There are various programs that implement Ping on different platforms. For instance, there are versions for Unix (available on panther at UWO, but useless for normal users, because socket permission is denied) and for Windows (available on FIMS workstations).
To run the Ping program in Windows, you should first go to the Command (MS-DOS) prompt, so that you can see the results displayed. Enter your Ping command; for example,
ping 525.fims.uwo.ca
The form of a Windows Ping command is
ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l size] [-f] [-i TTL] [-v TOS] [-r count] [-s count] [[-j host-list] | [-k host-list]] [-w timeout] destination-listThe various options have the following meanings:
| -t | Continue until stopped (with Ctrl-C). |
| -a | Resolve addresses to hostnames. |
| -n count | Send count echo requests. |
| -l size | Send with buffer of size=size. |
| -f | Set Don't Fragment flag in packet (the flags are a field in the IP header). |
| -i TTL | Time To Live (maximum number of nodes through which the packet can travel: another of the fields in the IP header). |
| -v TOS | Type Of Service (e.g., "http", "ftp") (another field in the IP header). |
| -r count | Record route for count hops (count must be in the range 0-9). |
| -s count | Timestamp for count hops (count must be in the range 0-4). |
| -j host-list | Loose source route along host-list (host-list can be an IP number but not a domain name). |
| -k host-list | Strict source route along host-list (host-list can be an IP number but not a domain name). |
| -w timeout | Timeout after timeout milliseconds when waiting for each reply. |
A simple Ping to a server looks like this:
U:\>ping gtn.net
Pinging gtn.net [199.166.6.64] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 199.166.6.64: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=56
Reply from 199.166.6.64: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=56
Reply from 199.166.6.64: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=56
Reply from 199.166.6.64: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=56
Ping statistics for 199.166.6.64:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 8ms, Maximum = 9ms, Average = 8ms
Options that are likely to make an actual difference to the results that you see are -a (if destination-list uses IP numbers rather than domain names), -t, -l, -i (if TTL is sufficiently small), -r, -j, and -k.
Repeated pinging of the same server at frequent intervals might be interpreted as a sign that someone is trying for a way to hack into the server.
A host may be set not to respond to pinging. For example, this is the default for the integrated firewall in Windows XP.
tracert [-d] [-h maximum_hops] [-j host- list] [-w timeout] target_namewhere the options are
| -d | Do not resolve addresses to hostnames. |
| -h maximum_hops | Maximum number of hops to search for target (where maximum-hops < 256). |
| -j host-list | Loose source route along host-list. |
| -w timeout | Wait timeout milliseconds for each reply. |
Here is a simple example of using Tracert:
U:\>tracert gtn.net Tracing route to gtn.net [199.166.6.64] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 7 ms <1 ms <1 ms 129.100.34.1 2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms gate1.netmgmt.uwo.pri [172.29.34.65] 3 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms vlan507-einstein.largnet.on.ca [199.71.2.129] 4 <1 ms 1 ms 6 ms ORION-LARGNET-RNE.DIST1-LOND.IP.orion.on.ca [66. 97.23.73] 5 6 ms 5 ms 5 ms 66.97.16.14 6 6 ms 5 ms 6 ms 66.97.16.121 7 6 ms 6 ms 7 ms gw-hydroone.torontointernetxchange.net [198.32.2 45.48] 8 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 142.46.128.6 9 8 ms 7 ms 6 ms 142.46.128.10 10 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms 142.46.4.110 11 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms a.core2.ip.execulink.net [66.203.176.114] 12 8 ms 8 ms 8 ms gtn.execulink.net [199.166.6.64] Trace complete.
Versions of both Windows and Unix have an NSLookup program that will give some basic information about a server or servers given a server name. For example:
U:\>nslookup www.gtn.net Server: ns3.uwo.ca Address: 129.100.74.79 Non-authoritative answer: Name: gtn.net Address: 199.166.6.64 Aliases: www.gtn.net U:\>
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