The MultiNet Tools application (MultiNet Tools) is a collection of five well-known network applications that let you obtain information about users and hosts on the network, test network connections, and troubleshoot network problems. The five applications are:
Finger displays information about users on a local or remote system.
Host Lookup finds a host's IP address when you have only the host's name, or a host's name when you have only the host's IP address. Host Lookup also displays the target host's CPU type and operating system if this information is available from DNS or host tables.
Ping tests network connections by sending ICMP echo requests to a target host and then waiting for replies.
TraceRoute displays the route packets take when your workstation communicates with a remote host.
Whois retrieves information about people, hosts, networks, and domains from an Internet white pages server.
To start MultiNet Tools, you can either:
The MultiNet Tools window appears.
The MultiNet Tools Finger tab dialog lets you view information about a specific user or all users that are logged into a specific system. The information that appears depends on whether you Finger a single user or all users on a system, how Finger is configured on the remote host, and the presence or absence of user plan files.
A plan file is a text file stored on a user's system that is displayed when the user's system is accessed with Finger. The file name of the plan file differs for different operating systems:
If you Finger a specific user, Finger displays the information depending on how Finger is configured on the remote host. Typically, this information includes:
To Finger a specific user:
The Finger tab dialog appears.
The results appear in the Results window.
If you Finger all users on a host, Finger displays the following information depending on how Finger is configured on the remote host:
To view all users logged into a specific system:
The Finger tab dialog appears.
If you check the Verbose check box, the information that appears is similar to that displayed when you Finger a specific user.
Note
The target host must be configured to support the Verbose option for it to work.
The results appear in the Results window.
The MultiNet Tools Host Lookup tab lets you find a host's IP address when you have only the host's name or the host's name when you have only the IP address. Host Lookup can also display the host's CPU type and operating system if that information is available from DNS or host tables.
To use Host Lookup:
The Host Lookup tab dialog appears.
The host name, IP address, CPU type, and operating system appear in the Results window if the information is available.
The MultiNet Tools Ping tab lets you test network connections to a host and view the results.
The information Ping displays includes the number of packets sent to the target host, the number of replies received, the percentage of packets lost, and the amount of time required for the packets to reach the destination and for replies to be received. This information lets you verify that your workstation can communicate with other hosts and that no information has been lost.
Note
Firewalls often allow Ping to work but not other services such as Telnet or FTP. You may have to contact the network administrator for the remote host for assistance.
To Ping a host:
The Ping tab dialog appears.
Ping session information and statistics appear in the Results window.
In this example, Ping sent 4 packets to host 192.168.11.1. One packet was lost, and the minimum, maximum, and average round-trip times were 73, 111, and 93 milliseconds, respectively.
The MultiNet Tools TraceRoute tab displays the route packets take when communicating with a remote host. This application is useful when troubleshooting communication problems because it can help locate routing problems.
The output from TraceRoute includes:
To use TraceRoute:
The TraceRoute tab dialog appears.
In this example, the results indicate that it took 12 hops to reach the destination, RS.INTERNIC.NET, and that the round trip-times of the three packets to the RS.INTERNIC.NET, are 128, 113, and 98 milliseconds.
Lost packets or communications ending after reaching a particular gateway indicates a problem communicating with that gateway.
The MultiNet Tools Whois tab lets you view information about people, hosts, domains, and other Internet entities from an Internet white pages server. A white pages server is a system that contains a database of basic information about Internet sites, such as technical and administrative contacts, email and postal addresses, telephone numbers, and DNS servers.
To use Whois:
The Whois tab dialog appears.
If desired, you can add the names of other white pages servers to this list. If you specify a different white pages server, Whois automatically adds your entry to the drop-down list.
The results of the Whois query appear in the Results window.
To save MultiNet Tools statistics in a file for later review:
The Save As dialog box appears.
MultiNet Tools saves the statistics in the specified file.
To print MultiNet Tools statistics:
The Print dialog box appears.
MultiNet Tools prints the statistics on the specified printer.
HTML file generated May 15, 1996.