Network Utility in Mac For Pinging, WHOIS, DNS Lookup

Network Utility Application in Mac is quite advanced tool for Pinging, Server WHOIS, DNS Lookup and more. Here is a quick guide how to use Network Utility Tool. Network Utility application can be accessed from Applications > Utilities > Network Utility. It is included in Apple Mac’s OS X 10.8 too and it provides a standard set of tools for computer network information. The binary is located in /pplications/Utilities/Network folder as Utility.app ; it can used from GUI or from iTerm2 / command line.

Network Utility in Mac : Basics

Basically we need to know the informations just like we mentioned in our another guide – Essential Online Testing Tools For Server and Domain, they are quite useful during propagation and also for checking pitfalls of server or to compare better setup. Here is the guide which you can follow for getting the information. The icon of Network Utility looks like this :

Network Utility in Mac : Usages

The Window of Network Utility looks like this one :

So the options Tabs or rather services are :

• Info
• Netstat
• Ping
• Lookup
• Traceroute
• Whois
• Finger
• Port scan

The Info Tab might not show the Internet Connection you are using, click to bring the dropdown and select the active connection’s device to get info, just like we have used to show. This is one of the Application in OS X 10.8 where typical Aqua interface can be seen. The only tool that requires a detailed help is WHOIS function. Others are easy to understand.

Basically the WHOIS tool takes command line options. You will get the output in the box. For example, if you run the querry command like in the screenshot, you will basically get the man page.

ARIN’s WHOIS service provides a mechanism for finding contact and registration information for resources registered with ARIN.  Basically Finger is for email, but you can use this WHOIS tool for info too.