In just about all sorts of IT environments, network administrators need to change network client information. In transient environments such such as convention centres, hotels, and universities, this information is changed frequently because transient users and computers come and go. In suchcomputing environments, you can use scripts to configure network clients, which may be very useful. And on less dynamic TCP/IP networks, scripting basic configuration on clients can help standardize change and configuration management, avoid manual administrative errors, and accomplish bulk changes on many clients rapidly and effectively.

Windows provides extensive GUI and command-line functionality to help network administrators manage TCP/IP network clients. Through Network and Dial-Up Connections in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, you can view and modify most network settings. Widely used command-line tools such as Ipconfig.exe, NSLookup.exe, Ping.exe, and Tracert.exe provide additional tools. Sometimes these are all you need to accomplish a networking task. However, if you find yourself clicking OK repeatedly or trying to change a parameter that is contingent on the state of two other parameters on a hundred computers, the techniques detailed in this paper should prove useful.

This section covers the basic techniques for retrieving the most common TCP/IP settings, such as IP addresses and subnet masks. The section begins with a brief review of the non-scripting methods and command-line methods that you can use to perform these tasks. Next, the section covers a variety of scripting techniques for working with the two most important WMI classes for these tasks. Finally, it shows how to retrieve extended TCP/IP settings by using a script that reproduces nearly all the functionality of the ipconfig /all command.

Retrieving Basic TCP/IP Client Settings by Using Non-Scripting Methods

To simply check a couple of TCP/IP settings on one computer, many network administrators prefer to use the Windows interface that is provided in Windows through Network Connections.

To check TCP/IP settings by using the Windows interface in Windows

1. Open Control Panel and double-click Network Connections.
2. In the Network Connections dialog box, right-click a specific network connection and then click Properties.
3. In the properties dialog box for the network connection, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and then click Properties.

Figure 1 shows the available options when you use the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box.

Figure 2   Typical Network Settings Displayed by Ipconfig.exe
See full-sized image

You can use Ipconfig.exe not only to display networking settings but also to perform certain operations on a network adapter. For example, the /renew option renews DHCP leases and the /flushdns option purges the DNS client resolver cache.

Retrieving Basic Settings with a Script

By writing scripts in MSH, system administrators can create more powerful and flexible tools to manage a broader range of Windows functionality.

For each setting in the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box, WMI classes offer properties and methods that can retrieve and modify client network settings, the most important of which is the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class. Figure 3 illustrates which WMI classes correspond to different elements of the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box.

Figure 3   How TCP/IP WMI Properties and Methods Correspond to the Windows UI
See full-sized image

For purposes of scripting, a WMI class is simply a way of packaging a related set of configuration settings and returning them to your script to manipulate. Your script can use properties to retrieve the settings and methods in order to change them. The Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class includes properties and methods that correspond to the DNS, WMI, and Options tabs of the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box. The sections that follow cover this in detail.

Using the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration WMI Class

The 61 properties and 41 methods of Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration cover nearly all the settings and actions that are available through the Windows interface or command-line tools, and some that are not. To retrieve a property or call a method, only a few lines of MSH code are required, as the following examples illustrate. For more information about the properties and methods for this WMI class, see the WMI Software Development Kit (SDK) topic at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=29991.

To get any WMI object, you call Get-WMIObject with the name of the WMI class to return. This returns a collection containing zero or more object instances of the type requested. Each instance contains properties and methods. The objects, properties, and methods are documented in detail in the WMI Reference of the WMI SDK under "Scripting API for WMI."

Displaying One Setting

The following example displays the DHCPEnabled property of Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration. The DHCPEnabled property returns a Boolean value, which is a way of representing a condition that can be either true or false.

The pattern used in this simple script can be repeated for any property of Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration even those that return arrays. Handling properties that return arrays is discussed later in this paper.

Scripting Steps

Listing 1  OneSetting.msh

1   
2
3

#OneSetting.msh
$netadapters = Get-WMIObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
$netadapters | Format-Table DHCPEnabled -auto

When you run these commands, output similar to the following is displayed in the MSH.EXE command window:

Note: Even though a computer that contains only one physical network interface card, WMI may return settings for multiple network adapters. This is because some kinds of network connections, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), create their own virtual network adapters.

