I have been working on making a wireless network for internet distribution and have been recording some of my works. I wrote about Ubiquiti Lite AP Link: Line of Sight vs. Fresnel Zone and Struggles with Ubiquiti Lite AP and PowerBeam Connections. During the troubleshooting the windows built in networking commands are very helpful. As a WISP(Wireless Internet Service Provider) engineer or field technician, Windows Command Prompt (CMD) can be a very powerful tool for troubleshooting networking and Wi-Fi issues. Here’s a categorized list of the most useful commands for your context:
Basic Network Connectivity
ping <IP or domain>
Test if a device or server is reachable.
Example:
ping 8.8.8.8
ping google.com
Helps verify if issue is local or DNS related.
tracert <IP or domain>
Shows the route packets take to reach the destination. Useful for spotting where latency or packet loss occurs.
pathping <IP>
Combines `ping` + `tracert` and shows packet loss at each hop.
arp -a
Displays the ARP table (IP ↔ MAC mapping). Useful for detecting duplicate IP conflicts or unknown devices.
IP Configuration
ipconfig
Shows IP, subnet, gateway, and DNS info.
ipconfig /all
More detailed, includes DHCP lease, MAC address, etc.
ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew
Forces the client to request a new IP from DHCP server.
ipconfig /flushdns
Clears local DNS cache, useful for domain resolution issues.
Wi-Fi & Wireless Troubleshooting
netsh wlan show interfaces
Displays SSID, BSSID (AP MAC), signal strength, channel, and radio type. Very useful for Wi-Fi quality checks.
netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid
Scans and shows all nearby Wi-Fi networks, including signal strength and channel. Helps identify congestion or interference.
netsh wlan show profile
Lists saved Wi-Fi profiles on the PC.
netsh wlan show profile <SSID> key=clear
Shows details of a specific Wi-Fi network including the saved password.
netsh wlan disconnect / netsh wlan connect name=<SSID>
Manually disconnect or connect to Wi-Fi networks.
Advanced Network Testing
nslookup <domain>
example: nslookup ee-diary.com
Check DNS resolution manually. Useful when sites don’t load but ping by IP works.
telnet <IP> <port> (if Telnet is installed)
Tests if a specific port is open. Example:
telnet 192.168.1.1 80
netstat -ano
Displays all active connections, listening ports, and their process IDs. Helps check if something is hogging bandwidth or ports.
route print
Shows the device’s routing table (useful for diagnosing multiple gateways or VPN issues).
tasklist /fi "PID eq <PID>
Combine with `netstat -ano` to identify which program is using a port.
Other Handy Commands
systeminfo
Provides system details including network card drivers, OS version (useful when checking compatibility issues).
driverquery /v | findstr "Wireless"
Displays wireless driver versions (handy for outdated driver troubleshooting).
powercfg /energy
Generates a power efficiency report (can help spot Wi-Fi adapter power saving issues).
As a WISP engineer/technician, the most commonly used in the field are:
`ping`, `tracert`, `pathping`, `ipconfig /all`, `arp -a`, `netsh wlan show interfaces`, and `netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid`.
