Eberprot P / tools
Most everyday checks don't need third-party software: the utilities you need are already on your system. For each one we cover its purpose, input, limitations, difficulty level and an example.
Examples marked "Tested by our editors" were run on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS; output is shortened. Our test environment has no access to external network addresses, so those examples are based on documentation.
printf 'hello\n' | sha256sum5891b5b522d5df086d0ff0b110fbd9d21bb4fc7163af34d08286a2e846f6be03 -ping -c 4 1.1.1.1traceroute example.comnslookup example.comcurl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" https://example.com/| Task | Tool | Where it's covered |
|---|---|---|
| Check a downloaded file or a backup | sha256sum / Get-FileHash | How-to guides |
| Find out whether you're connected to the internet | ping | Troubleshooting |
| Find where the connection breaks | traceroute / tracert | Troubleshooting |
| A site loads for others but not for you | nslookup | Glossary: DNS |
| Check whether a page returns 200 or a redirect | curl -I | Glossary: HTTP status |
Software and service interfaces change. We list the versions we tested commands on; on other versions the steps may differ.