Displaying a Setting for Specific Network Adapters

The previous example displays the value of the DHCPEnabled property for every network adapter configuration that WMI finds. Sometimes you may not want to work with all network adapters. For example, certain features, such as Routing and Remote Access and virtual private networks, can create their own virtual network adapter configurations on which TCP/IP is not enabled.

To filter for IP-enabled network adapters only, you can use the Where-object cmdlet to filter the objects returned from WMI.  The most basic is of the form Get-WMIObject "classname". This query returns all instances of the WMI class. Thus Get-WMIObject Win32_Service would return an array of objects, one per service each of the services currently running on the computer. You can also use the -computer switch on Get-WMIObject to change the computer being queried.

The following script uses the Where-Object Cmdlet to filter the results returned from Get-WMIObject. The script uses Where-Object {$_.IPEnabled} to filter those instances of the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class where the Boolean value of its IPEnabled property is True, in other words, for which IP is enabled.

This example also displays a second property, Index (see line 5), to distinguish between adapters when more than one is installed. Index is the key property for the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class, serving as the unique identifier for each instance of the class. The value of Index is an integer, starting with 0 for the first active network adapter configuration and incrementing by 1 for each successive one, that identifies a particular configuration.

Listing 2 returns the Index and DHCPEnabled properties for all adapters for which IPEnabled is True.

Scripting Steps

Listing 2   OneSetting-Filter.msh

1
2
3
4    

#OneSetting-Filter.MSH
$NetAdapters = Get-WMIObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
$NetAdaptersIPEnabled = $NetAdapters | Where-Object {$_.IPEnabled}
$NetAdaptersIPEnabled| Format-List Index, DHCPEnabled

When you run this script, output similar to the following is displayed in the command window:

In some cases, you may want to restrict a script to run against just a single network adapter configuration, i.e. one of the objects in the array of objects. For example, on a dual-homed computer that is connected to two networks, you might want to enable DHCP on one network adapter but not the other. To do this, you could use the select-object with the clause {$_.Index -eq 11} to just return this particular network adapter's configuration."

Scripting Steps

Listing 3   OneSetting-OneNic.msh

1   
2
3
4
5

#OneSetting-OneNic.MSH
$NetAdapters = Get-WMIObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
$NetAdaptersipenabled   = $NetAdapters | Where-Object {$_.IPEnabled}
$NetAdaptersIPEnabled12 = $NetAdaptersIPEnabled | Where-Object {$_.Index -eq 12}
$NetAdaptersIPEnabled12 | Format-List Index, DHCPEnabled

When you run this script you should see something like this:

Displaying Multi-Valued Properties

Because Windows allows a single network adapter setting to have more than one IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, or DNS server, some properties of Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration can have multiple values. WMI returns these multiple values in the form of an array. Because an array contains multiple values, it cannot always be handled in the same way as a single string, Boolean, or number, although MSH does a good job of handling array values.

MSH offers several ways to deal with arrays. First, you simply allow the cmdlet such as Format-Table or Format-List to format the field by default.  The other is to write a For-Each loop. Both of these techniques are demonstrated below.

Using Format-Table/Format-List

When you pipe an array to Format-Table, or Format-List, you can specify the specific properties of an object to print. If this is an array, the cmdlet displays multiple values using normal default rules. In order to demonstrate this, you need to add a second address to an existing network card.

Scripting Steps

Listing 4   OneSetting-Array.Msh

1   
2
3
4
5

#OneSetting-Array.Msh
$NetAdapters = Get-WMIObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
$NetAdaptersipenabled   = $NetAdapters | Where-Object {$_.IPEnabled}
$NetAdaptersIPEnabled12 = $NetAdaptersIPEnabled | Where-Object {$_.Index -eq 12}
$NetAdaptersIPEnabled12 | Format-List Index, DHCPEnabled, IPaddress

When you run this script, output similar to the following is displayed in the command window:

As you can see, MSH displays the IP addresses as an array.

Using ForEach

The Foreach loop provides an alternative way to display the elements of an array but one that gives you more control over the formatting. This statement enables you to iterate through the array, with the script performing an action on each element. In this case, we merely display the element.

