Hoiw to use netstat command in Windows 10

To get started with netstat, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
3. Type the following command to show all active TCP connections and press Enter:netstat

   Source: Windows Central

4. (Optional) Type the following command to display active connections showing numeric IP address and port number instead of trying to determine the names and press Enter:netstat -n

   Source: Windows Central

5. (Optional) Type the following command to refresh the information at a specific interval and press Enter:netstat -n INTERVAL

   In the command, make sure to replace INTERVAL for the number (in seconds) you want to redisplay the information.

   This example refreshes the command in question every five seconds:

   netstat -n 5

   Source: Windows Central

   Quick note: When using the interval parameter, you can terminate the command using the Ctrl + C keyboard shortcut in the console.

Once you execute the command, it’ll return a list of all active connections in four columns, including:

• Proto: Shows the connection protocol (TCP or UDP).
• Local Address: Shows the computer’s IP address followed by a semicolon with a port number of the connection. The double-semicolon inside brackets indicates the local IPv6 address, and “0.0.0.0” refers to the local address too.
• Foreign Address: Lists the remote device’s IP (or FQDN) address with the port number after semicolon port name (for example, https, http, microsoft-ds, wsd).
• State: Indicates where the connection is active (established), the local port has been closed (time_wait), and the program hasn’t closed the port (close_wait). Other status include, closed, fin_wait_1, fin_wait_2, last_ack, listen, syn_received, syn_send, and timed_wait.

How to use netstat parameters on Windows 10

The tool also includes several parameters that you can use in Command Prompt to display different information about the network connections.

Show active and inactive connections

The netstat -a command displays all active and inactive connections, and the TCP and UDP ports the device is currently listening.

Show executable information

The netstat -b command lists all the executables (applications) associated with each connection. Sometimes, applications may open multiple connections.

Show network adapter statistics

The netstat -e command generates a statistic of the network interface, which shows information like the number of bytes, unicast and non-unicast sent and received packets. You can also see discarded packets and errors and unknown protocols, which can you troubleshoot networking problems.

Show FQDNS for foreign addresses

The netstat -f command shows the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for foreign addresses. For example, “server-54-230-157-50.otp50.r.cloudfront.net:http” instead of “server-54-230-157-50:http” or “54.230.157.50”.

Show numerical form

The netstat -n command displays the addresses and ports in numerical form. For example, 54.230.157.50:443.

Show process ID

The netstat -o command shows all active TCP connections like netstat, but with the difference that adds a fifth column to display the Process ID (PID) for each connection. The processes available in this view are the same in the “Details” tab of Task Manager, which also reveals the application using the connection.

Show connections by Protocol

The netstat -p can be used to display connections per-protocol that you have to specify using tcp, udp, tcpv6, or udpv6 next to the command. For example, you can use the netstat -p tcp to view a list of TCP connections.

Show listening and non-listening ports

The netstat -q commands can produce a list of all the connections with the listening and bound non-listening ports.

Show statistics by Protocol

The netstat -s shows network statistics for all available protocols, including TCP, UDP, ICMP, and IP protocols (version 4 and 6).

Show routing table

The netstat -r command displays the current network routing table that lists all the routes to destinations and matrics known by the device, for IP version 4 and version 6 (if applicable). If the returned information looks familiar, it’s because you can also output the data using the route print command.

Show offload state connections

The netstat -t command generates a list of the current connection offload state. The offload state refers to the TCP Chimney Offload, which is a feature that transfers the network workload from the processor to the network adapter during data transmissions. The “InHost” value indicates that offloading isn’t enabled, and the “Offload” means that the feature is transferring the workload to the network adapter. (This feature is only present on supported network adapters.)

Show NetworkDirect connections

The netstat -x is another supported command on Windows 10, and it produces a list of NetworkDirect connections, shared endpoints, and listeners.

NetworkDirect is a specification for Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), which is a process that allows fast data transfers using the network adapter, freeing up the processor to perform other tasks. Usually, you’ll never use this command unless you’re using the server version of Windows or a high-performance application with a network adapter that supports this feature.

Show connection template

The netstat -y command displays TCP connections templates for all connections.

Combine parameters

When using the netstat command, you can also combine the parameters to display various information together for many cases.

For example, the -e parameter can also be used with the -s parameter to see statistics for each available protocol, and the -o parameter can be combined with -a, -n, and -p as necessary.

With the netstat -p command, you append the s parameter, you can display statistics from even more protocols, including icmp, ip, icmpv6, and ipv6.

Also, when using more than one parameter, you can combine them with a single -. For example, instead of writing the command netstat -e -s, you can write it like this: netstat -es.

If you want to see all the available parameters and additional help, you can always use the netstat /? command.

How to search netstat details on Windows 10

In addition to displaying all the available statistic information, you can also output only the certain details you need using these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
3. Type the following command to list all the connections that have the state set to LISTENING and press Enter:netstat -q | findstr STRING

   In the command, make sure to replace STRING for the information you want to list. Also, the findstr option is case sensitive, which means that you must enter the string you want to find with the exact casing.

   This example lists all the connections that have the state set to “LISTENING.”

   netstat -q | findstr LISTENING

   1. Source: Windows Central

      This other example shows all the connections from a foreign server FQDN, in this case, Amazon:

      netstat -f | findstr amazon

      As you can see, you only need to type part of the string to return a result.

   The findstr command isn’t part of the netstat tool. It’s a simple command to search for a text string in a file, but you can use it with many of the netstat commands to make more sense of the information you’re viewing.

   The netstat command is available on Windows 10, but you can also find it on Windows Server, Windows 8.x, Windows 7, and older versions. The tool is not exclusive to Windows either, as it’s also available across platforms, including Linux and macOS. Even though the parameters and syntax may be different, they all are very similar.

   Source: Windows Central

   This other example shows all the connections from a foreign server FQDN, in this case, Amazon:

   netstat -f | findstr amazon

   As you can see, you only need to type part of the string to return a result.

The findstr command isn’t part of the netstat tool. It’s a simple command to search for a text string in a file, but you can use it with many of the netstat commands to make more sense of the information you’re viewing.

The netstat command is available on Windows 10, but you can also find it on Windows Server, Windows 8.x, Windows 7, and older versions. The tool is not exclusive to Windows either, as it’s also available across platforms, including Linux and macOS. Even though the parameters and syntax may be different, they all are very similar.