NetInfo  
Matter
Decor

FAQs

Bookmark and Share
Decor
Product
Overview
What's New
Screen Shots
FAQs
Services
Distributors
Affiliate Program
Reseller Program
Info
Awards
Press Reviews
User Comments
About Us

Windows 8 Logo

The Basics

Decor
Decor What is NetInfo and why do I need it?
Decor What are the system requirements for NetInfo?

Getting Started

Decor
Decor When I try to start NetInfo, I get an error message about a missing OLEACC.DLL. What do I do?
Decor When I try to start NetInfo, I get an error box saying: "Unable to load INETMIB1.DLL!". What do I do?
Decor When I try to start NetInfo, it hangs at the information screen. What do I do?

Common Questions

Decor
Decor What is IP?
Decor What is TCP?
Decor What is UDP?
Decor What is Winsock?
Decor What is a socket?
Decor What is a host?
Decor What is a gateway?

Local Info

Decor
Decor What is the Local Info tab?
Decor What is a User name?
Decor What is a Physical address?
Decor What is an IP address?
Decor What is the Winsock version?
Decor What is the Winsock high version?
Decor What is the Winsock description?
Decor What is the System status?
Decor What is Sockets?
Decor What is the UDP size?

Connections

Decor
Decor What is the Connections tab?

Ping

Decor
Decor What is the Ping tab?
Decor What is a packet?
Decor What is RTT?
Decor What is TTL?

Trace

Decor
Decor What is the Trace tab?
Decor What is a Hop?

Lookup

Decor
Decor What is the Lookup tab?
Decor What is an alias?
Decor What is DNS?
Decor What is a domain?
Decor What is MX?
Decor What is a Preference?

Finger

Decor
Decor What is the Finger tab?
Decor What is the query syntax?

Whois

Decor
Decor What is the Whois tab?

Daytime

Decor
Decor What is the Daytime tab?

Time

Decor
Decor What is the Time tab?

Quote

Decor
Decor What is the Quote tab?

HTML

Decor
Decor What is the HTML tab?

Scanner

Decor
Decor What is the Scanner tab?
Decor When I use the Scanner tool in NetInfo on Windows XP, some hosts are listed with incorrect names. What do I do?
Decor When I use the Scanner tool in NetInfo on Windows XP Service Pack 2, I get an event log message with ID 4226. What do I do?

Services

Decor
Decor What is the Services tab?
Decor What is a port?

E-mail

Decor
Decor What is the E-mail tab?

Web Center

Decor
Decor What is the Web Center tab?

Other Questions

Decor
If you have other questions please visit our online support form to forward your support request.

The Basics

Decor
What is NetInfo and why do I need it?

NetInfo is a collection of 15 different state-of-the-art network diagnostic tools on a single, easy-to-use interface. Designed from first-hand experience, NetInfo allows businesses to more effectively combat network downtime by allowing network administrators, webmasters, and Internet service providers to more accurately isolate faults, simplify processing of diagnostic data and increase internal network security.

If you routinely experience delays or bottlenecks when surfing the Internet or your intranet, you know how frustrating it can be. NetInfo analyzes your connection and various aspects of the Internet in order to isolate potential pitfalls. Once it determines where the problem lies, NetInfo provides you with a whole slew of tools that help you solve it. If the problem lies beyond your realm of control and you don't know who to contact about it, NetInfo will give you a name, e-mail address and phone number. With tools like Local Info, Connections, Ping, Trace, Lookup, Finger, Whois, Daytime, Time, Quote, HTML, Scanner, Services, E-mail, and Web Center, you'll get in touch with your inner NetAdmin geek.

Decor Top of page

What are the system requirements for NetInfo?

  1. Windows Vista, Server 2008, 7, Server 2008 R2, 8, Server 2012, 10, and Server 2016 (32-bit or 64-bit versions).
  2. Internet Explorer 7 or later.
Decor Top of page

Getting Started

Decor
When I try to start NetInfo, I get an error message about a missing OLEACC.DLL. What do I do?

This file is a component of Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) library. Probably you don't have MSAA installed, or the installed version is outdated. To resolve this problem, please do the following:

  • Windows 98, Me, NT, and 2000. Download and install the current MSAA version 2.0 from Microsoft.
Decor Top of page

 When I try to start NetInfo, I get an error box saying: "Unable to load INETMIB1.DLL!". What do I do?

Probably Windows isn't correctly installed on your computer. NetInfo needs inetmib1.dll and snmpapi.dll to work. If the two files are of incompatible versions or missing on the system then the above error will be displayed. NetInfo will fail to start because of this.

