IPCONFIG is probably one of the most common Command Prompt commands used.
It can be used by anyone, administrator or regular user, although some commands will require elevation. Used for displaying the IP address information of the machine in question, it is also used for resolving some basic issues with the TCP/IP stack on the machine.

The most common commands used will be:

ipconfig - displays the basic IP address information of the machine - IP address, subnet mask and default gateway, for all network adapters in the machine.
ipconfig /all - displays all of the IP address information, including DNS servers, MAC address, IPv6 information, time of DHCP leases etc.

As a network administrator you may also use

ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew - this releases the DHCP address and then gets it back again.

ipconfig /flushdns - this clears the DNS cache on the machine.

In an Active Directory environment, you may also use ipconfig /registerdns which will re-register the IP address with the AD integrated DNS server.

Probably the most frustrating thing about this command is remembering which options require elevation!

IPCONFIG
USAGE:

ipconfig [/allcompartments] [/? | /all |
	/renew [adapter] | /release [adapter] |
	/renew6 [adapter] | /release6 [adapter] |
	/flushdns | /displaydns | /registerdns |
	/showclassid adapter |
	/setclassid adapter [classid] |
	/showclassid6 adapter |
	/setclassid6 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 IPv4 address for the specified adapter.
/release6	Release the IPv6 address for the specified adapter.
/renew	Renew the IPv4 address for the specified adapter.
/renew6	Renew the IPv6 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.
/showclassid6	Displays all the IPv6 DHCP class IDs allowed for adapter.
/setclassid6	Modifies the IPv6 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 and Setclassid6, 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. "Wired Ethernet Connection 1" or "Wired Ethernet Connection 2"
> ipconfig /allcompartments ... Show information about all compartments
> ipconfig /allcompartments /all ... Show detailed information about all compartments

Associated Commands

PING, PATHPING, TRACERT

 

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Last Page Update: 30/03/2015

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