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Networking in OS X can seem a little scary to some people , but it can be really easy!

A utility that is often overlooked by many OS X users is Network Utility. You can get to it from your local disk. HD > APPLICATIONS > UTILITIES > NETWORK UTILITY or use the finder.

Network utility can perform many of the task that you are often guided to the Terminal for. But for users that are not comfortable typing their commands Network Utility provides a nice simple GUI.

As shown in the screen shot Network utility has nine tabs that can provide you with a whole lot of networking information.

Info:

In this tab you can find lots of useful information about your network connections. I tend to find that the most useful are

Hardware Address

AKA MAC adress

A MAC address identifies your computer on a network and is often used when IP addresses are issued.

IP address

Again a unique number you IP address it often automatically assigned to you, known as DHCP. Or you could have a static address.

Link Speed

Self explanatory really, this is the speed you are connected at on your local network.

Netstat:

Netstat can be used to view the routing table on your PC. This can be handy in troubleshooting your connections.

AppleTalk:

Use this to look at your Appletalk information….

Ping:

Pinging can be used to diagnose network problems. You can ping other devices that are connected via IP to see if they are reachable.

Lookup:

Lookup can be used to find out lots of information about a host computer. There is a lot of information to be found here, so if you want investigate it more.

Traceroute:

This is kind of like ping. But this shows you all the hops or devices that you go through to reach your destination server.

Whois:

Whois can be used to find out information about domain names. You can look up who owns it and were it is registered.

Finger:

Finger is not commonly used much now, but for servers were it is still available it can be usefull to troubleshoot email address spellings and the like.

Port Scan:

Although there are many better port scanners available this one is pretty good and relatively fast for using now and again.