Which command would you use to view active network connections on a Windows machine?

• A. Ping
• B. Netstat
• C. Nslookup
• D. Tracert

Answer: (B)

To see what’s currently communicating over the network on a Windows machine, you use a tool that lists active connections and listening ports. Netstat is designed for this purpose. It shows each connection with its protocol (TCP/UDP), local address and port, remote address and port, and the state (such as established or listening). You can refine the output with options like -a to show all connections and listening ports, -n to display numeric addresses, and -o to include the process ID that owns each connection. A common combination is netstat -ano, which reveals all connections with numbers and PIDs; you can then map those PIDs to processes in Task Manager or via tasklist. Other commands listed serve different tasks—ping tests reachability, nslookup resolves DNS names, and tracert traces the route to a destination—so netstat directly answers the question of viewing active network connections.