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| 4.2 |  | End-System Commands for Gathering Data Link Information |
| 4.2.2 |  | Microsoft Windows end-system commands |

The following commands, available in the Microsoft Windows environment, are useful in gathering basic Layer 2 information from host systems:

- winipcfg
- ipconfig /all
- tracert
- netstat –rn
- arp -a

winipcfg can be run from the command prompt or the Run window. It is a quick way of determining the MAC address of a Windows 9X or Me based PC.

Later versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system use the ipconfig /all command from the command prompt to obtain similar information.

netstat -r will also provide MAC address information. netstat -r has the added benefit of displaying the routing table of the host, which can help to make sense of multihomed workstations. netstat -n displays addresses and port numbers in numerical form.

Although tracert is a Layer 3 tool which displays the path packets take to get to a destination, it is also a quick way to find where a Layer 2 failure has occurred. The tracert command is similar to the Cisco IOS traceroute command.

arp –a is similar to the Cisco IOS show arp command. It displays the ARP table of MAC to IP addresses for a device.