How can you find what ports your server is listening on and which service is listening on each port? The traditional way is to open a command prompt and type netstat –anb. An even better way however is to use the free tool Port Reporter, which is available from the Microsoft Download Center. For a good introduction to Port Reporter and its capabilities, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837243. Not many admins know about this cool tool from Microsoft!
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Mitch Tulloch is lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is THE book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch is also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008, the first book from Microsoft Press about the exciting new server platform. For more information on these and other books written by Mitch, see www.mtit.com.
