Many people are familiar with the command (commonly abbreviated cmd) prompt that is on their Microsoft Windows OS. From here you can run a variety of commands that will display various tidbits of information. One of the most commonly used command prompts is the ‘ipconfig‘ prompt.
Now, once you are on your cmd screen simply type in “ipconfig” and you should get something similar to this below:
Other ipconfig commands
– Ipconfig /?
This will display a whole plethora of information because the ? makes it a help message.
– Ipconfig /all
This will display all of your configuration information.
– Ipconfig /renew
This will renew the IPv4 address for your adapter.
– Ipconfig /release
This will release the IPv4 address (you can renew it afterwards).
– Ipconfig /release 6
This does the same as the previous release except it targets the IPv6 address.
– Ipconfig /allcompartments
Just a command that will show you all of the information on all compartments.
– Ipconfig /flushdns
Flushdns will purge the DNS resolver cache.
– Ipconfig /registerdns
This will refresh all DHCP leases and will re-register the DNS names.
– Ipconfig /displaydns
This is how you display all of your DNS information.
– Ipconfig /showclassid
Showclassid will display all of your dhcp class ID’s that are allowed for the adapter.
– Ipconfig /setclassid
Using this prompt will modify the dhcp class ID.
– Ipconfig /showclassid6
This will display all of the IPv6 DHCP class ID’s allowed.
– Ipconfig /setclassid6
This will modify the IPv6 DHCP class ID.
What are the ipconfig commands used for?
When you are having internet connection issues, one of the most common places to check for the problem is your adapter settings. Using ipconfig commands gives you the ability to assess your connections, renew them, and gather vital information that could aide you in successfully repairing your internet connection.
You can also use the ipconfig commands (specifically ones pertaining to the DNS) to resolve some common errors that you may encounter. If your DNS cache is outdated or corrupted in any way while browsing the internet you can have difficulty accessing the sites that became corrupted in your cache.
One such scenario would be you trying to access a site that was down, but then it came back up later. If your DNS cache got corrupted it will save the information on the site being down even though the site is now updated and back online. Due to that corruption you will still see the site as ‘down’. A way to fix this is by flushing your DNS and retrying the site.
As soon as you experience internet connection troubles with your computer you should first check to see if your router is online, WiFi is on, then you go to your cmd prompt. These are common issues that many people face and it is a quick fix for internet problems that often lead to hours of frustration.