TCPView

TCPView is a Windows program that is part of the Sysinternals suite, now owned by Microsoft. This utility provides a more informative and user-friendly view of the TCP and UDP endpoints on your system than the standard netstat command that comes with Windows. TCPView displays a list of all active TCP and UDP endpoints, along with the details of the owning processes.

TCPView shows both local and remote addresses and the state of TCP connections. For each endpoint, it displays the full name of the process that opened the port. The utility updates the list of TCP and UDP endpoints in real-time, making it easier to monitor network activity as it happens.

Unlike command-line tools like netstat, TCPView has a graphical user interface that makes it more accessible to users who are less comfortable with command-line operations. TCPView links each network connection to the process that owns it, which can be very useful for tracking down which process is responsible for a particular network activity. Users can close established TCP/IP connections and terminate processes through the TCPView interface.

TCPView can be used to quickly identify unexpected network connections or processes that are using network resources, which is helpful in diagnosing network-related issues. Security professionals use TCPView to monitor for suspicious network activities, such as unusual outbound connections that could indicate malware activity or data exfiltration attempts.

For system administrators, TCPView provides a quick way to check which applications are making connections to or from a server.

Imagine you notice your computer is behaving sluggishly, and you suspect there might be an unauthorized application using your network. You open TCPView and immediately see a list of all network connections. You spot an unfamiliar process with several outbound connections to unknown remote IP addresses. This observation can lead you to further investigate this process, potentially identifying and stopping malicious software.