What is netstat? (WXP-Home)

[Carolssis]

I found this listed in the run drop down. netstat -an I find ":6667". I think this is a real weird way to list a real program. The dash before an, which is incorrect, the quotations marks, and the use of semi-colon seems strange to me. This is an executable file. Any one know what it is? Why such a strange listing?

[lager]

Try running "netstat /?" for more info but I'll break it down for you.
This exe lists open tcp/ip connections.
"-an" means display all connections details in their numerical form
The character after this is not "I" but "|" called a bar or pipe and it passes the output from netstat to another exe called find which is looking for ":6667"
Basically someone was trying to see if anything was using port 6667 in a tcp/ip connection.
Some trojans or viri may use this port and so they were just checking.
Netstat itself is just a reporting tool, it cannot do anything malicious.