If both files are loaded on the system and an incompatibility exists below is a working matrix of the inetmib1.dll and snmpapi.dll files known to work together:

inetmib1.dll

snmpapi.dll

3.51 4.00
5.00.1717.1 5.00.1717.1
5.00.1717.1 5.00.1662.1

Often times two snmpapi.dll files are installed on the system and the wrong one will be loaded because it is in the Windows\System directory which gets checked first. You should do a find for the inetmib1.dll file, highlight it, right click the mouse button to select properties and then look at the version tab to determine the version of the file. You should then do a find on the snmpapi.dll file and do the same to any files found. The file that isn't compatible with the inetmib1.dll file should be renamed or deleted. You can now start NetInfo. No reboot is necessary.

If any of the files are missing, install Microsoft Winsock, which should install the appropriate files. Please contact NetInfo Support if the above workaround doesn't resolve the problem.

Note: Third party Winsock can also cause this problem. NetInfo only supports Microsoft Winsock.

Decor Top of page

When I try to start NetInfo, it hangs at the information screen. What do I do?

Probably Active scripting is disabled for your My Computer security zone. This security zone is hidden by default on the Security tab in the Internet Options dialog box. The Flags value in the following registry key determines whether you can view the My Computer security zone on the Security tab in the Internet Options dialog box:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\0

Setting the data value of the Flags value to 47 (in hexadecimal) causes the My Computer security zone to be displayed. Setting the data value of the Flags value to 21 (in hexadecimal) causes the My Computer security zone to be hidden.

To enable NetInfo to run, you need to enable Active Scripting. Please do the following:

  1. Start Internet Explorer.
  2. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu.
  3. Select My Computer on the Security tab.
  4. Press the Custom Level button.
  5. Enable Active scripting.
Decor Top of page

Common Questions

Decor
What is IP?

(Internet Protocol) The TCP/IP standard protocol that defines the IP datagram as the unit of information passed across an internet and provides the basis for connectionless, best-effort packet delivery service. IP includes the ICMP control and error message protocol as an integral part.

Decor Top of page

What is TCP?

(Transmission Control Protocol) The TCP/IP standard transport level protocol that provides the reliable, full duplex, stream service on which many application protocols depend. TCP allows a process on one machine to send a stream of data to a process on another. It is connection-oriented in the sense that before transmitting data, participants must establish a connection. Software implementing TCP usually resides in the operating system and uses the IP protocol to transmit information across the underlying internet.

Decor Top of page

What is UDP?

(User Datagram Protocol) The TCP/IP standard protocol that allows an application program on one machine to send a datagram to an application program on another machine. UDP uses the Internet Protocol (IP) to deliver datagrams. Conceptually, the important difference between UDP datagrams and IP datagrams is that UDP includes a protocol port number, allowing the sender to distinguish among multiple destinations (application programs) on the remote machine. In practice, UDP also includes a checksum over the data being sent.

Decor Top of page

What is Winsock?

The Windows Sockets specification defines a network-programming interface for Microsoft Windows, which is based on the "socket" paradigm popularized in the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) from the University of California at Berkeley. It encompassed both familiar Berkeley socket style routines and a set of Windows-specific extensions designed to allow the programmer to take advantage of message-driven nature of Windows.

Decor Top of page

What is a socket?

The abstraction provided by Berkeley 4BSD UNIX that allows an application program to access the TCP/IP protocols. An application opens a socket, specifies the service desired (e.g., reliable stream delivery), binds the socket to a specific destination and then sends or receives data.

Decor Top of page

What is a host?

Any (end-user) computer system that connected to a network. Hosts range in size from personal computers to supercomputers.

Decor Top of page

What is a gateway?

A special purpose, dedicated computer that attached to two or more networks and routes packets from one to the other. In particular, an IP gateway routes IP datagrams among the networks to which it connects. Gateways route packets to other gateways until they can be delivered to the final destination directly across one physical network.

Decor Top of page

Local Info

Decor
What is the Local Info tab?

A network tool that lets you obtain information about local host and currently active version of the Windows Sockets. On Windows Vista, 2008, 7, 2008 R2, 8, 2012, 10, and 2016 the Local Info tool also reports full network adapter information for the local computer.

You can use the Local Info tool to:

  • Identify your computer on the network.
  • Query your implementation of the Windows Sockets to determine what basic information is available.
Decor Top of page

What is a User name?

The name that identifies a user.

Decor Top of page

What is a Physical address?

On a local area network (LAN) or other network, the physical (MAC) address is your computer's unique hardware number. (On an Ethernet LAN, it's the same as your Ethernet address.) When you're connected to the Internet from your computer (or host as the Internet protocol thinks of it), a correspondence table relates your IP address to your computer's physical address on the LAN.

Decor Top of page

What is an IP address?

The 32-bit address assigned to hosts that want to participate in a TCP/IP Internet. IP addresses are the abstraction of physical hardware addresses just as an internet is an abstraction of physical networks. Actually assigned to the interconnection of a host to a physical network, an IP address consists of a network portion and a host portion. The partition makes routing efficient.

