes of data indicates the size of the packet being sent in each ping request.)

Reply from the server:

Request timed out.
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=118
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=118

• bytes=32 The size of the data packet sent and received is 32 bytes.

• time=37ms The round-trip time (how long it took the packet to travel to 8.8.8.8 and back) is 37 milliseconds.

• TTL=118 Time to Live (TTL) indicates how many “hops” the packet can pass through (routers) before it is discarded. (Each router decreases this value by 1.)

• Request timed out This means one of the packets did not receive a reply. Possible causes: Temporary network congestion, packet loss or the server or a router along the path might have temporarily dropped the packet.

netstat#

netstat (network statistics) displays network connections, routing tables, interface stat

netstat

Common Options in Windows:

Fun Fact: On modern Linux distros, the netstat tool is part of the net-tools package. Although this package is deprecated in favor of ss (socket statistics), people are set in their ways and still use netstat.

nslookup#

nslookup (nameserver lookup) nslookup [hostname] [server] Try:

nslookup google.com

Sample Output:

server:  dns.googleAddress:  8.8.8.8Non-authoritative answer:Name:    google.comAddress: 142.250.190.14

tracecert#

Network diagnostic tool used to trace the path that packets take from your computer to a destination (such as a domain or IP address) and to measure the delay between hops along the way. tracert [hostname or IP address] Try

tracert google.com

Sample Output:

Tracing route to google.com [142.250.190.14]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2    10 ms     8 ms    11 ms  10.0.0.1
  3    15 ms    14 ms    15 ms  198.51.100.1
  4    22 ms    20 ms    21 ms  203.0.113.5
  5    30 ms    28 ms    27 ms  142.250.190.14

Trace complete.

• chkdisk

• format `