fping (Part 2)

Ping is a utility which uses ICMP echo request to find out if the host machine is up or not. This utility is part of windows as well as linux operating system. But the default ping utility in windows operating system doesn’t provide rich command line options like changing the delay between two ping packets or sending ping message to multiple hosts. Fping provides the very rich command line options, so that one can ping number of different hosts it can also take input from file or change the data size or data content of the ICMP ping packet. Fping can be easily used in script and its output can be easily parsed.

This video explains the usage of following options

• -c Continuous ping
• -t Time between 2 ping packets
• -w Time out in milliseconds to wait for the ping replay
• n Number of echo ping requests to be sent
• -h Number of hops allowed
• -v Type of service
• -r Record route
• -R Random length between min and max

With the help of ‘-c’ option we can ping a particular host continuously. With the help of ‘-t’ option one can change the time between successive ping packets. This is actually a very useful option for finding the throughput of the systems or switches. With ‘-w option one can configure fping’s ping replay waiting time. Like wise other options are also explained in detail in this video with lots of examples.

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Links

1. Fping Part-3

2. Download fping

Amit Vartak, 27 is working in wired and wireless security fields since last 3-4 years. His current area of interest includes IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) suite of protocols, vulnerabilities in these protocols and countermeasure for those vulnerabilities. Working on cutting edge tools and technology always keeps him busy. He has contributed from concept level to final prototyping for the presentations in Defcon 2007 (The Emperor Has No Cloak - WEP Cloaking Exposed) and Toorcon 2007 (Caffe latte attack). He holds 2 patents with USPTO (current status: Patent Pending) and a few papers in IEEE journals on wireless protocol vulnerabilities. Prior to this, he was working on MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) and has published a few papers in SPIE and ICMAT. (Yeah… kindda orthogonal fields… but technology really doesn’t limit the talent :) He did his masters in Electrical Engineering from one of the premier institutes in India, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay) and his under graduation, from University of Mumbai in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. He is currently working with AirTight Networks Inc. as a team lead in technology group since last 3 years.You can get in touch with him at amitcv[at]gmail[dot]com