IPConfig

By Joshua Erdman
Digital Foundation, inc.

IPConfig originally came about in at least as far back as NT 4.0, maybe even further. In that older version it was only a handy display tool, showing the network hosts current IP configurations. The equivalent version in Windows 9X is 'winipcfg' which no longer exists in these newer operating systems.

IPconfig commands in NT 4.0 and newer

ipconfig /all
Displays current IP settings in detail

ipconfig /release
Instructs the network host to release the DHCP assigned. ipconfig /renew
Instructs the network host to request a new IP address from the DHCP server.
NOTE: using the renew command implies a release.

IPconfig commands in Win2k and newer

ipconfig /flushdns
Instructs the network host to dump all cached DNS entries.

ipconfig /displaydns
Instructs the network host to display all cached DNS entries.

ipconfig /registerdns
Instructs the network host to register its hostname and IP dynamically to the local DNS servers.

For me, the "flushdns" command is the most commonly used command besides ping. With the Win9X and NT4.0 platforms, whenever I made an IP change to a DNS entry I had to reboot the machine for it to get the new address because the machine would cache the old one until it was rebooted.

Article last reviewed: 01/05/2004

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Created by: Digital Foundation, inc.

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