RAS & DUN

There are several ways to start a dialup connection from the command line in Windows:

All Windows versions:

  1. Create a shortcut of the Dial-Up connection on your desktop, say, C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\MyISP.lnk
  2. Use the following command to start it:

    START C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\MyISP.lnk

    The effect is exactly the same as doubleclicking the shortcut.
    Check the START command's syntax when using long file names in NT.

 

Windows 9x:

The following commands can be used to start and open a connection:

START RUNDLL32 RNAUI.DLL,RnaDial exact name of dialer entry
TRACERT -h 1 -w 1

(Credits for these commands: Michael J. Gregg and Tom Lavedas)
The RUNDLL command starts DUN, the TRACERT command will actually start the dialing process, if and only if automatic dialing is enabled.

 

Windows NT:

Windows NT has some additional, dedicated commands for Dial-Up networking (credits: Simon Sheppard):

 

RASDIAL

Usage:

RASDIAL.EXE entryname [ username [ password | * ]] [ /DOMAIN:domain ] [ /PHONE:phonenumber ] [ /CALLBACK:callbacknumber ] [ /PHONEBOOK:phonebookfile ] [ /PREFIXSUFFIX ]
RASDIAL.EXE [ entryname ] /DISCONNECT
RASDIAL.EXE  

 

RASPHONE

Usage:

RASPHONE.EXE [ -v ] [ -f file ] [[ -e | -c | -d | -h | -r ] entry ]
RASPHONE.EXE [ -v ] [ -f file ] -a [ entry ]
RASPHONE.EXE [ -v ] [ -f file ] -lx link
RASPHONE.EXE -s

 

-a
Popup new entry dialogs
-e
Popup edit entry dialogs
-c
Popup clone entry dialogs
-v
Prevent entry rename with a or e
-d
Popup dial entry dialogs
-h
Quietly hang up the entry
-r
Quietly delete the entry
-s
Popup status dialogs
-lx
Execute command 'x' on dial-up shortcut file
 
x
Any of the commands a, e, v, c, d, h, or r
entry
The entry name to which the operation applies
file
The full path to the phonebook file
link
The full path to the dial-up shortcut file

'entry' alone selects the entry in the phonebook dialog