Which command shows all listening ports and active connections in Windows networking?

Which command shows all listening ports and active connections in Windows networking?

• A. Ipconfig /all
• B. Ping
• C. Netstat -abno
• D. Nslookup

Answer: (C)

To view all listening ports and active connections on Windows, you need a command that lists current sockets and the processes that own them. Netstat -abno provides exactly that: -a shows both listening and established connections, -b includes the executable that created each connection or listener, -n prints numeric addresses and ports, and -o shows the owning process ID. This gives a complete view of open ports and active connections along with the programs responsible, which is essential for diagnosing network activity and security monitoring. Other commands don’t serve this purpose: ipconfig /all only shows IP configuration; ping checks reachability to a host; nslookup queries DNS records.

To view all listening ports and active connections on Windows, you need a command that lists current sockets and the processes that own them. Netstat -abno provides exactly that: -a shows both listening and established connections, -b includes the executable that created each connection or listener, -n prints numeric addresses and ports, and -o shows the owning process ID. This gives a complete view of open ports and active connections along with the programs responsible, which is essential for diagnosing network activity and security monitoring. Other commands don’t serve this purpose: ipconfig /all only shows IP configuration; ping checks reachability to a host; nslookup queries DNS records.