A few tools that are built into the Microsoft Windows operating system can assist in making some determinations about the network to which the PC is connected. Typing ipconfig at a command prompt produces a display of information about the in‑use parameters of the PC and its network connection. Following is an example of the typical results expected:

Another tool that can find out if a selected IP address is already on the network is ping. Ping is a harmless way to determine if an address is found on the network, and (if it is found) to receive a reply. Basically, the ping function sends out a request to a specific address to determine if a computing device is connected to the network at that address. If a valid connection is found, then a copy of the signal (that was sent) is returned. If a connection is not found, then the response is “request timed out”, which means that no reply was received from that IP address.