In your daily network and system administration work there is often need for checking availability of servers, desktop or network devices. The simplest tool for that purpose is ping tool which is offered on all platforms and devices. When used, ping send defined number of IP packets to IP address of server or other device you want to check for availability and wait for response. If response comes ping is successful and device is available. It is the simplest way to check devices availability. If you want to perform detailed availability check such as time of response or ping with variable packet length ping offers that options but its using becomes more complex. In that moment you can think of new tool that can meet your requirements. In this article we will describe one powerful tool for checking availability of servers and network devices. It is Manage Engine Free Ping Tool.
Free ping tool is free product that comes form Manage Engine, company which produces many powerful and effective tools for monitoring of all types of networks. There is intuitive graphical user interface of which server can be monitored. There is possibility to monitor up to 10 servers and websites. Next picture displays main window:
In main window you can add new server for monitoring. Adding server can be done by click on Add button and server can be added by name or by IP address. When servers are added monitoring starts by clicking on Start button. Refresh interval can be set also. Refresh interval defines interval in which data on Ping Data tab window is refreshed.
Ping data shows data about hostnames, IP addresses round trip times (RTT), success and failure of pings, Time To Live (TTL) of packets, buffer size and status of servers. Every defined interval ping packet is sent and data in table is refreshed. In column Success are number of successful pings for all servers. If server becomes unavailable square in status column becomes red. In every moment you can change refresh interval. Before do that, servers checking should be stopped on Stop button. Ping results also can be saved or send by mail using buttons Save and E-Mail on upper right corner of window.
Another tab window is Ping Graph which displays ping results in graphical representation. Ping results are displayed for all monitored servers. Servers on graph are represented with different colors. Graph displays number of packets send on X axis and Round Trip Time (RTT) on Y axis. Every time ping is performed one packet is sent to every server and results are displayed on the graph. You can increase ping frequency by clicking refresh button. Every time refresh button is pressed new packet is sent to every server. Also, frequency of packet sending can be increased by changing ping interval. To do that stop monitoring (on Stop button on first page), set interval and click Start. Ping Graph window is shown on the next picture:
Third tab window is Trace Details window. Free Ping Tool offers possibility to trace route to every server which is monitored. To perform trace route to server you choose go to Trace Details window and add server:
To add server for route tracing choose it from drop-down list. In list are all your monitored servers. When server is chosen click on Trace. Result of tracing route to server is displayed on window:
In column Hops hop number is displayed. In IpAddress IP address of hop is displayed. Round trip time to every hop is in column RTT. In Graph Details column is graphical representation of RTT. Trace detail can also can be saved and email-ed. To save it click on Save button. To send ping and trace details by email click on Email. Opens windows for email address settings:
To send ping results enter email address in Email field and then click on Send. Also you can add attachments. To add it click on Browse and choose file you want to attach. But, before you can send mail through Free Ping Tool you should set snmp server parameters. To add it click on Settings. Opens window for email server parameters:
In SMTP Server Name field enter server name. Port on which server works can be set in SMTP Port field (default 25). Username and password for SMTP server user can be set in UserName and Password fields. Also address of sender can be set in From field.
And that’s all in this brief description of this free and useful tool which can help you in daily administering your corporate network. Tool is free and very simple for using so it can be used for permanently and occasional ping testing in your environment. So, enjoy in checking availability of your servers with Free Ping Tool coming from Manage Engine.
