What command would you use on Windows to view all active network connections and listening ports?

• A. netstat -ano
• B. ipconfig
• C. route
• D. ping

Answer: (A)

You’re trying to see what the machine is doing network-wise, listing every active connection and every port that’s open for listening, along with which process owns each one. The command that does this on Windows is designed to show all connections and ports and can annotate them with the owning process. By using the flags that come with it—show everything, display numeric addresses and ports, and include the process ID—you get a complete, actionable view of current network activity. The -a option reveals both active connections and listening ports, -n avoids DNS lookups by showing numeric addresses and ports, and -o adds the PID of the owning process, which you can then map to a program.

Other commands don’t provide this combined view: ipconfig shows IP configuration details, not connections or ports; route displays the routing table; ping checks reachability to a host.