WS_Ping ProPack Features Overview

WS_Ping ProPack contains numerous tools to help you track down network problems and get other valuable information about your network.

To learn more about the features of WS_Ping ProPack, click each topic below.

• Ping Ping
  Use Ping to determine if a network device is reachable.
  The Ping tool is used to verify connectivity to a particular system on your network. Ping sends an ICMP "echo request" in the form of a data packet to a remote host and displays the results for each "echo reply." In essence, the Ping tool asks "Hello host, are you there?," and waits for a response. This exchange is referred to as "pinging."
  
  The Ping tool sends one packet per second and prints one line of output for every response received. When Ping terminates, it displays a brief summary of round-trip times and packet loss statistics. Round trip times indicate the time (in milliseconds) it takes for the packet to get to the remote host and a response to arrive back. This time will vary depending on network load.
  
  Use Ping to:

  • Ping a remote host to verify that the network connection is up.
  • Ping a remote host and view the round-trip times times to determine the current speed of the network connection.
  • Ping systems along a route to isolate a hardware or software problem. First, ping 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) to verify that the local network is up and running. Then, ping hosts and gateways farther and farther away.

  
  Hide this Feature
• Traceroute Traceroute
  Use traceroute to trace the path to a network host or device.
  The Traceroute tool shows you the network path used to reach a specified TCP/IP address. (Note that Traceroute will not show the return path, only the path used to reach the address.)
  
  The Traceroute tool also displays response times (in milliseconds), which identify the amount of time it takes the packet to travel the route. Response times will vary depending on network load.
  
  In tracing the path to a remote host, you can also specify that the traceroute go through another host or hosts. This is known as loose source routing. This is useful when there are multiple paths between the hosts and you want the traceroute to go through a specific interface or router. Note that not all routers allow loose source routing.
  
  The Traceroute tool is useful for finding potential trouble spots on large and complex networks that are connected together with routers.
  Hide this Feature
• Throughput Throughput
  Use Throughput to test the data speed on a connection with a remote host.
  Throughput is a diagnostic tool that lets you test the data speed on a connection with a remote host. It sends a specified number of IP packets to the remote host and calculates the average bits per second sent over the communications link.
  
  For each data packet sent, the results window shows:

  • The number of packets sent and the number received by the remote host
  • The time it took (in milliseconds)
  • The bits per second (which is the throughput)

  Reported speed will vary depending on the system you're checking and the size of the data packets.
  Hide this Feature
• Lookup Lookup
  Use Lookup to obtain information on host names and IP addresses.
  The Lookup tool lets you query Internet domain name servers for information about the domain and its registered hosts. You can use Lookup to determine what happens when DNS clients on your network use the DNS server to find the address of the remote host.
  
  Other features include:

  • List just the name and Internet address of a host or domain
  • Look up the mail system for a domain
  • List all registered hosts in the domain (this is called a zone listing or zone transfer)
  • Find the IP address from a hostname or a hostnamename from an IP address
  • Query other Internet DNS Servers

  Reported speed will vary depending on the system you're checking and the size of the data packets.
  Hide this Feature
• Info Tool Info Tool
  Use the Info tool to view summary information about a network host or device.
  The Info tool provides a quick way to get host information. It runs Lookup and Whois on the specified host, and pings the host to verify connectivity.
  
  The Info tool displays a summary of information about a network, host, or device. This includes the official hostname, IP address, and contact information (from the Whois database).
  Hide this Feature
• Whois Whois
  Use Whois to obtain information on names from the Network Information Center.
  The Whois tool, like Finger, is an Internet directory service. Whois provides information about who owns an Internet host or domain and who you can contact regarding that host or domain. A Whois request displays a contact name, mailing address, telephone number, and network mailbox for all users and organizations who are registered with one of the official Whois servers, such as the Network Information Center (NIC) database.
  
  Note: The current host server for the Network Information Center (NIC) is rs.internic.net.
  