Scripting Steps

Listing 5 OneSetting-Array-Foreach.msh

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13 
     

#OneSetting-Array-Foreach.msh
$NetAdapters = Get-WMIObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
$NetAdaptersIPEnabled = $NetAdapters | Where-Object {$_.IPEnabled}
ForEach ($Nic in $NetAdaptersIPEnabled)
{
 "Network Adapter: $($Nic.Index)"
  If ($Nic.IPaddress.length -gt 0) 
 {
   "IP Address(es)"
   foreach ($ipaddr in $nic.IPaddress)
    {" $IPAddr"}
 }
}

When you run this script, output similar to the following is displayed in the command window:

Displaying a Range of Networking Properties

When inventorying network clients, you might often want to gather information about a larger selection of networking settings. For example, you might want to collect the settings displayed in the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box and those shown by Ipconfig.exe. There is overlap between the two but also some differences. A script can combine all the settings from these sources into one package.

For each IP-enabled network adapter on a specific computer, use Ipsettings.msh to obtain the information that displays on the IP Settings tab of the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box for a network connection as well as the information that Ipconfig.exe (used with a few parameters) displays.

A network adapter configuration can have multiple IP addresses, subnets, default gateways, and gateway metrics.

Scripting Steps

Listing 6   Ipsettings.msh

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.   

The WMI class Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration is closely related to another WMI class: Win32_NetworkAdapter. There is a one-to-one correspondence between instances of the two classes and an implicit division of labour between the two classes: Win32_NetworkAdapter exposes mostly hardware-related properties, and in contrast to Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration, includes no methods. There is some overlap between the two classes: for example, both have a MACAddress property that retrieves the physical address of a network adapter.

Figure 4 illustrates the relationship between the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration and Win32_NetworkAdapter classes.

The Win32_NetworkAdapter has a NetConnectionID property (available only on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003) that returns the name of the Network Connection (from Network Connections) that is bound to the network adapter, even though such a software setting might more logically belong in Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration. This NetConnectionID property corresponds to the name that Ipconfig.exe uses for each network adapter.

In addition, Win32_NetworkAdapter alone includes an AdapterType property that describes the network medium to which the adapter connects, such as Ethernet 802.3 or Token Ring 802.5. Ipconfig.exe also uses this information to describe the network adapter.

Figure 4   Relationship Between These WMI Classes
See full-sized image

The following examples show how to display the properties of Win32_NetworkAdapter and also the methods for correlating properties from instances of Win32_NetworkAdapter and Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration.

Displaying Network Adapter Properties

Displaying network adapter settings requires similar scripting techniques to those involved in displaying TCP/IP settings. The only difference is that you use the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class to display TCP/IP settings and the Win32_NetworkAdapter class to display network adapter properties. For more information about the properties and methods for this WMI class, see the WMI Software Development Kit (SDK) topic at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=29992.

Scripting Steps

Listing 7 retrieves the properties for all the network adapters on a computer. This script retrieves some properties available only on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

1.	Create a variable to specify the computer name. For example, to specify the local computer, use ("Localhost").
2.	Get all Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration Elements elements into an array $NetAdapters
3.	For each network adapter in the collection, display the settings

Listing 7   NicSettings.vbs

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

$Computer = "localhost" $NetAdapters = gwo Win32_NetworkAdapter $computer "Network Adapter Settings" ForEach ($Nic In $NetAdapters) {  "Network Adapter (Device ID) $($nic.DeviceID)" "  Index: $($Nic.Index)" "  MAC Address: $($nic.MACAddress)" "  Adapter Type: $($nic.AdapterType)" "  Adapter Type Id: $($nic.AdapterTypeID)" "  Description: $($nic.Description)" "  Manufacturer: $nic.Manufacturer" "  Name: $($nic.Name)" "  Product Name: $($Nic.ProductName)" "  Net Connection ID: $($nic.NetConnectionID)" "  Net Connection Status: $($nic.NetConnectionStatus)" "  PNP Device ID: $($nic.PNPDeviceID)" "  Service Name: $($nic.ServiceName)" If ($Nic.NetworkAddresses.length -gt 0)   {$add= $Nic.NetworkAddresses} Else {$add = ""} " NetworkAddresses: $add" "  Permanent Address: $($nic.PermanentAddress)" "  AutoSense: $($nic.AutoSense)" "  Maximum Number Controlled: $($nic.MaxNumberControlled)" "  Speed: $($nic.Speed)" "  Maximum Speed: $($nic.MaxSpeed)" "" }

When you run this script, output similar to the following is displayed in the command window:

Associating the Network Connections Name with MAC and IP Addresses Using Two Classes

For various purposes, administrators may need to retrieve the MAC or physical addresses and IP addresses of computers and correlate them with the name of the adapter listed in Network Connections. Ipconfig.exe uses the network adapter name and type to distinguish between network adapters, as shown in Figure 5.

