In the previous tip we introduced the Get-NetTCPConnection cmdlet as a better alternative to the netstat.exe network utility on Windows systems, but this command is restricted to Windows only, and it takes a lot of additional code to turn the raw information into useful resolved host and process names.
The most compatible alternative to netstat.exe is a solution based on .NET Core which is available cross-platform wherever PowerShell runs.
Simply get yourself the open-source GetNetStat module (https://github.com/TobiasPSP/GetNetStat) which uses .NET Core code to get the connection information:
PS> Install-Module -Name GetNetStat -Scope CurrentUser
When the module is installed, there is a new command called Get-NetStat. Now it’s very simple to list open connections plus you can now resolve host and process names with parallel processing in Windows PowerShell and PowerShell 7.
This simple command lists all open connections to HTTPS (port 443) and resolves host names:
PS> Get-NetStat -RemotePort 443 -State Established -Resolve | Select-Object -Property RemoteIp, Pid, PidName RemoteIp PID PIDName -------- --- ------- 1drv.ms 9432 WINWORD lb-140-82-113-26-iad.github.com 21588 chrome 1drv.ms 9432 WINWORD 1drv.ms 9432 WINWORD 51.103.5.186 5464 svchost 51.103.5.186 12752 OneDrive 52.113.206.137 13736 Teams 51.107.59.180 14484 pwsh