  To display help information on using the services that the NIC provides through Whois, send a Whois query with no Search String specified and select rs.internic.net for the server.
  Hide this Feature
• Finger Finger
  Use finger to obtain information about a user or host (if supported on the remote host).
  The Finger tool lets you identify and display information about all users on a network host. This information includes a display of current users on the host (their userids and usernames). Also displayed for each user are the home directory, login time, idle times, office location, last time they received mail, and last time they read mail.
  
  A Finger request will also display any information contained in the .plan or the .project file in the user's home directory. These files are often used as a simple way to distribute information (click the sample screen on the left).
  
  If the specified host does not have a Finger server, the Finger client displays the message: "Connection not made.
  Hide this Feature
• SNMP Tool SNMP Tool
  Use the SNMP tool to view Simple Network Management Protocol values.
  The SNMP tool lets you view network status information from a remote host that supports SNMP. SNMP assigns names (object identifiers) to standard network configuration and status information. For example, you can view information about the following types of network data:

  • System -- description of host (sysDescr), name of person responsible (sysContact), name of host (sysName)
  • Interfaces -- name of interface (ifDescr), its status, type, and physical address (ifOperStatus, ifType, ifPhysAddress)
  • IP configuration -- destination (ipRouteDest), next hop of the route (ipRouteNextHop), and type of route (ipRouteType), for example, direct or indirect

  
  Hide this Feature
• Scan Tool Scan Tool
  Use Scan to scan your network and list devices.
  The Scan tool scans for devices in your network and lists them in the results window. The Scan tool can identify the network services (such as FTP, HTTP, SMTP) that are available on each system, and it can also scan the ports on a system to identify services. You specify the range of IP addresses to be polled by the Scan tool.
  Hide this Feature
• WinNet WinNet
  Use Scan to scan your network and list devices.
  The WinNet tool lets you view the names of all the domains, hosts, or shared resources visible to WinNet (the Windows Network) on your network segment. You can use the drop-down list to select the items you want to scan. In addition, you can enter the NetBEUI name of a workstation or server on your network and view information about that workstation or server.
  Hide this Feature
• LDAP Tool LDAP Tool
  Use the LDAP tool to search for names and information available through LDAP.
  LDAP (or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a method of accessing directory information stored on a server. It permits an LDAP-enabled client to search for and view user information stored in an LDAP directory. LDAP is a subset of the X.500 Directory Access Protocol.
  
  The LDAP client tool lets you view information from a remote host that supports LDAP. Most LDAP servers will let you view users' e-mail addresses and full names, and many servers will provide information such as a user's organization name, division or department name, and postal address. In addition, any LDAP server can contain its own customized set of attributes or data.
  Hide this Feature
• Time Tool Time Tool
  Use the time tool to query multiple time servers or to synchronize your local system clock.
  The Time tool lets you synchronize your local system's clock with the clock of a remote time server. Pre-defined entries for some publicly available time servers are included. These remote time servers provide a constantly updated time of day reading (in hours, minutes, and seconds) and the date (year, month, day). You may also query your own or other time servers.
  
  You can synchronize your local clock on demand or you may use a command line option to synchronize your clock with a time server whenever you start up your system.
  Hide this Feature
• Quote Quote
  Use Quote to view quotations from a Quote server.
  The Quote client tool lets you view information on a remote host that supports a Quote server. Quote servers often display a "quote of the day." For example, if you connect to the Ipswitch Quote server, you may see a quote like the following:

  "It was as true as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them."  Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

  
  Hide this Feature
• HTML HTML
  Use the HTML tool to help you efficiently debug your Web site.
  The HTML tool sends a get request to a specified web address (URL) and returns full header information (including cookies) as well as the page data (raw or formatted HTML code).
  
  After entering the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) you may select Raw to display page data with embedded HTML Code. By selecting Formatted, the page data will be displayed with carriage returns inserted.
  Hide this Feature