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| 3.3 |  | Windows and Cisco Commands for Physical Layer Information Gathering |
| 3.3.3 |  | End-system commands – UNIX/Mac OS |

For UNIX or Mac OS end-systems the user often queries the status of the network connection by using run-mode to execute network connectivity queries. By entering commands a user can establish whether a connection is present with other network devices, the path that data takes to reach the target and also the reliability of any connection.

The ifconfig –a command performs the same function that the ipconfig command performs for Windows NT/2000/XP systems. It will list the IP address information for a Mac OS X and UNIX hosts.

The traceroute command can be used to show the path a packet takes through the network. It is useful to identify at what point a link is broken, or sub-optimal, in the network.