Novice: Does IPCONFIG work on XP Home?

[Terry Pinnell]

At this page
http://www.techiwarehouse.com/cms/engine.php?page_id=163e0b14
and elsewhere I read that:
"Windows XP comes with a useful command-line utility, ipconfig...can
run it from Command Prompt..."

But when I tried it, I got a message "'ipconfig' is not recognized as
an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

 

[Galen]

In Terry Pinnell had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

At this page
http://www.techiwarehouse.com/cms/engine.php?page_id=163e0b14
and elsewhere I read that:
"Windows XP comes with a useful command-line utility, ipconfig...can
run it from Command Prompt..."

But when I tried it, I got a message "'ipconfig' is not recognized as
an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

Start button
Run
type "cmd" (no quotes)
Type "ipconfig /?" (no quotes)

Or just see:

C:\Documents and Settings\KGIII>ipconfig /?

USAGE:
ipconfig [/? | /all | /renew [adapter] | /release [adapter] |
/flushdns | /displaydns | /registerdns |
/showclassid adapter |
/setclassid adapter [classid] ]

where
adapter Connection name
(wildcard characters * and ? allowed, see examples)

Options:
/? Display this help message
/all Display full configuration information.
/release Release the IP address for the specified adapter.
/renew Renew the IP address for the specified adapter.
/flushdns Purges the DNS Resolver cache.
/registerdns Refreshes all DHCP leases and re-registers DNS names
/displaydns Display the contents of the DNS Resolver Cache.
/showclassid Displays all the dhcp class IDs allowed for adapter.
/setclassid Modifies the dhcp class id.

The default is to display only the IP address, subnet mask and
default gateway for each adapter bound to TCP/IP.

For Release and Renew, if no adapter name is specified, then the IP address
leases for all adapters bound to TCP/IP will be released or renewed.

For Setclassid, if no ClassId is specified, then the ClassId is removed.

Examples:

ipconfig ... Show information.
ipconfig /all ... Show detailed information
ipconfig /renew ... renew all adapters
ipconfig /renew EL* ... renew any connection that has its name starting with EL
ipconfig /release *Con* ... release all matching connections,

eg. "Local Area Connection 1" or
"Local Area Connection 2"

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"I am glad of all details, whether they seem to you to be relevant or
not." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[GTS]

That indicates a problem with your path. If you run
%windir%\system32\ipconfig do you then see the output?

 

[Terry Pinnell]

That indicates a problem with your path. If you run
%windir%\system32\ipconfig do you then see the output?

Thanks both. It was indeed a path problem, because a little later I
tried entering the full path
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ipconfig.exe
so that the entire Command Prompt looked like this
C:\Documents and Settings\Terry
Pinnell>C:\WINDOWS\system32\ipconfig.exe /displa
ydns

....and it worked.

Presumably, for it to work in the way the various articles described,
i.e. just entering 'ipconfig /displaydns' after the prompt, there is
an assumption that my 'environmental paths' or whatever they're called
are setup accordingly? In the old DOS days, I seem to recall that was
in Autoexec.bat or Config.sys or similar, but not sure how it's done
in XP?

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Presumably, for it to work in the way the various articles described,
i.e. just entering 'ipconfig /displaydns' after the prompt, there is
an assumption that my 'environmental paths' or whatever they're called
are setup accordingly? In the old DOS days, I seem to recall that was
in Autoexec.bat or Config.sys or similar, but not sure how it's done
in XP?

I've since found what seems to be the answer to my last question. But
having looked at System Properties|Environment Variables, I can't see
anything wrong. The PATH entry is as follows:
%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\system32\WBEM;C:\Program
Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperWorkstation\;C:\Pico

(Actually, it's *displayed* explicitly, i.e. starting
C:\WINDOWS\system32, etc, but the above is how it pasted here.)

Anyway, surely that first entry should ensure that entries like
ipconfig (and ping, which I also see fails) should work OK?

BTW, when I open a Command Prompt, why does it always open to
C:\Documents and Settings\Terry
Pinnell> ?

 

[Chuck]

I've since found what seems to be the answer to my last question. But
having looked at System Properties|Environment Variables, I can't see
anything wrong. The PATH entry is as follows:
%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\system32\WBEM;C:\Program
Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperWorkstation\;C:\Pico

(Actually, it's *displayed* explicitly, i.e. starting
C:\WINDOWS\system32, etc, but the above is how it pasted here.)

Anyway, surely that first entry should ensure that entries like
ipconfig (and ping, which I also see fails) should work OK?

BTW, when I open a Command Prompt, why does it always open to
C:\Documents and Settings\Terry
Pinnell> ?

Terry,

This is Microsoft.Public.WindowsXP.Network_Web. Your current questions are not
really network related, and you may be better off seeking advice from
Microsoft.Public.WindowsXP.General, or
Microsoft.Public.WindowsXP.Help_And_Support. The folks there deal with
WindowsXP general issues like environment variables.

 

[GTS]

Open a command prompt and type path to see what path is actually being
placed into the environment. Are you running with SP2 (it fixed some path
truncation issues).
It's normal for a command prompt to open at the users home directory by
default.
--

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Open a command prompt and type path to see what path is actually being
placed into the environment. Are you running with SP2 (it fixed some path
truncation issues).
It's normal for a command prompt to open at the users home directory by
default.

Thanks. This is what it looks like. Reflects System Properties window.

C:\Documents and Settings\Terry Pinnell>path
PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\system32\WBEM;C:\Program
Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperWorkstation\;C:\Pico

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I've since found what seems to be the answer to my last question. But
having looked at System Properties|Environment Variables, I can't see
anything wrong. The PATH entry is as follows:
%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\system32\WBEM;C:\Program
Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperWorkstation\;C:\Pico

(Actually, it's *displayed* explicitly, i.e. starting
C:\WINDOWS\system32, etc, but the above is how it pasted here.)

Anyway, surely that first entry should ensure that entries like
ipconfig (and ping, which I also see fails) should work OK?

BTW, when I open a Command Prompt, why does it always open to
C:\Documents and Settings\Terry
Pinnell> ?

Command execution depends on two environment variables:

1. PATH says what folders to check for command names. From your
report, this is set properly.

2. PATHEXT is the list of file types to add to the command name. On
my computer, it has this value:

PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH

If the value isn't right on your computer, click the Edit button and
change it.

By default, command Windows open in the user's My Documents folder.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Command execution depends on two environment variables:

1. PATH says what folders to check for command names. From your
report, this is set properly.

2. PATHEXT is the list of file types to add to the command name. On
my computer, it has this value:

PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH

If the value isn't right on your computer, click the Edit button and
change it.

By default, command Windows open in the user's My Documents folder.

Pleased to report that this morning after a reboot, plain vanilla
'ipconfig' now works fine.

Thanks to all for the help received here.