@deancyber: 💻 5 IT Commands Every IT Support Beginner Should Know! If you’re planning to start a career in IT support or preparing for your first IT job, these are five commands worth knowing. You don’t need to memorise hundreds of commands. What’s more important is understanding what each command does, when to use it, and how it can help you troubleshoot real IT issues. 1. ipconfig /all This is definitely one of the most useful and commonly used commands in IT support. It displays detailed network information about your computer’s network adapters, including IP addresses, subnet masks, default gateways, DNS servers, DHCP status, and MAC addresses. For example, let’s say a user reports that their computer can’t connect to the internet. You run ipconfig /all and notice an IP address starting with 169.254. That’s an APIPA address, which usually indicates the computer couldn’t obtain an IPv4 address from a DHCP server. 2. ping Another very useful command when troubleshooting network connectivity. Ping sends ICMP Echo Requests to a destination to check whether it responds and measures the round-trip time. Let’s say a user reports that websites aren’t loading. You run ping 8.8.8.8 and receive replies. Now you know the computer can reach that IP address. You could then try ping google.com to investigate whether DNS name resolution is working. Remember, a successful ping doesn’t necessarily mean your entire internet connection is working perfectly. 3. gpupdate /force This is one of the commands I used quite often when working in IT support. Basically, it forces Windows to reapply Group Policy settings, including settings that haven’t changed. For example, your company uses Group Policy to map network drives for employees. A new GPO has been configured, but the user’s mapped drive isn’t appearing. One of the first things you could try is running gpupdate /force to trigger Group Policy processing. Just remember that some settings might still require signing out or restarting the computer. 4. nslookup This command is very useful when troubleshooting DNS-related issues. It queries DNS servers to retrieve DNS records and helps you investigate name resolution problems. For example, a user reports that they can’t access a particular website. You run nslookup google.com to check whether DNS can resolve the domain name. The command displays the DNS server’s response, including returned IP addresses when available. And remember, just because DNS resolves a domain successfully doesn’t mean the website itself is accessible. 5. tracert And finally, we have tracert, also known as traceroute. This command shows the network hops towards a destination using progressively increasing Time-to-Live (TTL) values. Let’s say your computer can access internal company resources but cannot reach a particular external server. You run tracert 8.8.8.8, and the command displays responding routers along the path and their round-trip times. This can help you investigate potential connectivity or routing problems. And if you see asterisks (* * *) in the results, don’t immediately assume something is broken. Some routers simply don’t respond to traceroute probes. So yeah, guys, these are five commands I think every IT support beginner should know. Don’t just memorise them for your interview. Try them on your own computer, understand the results, and learn when to use each one. That’s what will actually help you when you’re troubleshooting real IT problems. #ITSupport #Helpdesk #ITCommands #Networking #DeanCyber

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