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{{about|network utilities in general|the macOS application|Network Utility}}
'''Network utilities''' are [[utility software|software utilities]] designed to analyze and configure various aspects of [[computer network]]s. The majority of them originated on [[Unix]] systems, but several later ports to other [[operating system]]s exist.

The most common tools (found on most operating systems) include:
* {{mono|[[Ping (networking utility)|ping]]}}, ping a host to check connectivity (reports [[packet loss]] and [[network latency|latency]], uses [[Internet Control Message Protocol|ICMP]]).
* {{mono|[[traceroute]]}} shows the series of successive systems a packet goes through ''en route'' to its destination on a network.  It works by sending packets with sequential [[time to live|TTLs]] which generate ICMP TTL-exceeded messages from the hosts the packet passes through.
* {{mono|[[nslookup]]}}, used to query a [[Domain Name System|DNS]] server for DNS data (deprecated on Unix systems in favour of {{mono|[[host (Unix)|host]]}} and {{mono|[[dig (Unix command)|dig]]}}; {{As of|2006|alt=still}} the preferred tool on [[Microsoft Windows]] systems).
* [[vnStat]], useful command to monitor network traffic from the console. vnstat allows to keep the traffic information in a log system to be analyzed by third party tools.


Other network utilities include:
* {{mono|[[netstat]]}}, displays  [[Transmission Control Protocol|network connections]] (both incoming and outgoing), [[routing table]]s, and a number of network interface and network protocol statistics. It is used for finding problems in the network and to determine the amount of traffic on the network as a performance measurement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.prftungd/doc/prftungd/netstat.htm|title=IBM Systems Information Center|date=8 May 2007}}</ref>
* {{mono|spray}}, which sprays numerous packets in the direction of a host and reports results<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unix.com/man-page/freebsd/8/spray/ |title=FreeBSD 11.0 - man page for spray (freebsd section 8) - Unix & Linux Commands |website=Unix.com |date=  |author= |accessdate= 15 April 2016}}</ref>
* {{mono|[[netsh]]}} allows local or remote configuration of network devices, Microsoft Windows

Some usages of network configuration tools also serve to display and diagnose networks, for example:
* {{mono|[[iproute2]]}} (on Linux)
* {{mono|[[ifconfig]]}} (on Unix)
* {{mono|[[ipconfig]]}} (on Windows)
* {{mono|[[route (Unix command)|route]]}} can display an [[Internet Protocol|IP]] [[routing table]]

Main network utilities

[https://blog.pandorafms.org/network-commands/ List of the most useful network commands]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Network utility}}
[[Category:Network performance]]
[[Category:Utility software types]]

==Further reading==
* [https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1592699-optimal-iterative-method-network-utility-maximization-intertemporal-constraints Optimal Iterative Method for Network Utility Maximization with Intertemporal Constraints]
* [https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/Themes/136/2892 Utility and governmental services]
* [https://www.my-webnet.de/responsive-webdesign Responsive Webdesign] (in German)

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