Associating MAC and IP addresses corresponds to the part of the IP routing process performed by the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). You can view the resulting IP - MAC address translation tables by using the command-line tool Arp.exe. Figure 5 provides an example of the output obtained by running the arp -a command.

Figure 5   Arp.exe output
See full-sized image

To use WMI to connect MAC and IP addresses with network adapter names and types, you must correlate properties from corresponding instances of Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration (MACAddress and IPAddress) and Win32_NetworkAdapter (NetConnectionID and AdapterType).

Note: The NetConnectionID property of Win32_NetworkAdapter is available only on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

In order to find the specific instances of each class that correspond to each other, you can use the Key qualifier to determine key properties for each class. Key properties (there can be more than one) together supply a unique reference for each class instance and are part of the instance namespace handle. They are a little like the key field in a database. The WMI SDK or Wbemtest.exe (the WMI Tester tool, which is included on all versions of Windows that include WMI) can tell you which property or properties of a class are keys.

Table 2 displays the key properties for the two WMI network adapter classes.

Table 2   Key Properties for WMI Network Adapter Classes

Class	Key Property
Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration	Index
Win32_NetworkAdapter	DeviceID

By using either of these keys, you can match instances of the two classes. In the following example, the Get property of SWbemServices is used to retrieve the instance of Win32_NetworkAdapter, whose DeviceID property corresponds to the Index property of a specific Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration instance.

However, MSH's Get-WMIObject cmdlet makes the task much simpler. Calling Get-WMIObject to retrieve these two classes returns two parrallel arrays. The nth member of Win_32NetworkAdapterConfiguration collection returned matches the nth member of the Win32_NetworkAdapter collection. You can therefore use MSH's loop control syntax to loop through the arrays and retreive useful information.

Get-ncmacip.Msh displays the network connection name (or index number for pre-Windows XP clients), MAC address, IP addresses, and subnet masks for IP-enabled network interfaces. A network adapter configuration can have more than one IP address and subnet and these are displayed as previously.

The script shows a simpler way than the GetNetConnectionID() function in Ipsettings.vbs to determine whether the NetConnectionID property is available. Instead of checking the operating system version to see if it is Windows XP (which would ensure that the Win32_NetworkAdapter.NetConnectionID was available), it simply tries to retrieve the NetConnectionID property. If an error is returned, it uses the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration.Index property instead.

Scripting Steps

Listing 9 retrieves the IP addresses and subnet masks for each network adapter on a single computer.

1.	Create a variable to specify the computer name.
2.	Get all Win32_NetworkAdapter Elements elements into an array $NetAdapters and get all Win32_AdapterConfig elements into $config
3.	Iterate through each network adapter configuration in the collection, performing the following steps.
4.	If the adapter is configured for IP, then display relevant properties as follows
7.	Display the Description property of Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration and the MACAddress property of Win32_NetworkAdapter.
8.	Display the IPAddress and IPSubnet properties of Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration.

Listing 9   Get-ncmacip.Msh

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

#Get-ncmacip.Msh $Computer = "localhost" $Adapters = gwo Win32_NetworkAdapter -comp $Computer $Config = gwo Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -comp $Computer "MAC & IP Addresses & Subnet Masks" For($i=0;$i -lt $Adapters.length;$i++) { if ($config[$i].ipenabled) { "$($Adapters[$i].AdapterType) $($Adapters[$i].NetConnectionID)" " Network Adapter $($Adapters[$i].Index)" " $($Adapters[$i].Description)" " MAC Address: $($Adapters[$i].MACAddress)" " IP Address(es): $($Config[$i].IPAddress)" " Subnet Mask(s): $($Config[$i].IPSubnet)" "" } }

When you run this script, output similar to the following is displayed in the command window:

Displaying Expanded IP Configuration Data

In Windows XP, a convenient way to retrieve more detailed TCP/IP client settings is through the Network Connections Details dialog box for a specific network connection.

