Most administrators are familiar with the tools built into Microsoft Windows for retrieving network adapter information. Probably the most common is the command-line tool IPConfig, but it is rarely updated and has only a command-line interface.
Enter the freeware tool AdapterWatch 1.01, from programmer Nir Sofer. This utility displays several categories of information about your network adapters -- basic data for each one, TCP/UDP and IP statistics, Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) information and machine information (host name, domain name and so on). Data for each adapter is gathered into a column and presented in a grid with the information for each adapter side by side, which is more useful than the flat-text presentation provided by IPConfig. In addition, the data is automatically refreshed at user-selectable intervals, from 250 milliseconds to 4 seconds.
The program also tracks advanced statistics for each IP connection, such as information about fragmented data or packets that were not reassembled correctly. This kind of information can be useful when troubleshooting a connection, although the program can't confine its statistics to a given application or port. It does gather special statistics for each adapter as well as for all connections, but not all the statistics are represented equally in both forms.
The information in the grid can also be copied out individually or collectively as text items, or exported to an HTML report. These functions can also be accessed from a command line, so one doesn't have to invoke the GUI to get a report. Additionally, several third-party companies have created multiple-language resources for the program -- French, German, Chinese (simplified and traditional, both) and more.
Serdar Yegulalp is editor of the Windows Power Users Newsletter. Check it out for the latest advice and musings on the world of Windows network administrators -- and please share your thoughts as well!
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