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Why does TCPIP NETSTAT STATS output appear to decrement over time?

Question & Answer


Question

Some of the fields in the NETSTAT STATS output, such as packets received, packets in error, packets dropped, and so on, are by definition expected to increment. However, periodic display of the NETSTAT STATS report shows that some of the fields have a smaller value than when previously displayed.

Answer

This is normal operating behavior for the NETSTAT command.

Many of the NETSTAT STATS fields are unsigned integers stored in a 32-bit field. As a result, the maximum possible value for these fields is 4,294,967,295. When the count for a particular value exceeds this value, the value wraps back to 0. Such a scenario is more likely to occur on higher-speed networks or on systems on which large data transfers are commonplace.

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Product Synonym

ZOSCS COMMSERVER

Document Information

Modified date:
09 November 2015

UID

dwa1237904