To retrieve detailed TCP/IP settings for a specific network connection

1.	Open Control Panel and then double-click Network Connections.
2.	In the Network Connections dialog box, right-click a specific network connection and then click Status.
3.	On the Support tab, click Details to view network connection settings.

Figure 7 shows an example of a Network Connection Details box.

Figure 7   Network Connection Details Dialog Box
See full-sized image

Using Ipconfig.exe to Display Expanded Configuration Data

You can use the /all option with the Ipconfig.exe command-line tool to retrieve a collection of settings even more detailed than those in the Network Connections Details dialog box. Figure 8 shows screen output like what displays when you use the ipconfig /all command.

Figure 8   Using Ipconfig.exe /all to Display Network Data
See full-sized image

Using a Script to Display Expanded Configuration Data

WMI provides the functionality to reproduce nearly all the functionality of the ipconfig /all command, along with many other settings. Besides Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration, Ipconfig.vbs also uses StdRegProv, which is a class included in the System Registry WMI provider, to extract some settings from the registry.

Caution
Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer.

Scripting Steps

Listing 12 retrieves an extensive set of TCP/IP network client properties, equivalent to those retrieved by Ipconfig.exe /all, from a single computer. The script uses two functions: one that converts the dates returned to a more readable format and another that returns the operating system version.

To carry out these tasks, the script must:

1.	Invoke On Error Resume Next so that errors do not terminate the script.
2.	Assign values to constants and variables to be used.
3.	Use a GetObject call to connect to the StdRegProv class in the WMI namespace root\default.
4.	Retrieve global settings from the registry by using the GetStringValue and GetDWORDValue methods of StdRegProv. These settings apply to all network adapters. These methods return a value in an out parameter, the final parameter for each method.
5.	Use a Select Case statement to decode the value returned by the dwNodeType out parameter.
6.	Use an If ... ElseIf ... Else statement to decode the value returned by the dwIPRouting out parameter.
7.	Use a GetObject call to connect to the WMI namespace root\cimv2.
8.	Use the ExecQuery method to query the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class, filtering the WQL query with “WHERE IPEnabled = True.” This returns a collection consisting of all the network adapter configurations on the computer for which IP is enabled.
9.	Retrieve the value of DNSEnabledForWINSResolution, which is a global setting, the same for each network adapter. Use an If ... ElseIf ... Else statement to decode the Boolean value returned by DNSEnabledForWINSResolution.
10.	Display the global settings retrieved.
11.	Again use the ExecQuery method to query the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class, filtering the WQL query with “WHERE IPEnabled = True.”
12.	Call the GetOSVer function, which gets the Version property of Win32_OperatingSystem. Assign the value returned to a variable.
13.	Iterate through each network adapter configuration in the collection returned by the query.
14.	Retrieve the Index property for the instance and use the Get method to return the instance of Win32_NetworkAdapter whose DeviceID property corresponds to the value of Index.
15.	Retrieve the per-adapter properties of Win32_NetworkAdapter and Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration displayed by Ipconfig.exe /all.
16.	If the AdapterType property is not available, display "Network" as the adapter type.
17.	If the operating system version is: • Greater than 5, indicating Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, retrieve the NetConnectionID property from Win32_NetworkAdapter. • 5 or less, use the Index property of Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration as the identifier of the network adapter.
18.	Retrieve and display other properties of the two classes.
19.	If the property returns an array, check that the value is not null. If the return value is not null, assign each array element, separated by a space, to a string, and display the string.
20.	If the property returns a value in WMI DATETIME format, call the WMIDateStringToDate function and pass it the DATETIME value. This function converts the value to a more readable string representing the date and time.

