Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

net send

Synopsis

Send a message to users or computers on the network.

Syntax

net send {name | * | /domain[:name] | /users} message

Options

name

Sends the message to a specific recipient, which can be:

• A logged-on user (user logon name)

• A computer name (NetBIOS name)

• A computer alias (see net name in this chapter)

*

Broadcasts the message to all registered NetBIOS names in the domain or workgroup

/domain[: name ]

Broadcasts the message to all names in the local domain or a specified domain

/users

Sends the message to all users connected to the server

message

Is the actual message sent (no quotes required)

Examples

Send the message “Save your work—rebooting in 5 minutes” to all users who have open sessions with the server:

                     net send /users Save your work--rebooting in 5 minutes

Notes

• In order for a user to receive messages, the Messenger service must be running.

• Use quotation marks for computer names or usernames that have embedded spaces in them.

• Messages can be up to 128 characters in length.

• The message queue, which temporarily stores messages for the Messenger service, can store a maximum of only 6 messages; any further messages will be ignored if the previous ones are not acknowledged.

• net send * is the same as net send /domain.

• Broadcast messages (* and /domain options) are sent over all network protocols. For example, if you have both TCP/IP and NWLink installed, then messages will appear twice on receiving machines. Messages sent to specific recipients are received only once, however. ...