Digital Forensic Certification Practice Exam

What is a correct usage of 'netstat' to display connection statistics?

1. netstat -s

2. netstat -a

3. netstat -p

4. netstat -o

The correct answer is: netstat -s

The command 'netstat -s' is used to display comprehensive statistics for each protocol, providing insights into various aspects of network performance and the data being transmitted. This includes information about the number of packets sent and received, error counts, and other metrics that can help in diagnosing network issues or understanding traffic patterns. The other command options do serve different purposes. For example, 'netstat -a' shows all active connections and listening ports, giving a quick overview of network activity but not in the format of statistics. 'netstat -p' shows the connections that are associated with a specific protocol, which could be useful but is again not focused on broader statistics. Lastly, 'netstat -o' displays active connections along with their associated process IDs, which aids in identifying which processes are using the network but does not provide statistical data. Therefore, when looking specifically for connection statistics, the use of 'netstat -s' is the most appropriate choice.