Listing 12   Ipconfig.vbs

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172

On Error Resume Next     Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002 strComputer = "." strKeyPath1 = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters" strKeyPath2 = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT\Parameters" strHostEntry = "Hostname" strDomainEntry = "Domain" strNodeEntry = "DhcpNodeType" strRoutingEntry = "IPEnableRouter"   Set objReg = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & _ strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv") objReg.GetStringValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strKeyPath1,strHostEntry,strHostname objReg.GetStringValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strKeyPath1,strDomainEntry,strDomain objReg.GetDWORDValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strKeyPath2,strNodeEntry,dwNodeType objReg.GetDWORDValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strKeyPath1,strRoutingEntry,dwIPRouting   Select Case dwNodeType   Case 4 strNodeType = "Mixed"   Case 8 strNodeType = "Hybrid"   Case Else strNodeType = dwNodeType End Select If dwIPRouting = 0 Then   strIPRouting = "No" ElseIf dwIPRouting = 1 Then   strIPRouting = "Yes" Else   strIPRouting = "?" End If   strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _ & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")   Set colFirstNicConfig = objWMIService.ExecQuery _ ("SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration WHERE IPEnabled = True") For Each objFirstNicConfig In colFirstNicConfig   strDnsWins = objFirstNicConfig.DNSEnabledForWINSResolution Next If strDnsWins = False Then   strWinsProxy = "No" ElseIf strDnsWins = True Then   strWinsProxy = "Yes" Else   strWinsProxy = "?" End If   ' Display global settings.   WScript.Echo VbCrLf & "Windows IP Configuration" & VbCrLf WScript.Echo "        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : " & strHostname WScript.Echo "        Primary DNS Suffix  . . . . . . . : " & strDomain WScript.Echo "        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : " & strNodeType WScript.Echo "        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : " & strIPRouting WScript.Echo "        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : " & strWinsProxy WScript.Echo "        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : " & strDomain   Set colNicConfigs = objWMIService.ExecQuery _   ("SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration WHERE IPEnabled = True") sngOsVer = GetOsVer   ' Display per-adapter settings.   For Each objNicConfig In colNicConfigs   intIndex = objNicConfig.Index   Set objNic = objWMIService.Get("Win32_NetworkAdapter.DeviceID=" & intIndex)     strAdapterType = objNic.AdapterType   If IsEmpty(strAdapterType) Or IsNull(strAdapterType) Or _    (strAdapterType = "") Then     strAdapterType = "Network"   End If     If sngOsVer > 5 Then     strNetConn = objNic.NetConnectionID   Else     strNetConn = intIndex   End If     WScript.Echo VbCrLf & strAdapterType & " adapter " & strNetConn   WScript.Echo "        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : " & _    objNicConfig.DNSDomain   WScript.Echo "        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : " & _    objNicConfig.Description   WScript.Echo "        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : " & _    objNicConfig.MACAddress   WScript.Echo "        DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : " & _    objNicConfig.DHCPEnabled '  WScript.Echo "        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . .: " & objNicConfig.?     strIPAddresses = ""   If Not IsNull(objNicConfig.IPAddress) Then     For Each strIPAddress In objNicConfig.IPAddress       strIPAddresses = strIPAddresses & strIPAddress & " "     Next   End If   WScript.Echo "        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : " & strIPAddresses   strIPSubnets = ""   If Not IsNull(objNicConfig.IPSubnet) Then     For Each strIPSubnet In objNicConfig.IPSubnet       strIPSubnets = strIPSubnets & strIPSubnet & " "     Next   End If   WScript.Echo "        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : " & strIPSubnets   strDefaultIPGateways = ""   If Not IsNull(objNicConfig.DefaultIPGateway) Then     For Each strDefaultIPGateway In objNicConfig.DefaultIPGateway       strDefaultIPGateways = strDefaultIPGateways & strDefaultIPGateway & " "     Next   End If   WScript.Echo "        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : " & _    strDefaultIPGateways   WScript.Echo "        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : " & _    objNicConfig.DHCPServer   strDNSServerSearchOrder = ""   If Not IsNull(objNicConfig.DNSServerSearchOrder) Then     For Each strDNSServer In objNicConfig.DNSServerSearchOrder       strDNSServerSearchOrder = strDNSServerSearchOrder & VbCrLf & _       "                                            " & strDNSServer     Next   End If   WScript.Echo "        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :" & _    strDNSServerSearchOrder   If Not IsNull(objNicConfig.WINSPrimaryServer) Then     WScript.Echo "        Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : " & _      objNicConfig.WINSPrimaryServer   End If   If Not IsNull(objNicConfig.WINSSecondaryServer) Then     WScript.Echo "        Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : " & _      objNicConfig.WINSSecondaryServer   End If   If objNicConfig.DHCPEnabled Then     dtmRawLeaseObtainedDate = objNicConfig.DHCPLeaseObtained     strFormattedLeaseObtainedDate = WMIDateToString(dtmRawLeaseObtainedDate)     WScript.Echo "        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : " & _      strFormattedLeaseObtainedDate     dtmRawLeaseExpiresDate = objNicConfig.DHCPLeaseExpires     strFormattedLeaseExpiresDate = WMIDateToString(dtmRawLeaseExpiresDate)     WScript.Echo "        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : " & _     strFormattedLeaseExpiresDate   End If Next   '****************************************************************************** ' Function: WMIDateStringToDate(dtmDate) ' Converts WMI date to string. '******************************************************************************   Function WMIDateToString(dtmDate)     WMIDateToString = CDate(Mid(dtmDate, 5, 2) & "/" & _                       Mid(dtmDate, 7, 2) & "/" & _                       Left(dtmDate, 4) & " " & _                       Mid(dtmDate, 9, 2) & ":" & _                       Mid(dtmDate, 11, 2) & ":" & _                       Mid(dtmDate, 13, 2)) End Function   '****************************************************************************** ' Function: GetOsVer ' Gets the operating system version number. '******************************************************************************   Function GetOsVer   Set colOperatingSystems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _    ("Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem")   For Each objOperatingSystem In colOperatingSystems     GetOSVer = CSng(Left(objOperatingSystem.Version, 3))   Next End Function

