Most of this data is from a Microsoft KB Article located at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=299357

The reset command is available in the IP context of the NetShell utility. Follow these steps to use the reset command to reset TCP/IP manually:

1. To open a command prompt, click Start and then click Run. Copy and paste (or type) the following command in the Open box and then press ENTER:
   cmd
2. At the command prompt, copy and paste (or type) the following command and then press ENTER:
   netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt

   Note If you do not want to specify a directory path for the log file, use the following command:

   netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
3. Reboot the computer.

When you run the reset command, it rewrites two registry keys that are used by TCP/IP. This has the same result as removing and reinstalling the protocol.

for /L %z in (1,1,254) do @ping 10.0.0.%z -w 10 -n 1 | find “Reply”

Obviously change the ip address after the ping command to reflect your networks IP range.

The -w 10 makes it only wait 10 ms for a reply before moving on. If your network is slow you will have to up this value or take it out all together.

This will ping each IP in network 10.0.0.0/24, you have to adjust the command to accommodate different subnets.  For example to ping every host in 192.168.15.0/25, it would look like this:

for /L %z in (1,1,126) do @ping 192.168.15.%z -w 10 -n 1 | find “Reply”

Note, this will only return ‘live’ hosts that reply to the ping.  Be sure to adjust the -w statement when pinging across the internet to around 200 or so on a half-way decent connection.

AVG Free Edition – AVG Free Edition is my AV Software of choice and it’s free for home, personal use.  It offers good protection without bogging down your system or draining your wallet.  Unlike some of the expensive alternatives (Norton, McAfee, and TrendMicro), it rares causes problems with your PC or Internet connection and doesn’t trash your machine when if you decide to uninstall it.

Free CD Burning Software

CDBurnerXP – This application is from a company in Sweden and I came across this when it was hard to find disc burning software for Vista 64.  It is a great little program that supports most burners and features.

Easy-to-Use Remote Access

LogMeIn.com Free – If you are looking for a simple and secure way to access your PC remotely for personal use, this gem is for you.

Web Browsers

FireFox – My favorite browser and has great plugin support.
Google Chrome – My second favorite browser and slowly gaining ground.  There are a lot of neat features and pages load super fast.  Still not enough mainstream support for me to make it my sole browser.