Decor Top of page

What is the Winsock version?

The version of the Windows Sockets specification that the Windows Sockets DLL expects the caller to use.

Decor Top of page

What is the Winsock high version?

The highest version of the Windows Sockets specification that this DLL can support (also encoded as above).

Decor Top of page

What is the Winsock description?

A description of the Windows Sockets implementation, including vendor identification.

Decor Top of page

What is the System status?

Relevant status or configuration information of the Windows Sockets.

Decor Top of page

What is Sockets?

The maximum number of sockets, which a single process can potentially open.

Decor Top of page

What is the UDP size?

The size in bytes of the largest UDP datagram that can be sent or received by a Windows Sockets application.

Decor Top of page

Connections

Decor
What is the Connections tab?

A network tool that lets you obtain information about current TCP/IP connections.

You can use the Connections tool to query detailed listings of all TCP and UDP sockets on your system, including the foreign address and state of TCP connections. On Windows Vista, 2008, 7, 2008 R2, 8, 2012, 10, and 2016 the Connections tool also reports the name of the process that owns each socket.

Decor Top of page

Ping

Decor
What is the Ping tab?

(Packet Internet Groper) A network tool that lets you verify connectivity to a particular device on your network. The term is now used like a verb as in, "please ping host A to see if it is alive."

You can use the Ping tool to:

  • Ping a remote host to verify the network connection is up.
  • Ping a remote host and view the round trip times to determine the current speed of the network connection.
  • Ping hosts along a route to isolate a hardware or software problem. First, ping 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) to verify the local network is up and running. Then, ping hosts and gateways farther and farther away.
Decor Top of page

What is a packet?

The unit of data sent across a packet switching network.

Decor Top of page

What is RTT?

(Round Trip Time) A measure of delay between two hosts. The round trip time consists of the total time taken for a single packet or datagram to leave one machine, reach the other and return. In most packet switching network delays vary as a result of congestion. Thus, measures of round trip times usually give averages, which may have high standard deviation.

Decor Top of page

What is TTL?

(Time To Live) A technique used in best-effort delivery systems to avoid endlessly looping packets. For example, each IP datagram is assigned an integer time to live when it is created. IP gateways decrement the time to live field when they process a datagram and discard the datagram if the time to live counter reaches zero.

Decor Top of page

Trace

Decor
What is the Trace tab?

(Traceroute) A network tool that lets you obtain the list of gateways between your computer and a particular device. The tool also calculates and displays response times (in milliseconds), which identify the amount of time it takes the packet to travel the route. Response times vary depending on network load.

You can use the Trace tool to determine if a gateway is down in the path between your computer and a specified remote host. (Note that traceroute doesn't show the return path, only the path used to reach the address.)

Decor Top of page

What is a Hop?

A measure of distance between two points in an internet. A hop count of n means that n gateways separate the source and destination.

Decor Top of page

Lookup

Decor
What is the Lookup tab?

A network tool that lets you obtain information on host names and IP addresses. This information also includes possible aliases. On Windows Vista, 2008, 7, 2008 R2, 8, 2012, 10, and 2016 the Lookup tool also reports physical (MAC) addresses of computers in a local area network.

You can use the Lookup tool to:

  • Look up a host name from an IP address.
  • Find the IP address from a host name.
  • Find the physical (MAC) address from a host name or an IP address.
  • Look up mail exchangers for the domain.
Decor Top of page

What is an alias?

An alternate name of the host.

Decor Top of page

What is DNS?

(Domain Name System) The online distributed database system used to map human-readable machine names into IP addresses. DNS servers throughout the connected Internet implement a hierarchical namespaces that allows sites freedom in assigning machine names and addresses. DNS also supports separate mappings between mail destinations and IP addresses.

Decor Top of page

What is a domain?

A part of the DNS naming hierarchy. Syntactically, a domain name consists of a sequence of name (labels) separated by periods (dots).

Decor Top of page

What is MX?

(Mail Exchanger) A server that runs an SMTP mailer which is programmed with delivery rules for local e-mail addresses.

Decor Top of page

What is a Preference?

The order that a mailer should follow when there is more than one way to deliver mail to a single machine. Lower numbers indicate higher precedence and mailers are supposed to randomize same-valued MX hosts so as to distribute the load evenly if the costs are equal.

Decor Top of page

Finger

Decor
What is the Finger tab?

A network tool that lets you obtain information about all users on a network host. This information includes a display of current users logged on the host (their userids and usernames). Also displayed for each user are the home directory, login time, idle times, office location, last time they received mail, and last time they read mail. A Finger request will also display any information contained in the .plan or the .project file in the user's home directory. These files are often used as a simple way to distribute information. For example, the Finger server at quake@geophys.washington.edu provides up-to-date information about earthquakes that have occurred in the northwest region of the United States.