When you use Cscript.exe to run this script, output similar to the following is displayed in the command window:

C:\scripts>ipconfig.vbs

 

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : client1
        Primary DNS Suffix  . . . . . . . : fabrikam.com
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . : Yes
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : fabrikam.com

Ethernet 802.3 adapter Local Area Connection
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet
Controller (3C905C-TX Compatible) - Packet Scheduler Miniport
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00:B0:D0:23:70:37
        DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : True
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.12

        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :

                                                   192.168.0.1

        Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

        Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2

        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . . . . : 6/2/2004 4:31:19 PM

        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 6/12/2004 7:31:19 PM

Top of page

Tools for Basic TCP/IP Networking on Clients

The tables in this section list the available command-line and scripting tools, and registry keys for retrieving and displaying basic networking data on clients. Table 3 lists the command-line tools for displaying basic TCP/IP networking on clients and also indicates where you find the tools.

Table 3   Command-Line Tools for Basic TCP/IP Networking on Clients

Tool	Where Available
Arp.exe	Windows operating systems1
Getmac.exe: GetMAC	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Hostname.exe	Windows operating systems
Ipconfig.exe	Windows operating systems
Listadapters.vbs	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Netconnections.vbs	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Netipconfig.pl	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Netipfilteringconfig.pl	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Net.exe	Windows operating systems
Netset.exe	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Netsh.exe	Windows operating systems
Netstat.exe	Windows operating systems
Networkprotocol.vbs	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Ping.exe	Windows operating system
Protocolbinding.vbs	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Subnet_op.vbs	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Timezone.exe: Daylight Saving Time Update Utility	Windows 2000 Resource Kit
Tzedit.exe: Time Zone Editor	Windows 2000 Resource Kit -- GUI tool
Wsremote.exe	Windows XP Support Tool

1	Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. May also be present on other versions of Windows.

Table 4 lists the WSH objects and WMI classes for displaying basic TCP/IP networking on clients and also provides notes and availability information.

Table 4   WSH Objects and WMI Classes for Basic TCP/IP Networking on Clients

Technology	Object or Class	Notes
WMI	Win32_ComputerSystem
WMI	Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
WMI	Win32_NetworkAdapter
WMI	Win32_NetworkAdapterSetting	Association class associating Win32_NetworkAdapter and Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
WMI	Win32_NetworkClient
WMI	Win32_NetworkConnection
WMI	Win32_NetworkProtocol
WMI	Win32_NTDomain	Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 only
WMI	Win32_OperatingSystem
WMI	Win32_PingStatus	Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 only
WMI	Win32_ProtocolBinding	Association class associating Win32_NetworkProtocol, Win32_SystemDriver, and Win32_NetworkAdapter

Table 5 lists the registry keys to use for displaying basic TCP/IP networking on clients.

  Caution
Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer.

Table 5   Registry Subkeys Related to Basic TCP/IP Networking on Clients

Registry Subkeys
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces \{AdapterIdentifier}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dhcp
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBIOS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netman

 

---

Visitors:

Last Updated: 24-07-05 09:11 PM +0100