How do I clear command prompt before each netstat refresh?

Question

How do I clear the command prompt screen before printing out netstat information when using a refresh interval?

I've been using netstat -anp TCP | Find "5000" to view information for a specific port. I've been attempting to add a refresh interval, but also clear the screen every time it's refreshed. The closest attempt I've made is:

netstat 1 -anp TCP | (cls & Find "5000")

With the above, I'm trying to run cls, followed by Find "5000" after every netstat refresh. However, it only runs cls once, and Find "5000" each time. Is something like this possible with netstat?

Answer 1

Since you're trying to depend on Netstat's internal Interval system it's what's causing you grief, as Netstat doesn't really "end" each time.

You could break it up a bit, remove the Netstat interval, and make it into a looping batch file.

This batch file should work on all versions of Windows (2000+ anyway)

@echo off
:GoAgain
cls
netstat -anp TCP | Find "5000"
ping localhost -n 2 >nul
goto GoAgain

The ping to localhost line is used to create an approx. 1 second pause before looping (on Vista+ you could use the timeout command instead to make it more accurate if you'd like).

To stop it, hit Ctrl+C to break out of the loop.