You can use the Finger tool to search for specific users on a network host.

Decor Top of page

What is the query syntax?

It is user@host.domain for obtaining information about a single user or host.domain for obtaining information about an entire host.

Decor Top of page

Whois

Decor
What is the Whois tab?

A network tool that lets you obtain information on names from the Network Information Center. A Whois request displays a contact name, mailing address, telephone number, and network mailbox for all users and organizations that are registered with one of the official Whois servers, such as the Internet Network Information Center (interNIC) database.

You can use the Whois tool to find administrative contacts from a Whois database.

Decor Top of page

Daytime

Decor
What is the Daytime tab?

A network tool that lets you obtain local time of the day at another network host's location. Many Web servers and domain name servers will respond to this request.

You can use the Daytime tool to find out the current time at any time zone around the world.

Decor Top of page

Time

Decor
What is the Time tab?

A network tool that lets you obtain precise time value from a remote Time server and synchronize your local system clock. Time servers provide a constantly updated time of day reading (in hours, minutes, and seconds) and the date (year, month, day).

You can use the Time tool to:

  • Compare your system time to that of a Time server.
  • Synchronize your system clock with a Time server.
Decor Top of page

Quote

Decor
What is the Quote tab?

A network tool that lets you view quotations from a remote Quote server. Quote servers often display a "quote of the day".

You can use the Quote tool to identify if a host is "alive".

Decor Top of page

HTML

Decor
What is the HTML tab?

A network tool that lets you obtain full header information and the page data from a Web server. This information also includes possible cookies.

You can use the HTML tool to debug your Web sites.

Decor Top of page

Scanner

Decor
What is the Scanner tab?

A network tool that lets you scan all host names in a specified range of IP addresses and verify host status for each IP address. On Windows Vista, 2008, 7, 2008 R2, 8, 2012, 10, and 2016 the Scanner tool also reports physical (MAC) addresses of computers in a local area network.

You can use the Scanner tool to:

  • Resolve multiple IP addresses to host names.
  • Resolve multiple IP addresses to physical (MAC) addresses.
  • Determine which hosts are active on a network.
  • Find hidden network services like Web servers or FTP.
Decor Top of page

When I use the Scanner tool in NetInfo on Windows XP, some hosts are listed with incorrect names. What do I do?

Microsoft found this to be a bug in the implementation of Winsock and NetBIOS naming service in Windows XP. The defect causes XP to accept some name query replies that it should reject and to confuse naming results between concurrent threads. Please see their knowledge base article on this topic: GetHostbyaddr Function Is Not Thread Safe Without DNS and/or WINS (Q317936). The article includes a patch to NETBT.SYS that can be used to alleviate the problem.

Decor Top of page

When I use the Scanner tool in NetInfo on Windows XP Service Pack 2, I get an event log message with ID 4226. What do I do?

By design Windows XP Service Pack 2 limits the number of simultaneous incomplete outbound TCP connection attempts to 10. After the rate is reached, subsequent connection attempts are placed in a queue eventually to be resolved at a fixed rate. This slows down programs that open multiple TCP connections at once. The Scanner tool is a good example of this. If there are more concurrent TCP connection attempts, Windows XP Service Pack 2 generates a warning: "TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent (incomplete) TCP connect attempts."

To change or remove the limit, you can use a patching program. For more information please visit http://www.lvllord.de.

Decor Top of page

Services

Decor
What is the Services tab?

A network tool that lets you verify a host for available network services. The tool displays the currently active port and the usual service assigned to it.

You can use the Services tool to find hidden services like Web servers or FTP.

Decor Top of page

What is a port?

The abstraction that transport protocols use to distinguish among multiple destinations within a given host computer. TCP/IP protocols identify ports using small positive integers. Usually, the operating system allows an application program to specify which port it wants to use. Some ports are reserved for standard services (e.g. electronic mail).

Decor Top of page

E-mail

Decor
What is the E-mail tab?

A network tool that lets you verify an e-mail address. This tool is your powerful solution for the standard "message delivery error." There is no need to disturb your clients and friends anymore to check if their e-mail addresses are still valid. E-mail tool connects directly to their SMTP server and checks it for you. Nothing is sent to the recipient.

You can use the E-mail tool to:

  • Query mail exchangers for the domain.
  • Instant verify of bad e-mail addresses and invalid domains.
  • Gain more information about the owner of an e-mail address.
Decor Top of page

Web Center

Decor
What is the Web Center tab?

A network tool that lets you find the most useful tools, how-tos, tips, and news available online.

You can use the Web Center tool to perform common tasks that involve bypassing a firewall, such as pinging a host server.

Decor Top of page