This network ping utility alternative aims to deliver more features than the built-in 'ping' utility on MacOS and Windows. The binaries for windows 11 arm and macos M1 arm, and source code are available. It is built in visual studio code and .NET 7 (at this stage), and aims to provide the same experience in both desktop. Can monitor a link, not specifically for speedtest as .NET is slower than C.
MacOS verison (M1)
Windows 11 ARM version
Some features are: - Dns Lookup 1st to obtain all resolvable IPs for a hostname or names from a reverse lookup. Uses local DNS - Cannot specify A DNS server. - Only verboses on screen when there is a status change - On status change pinger reports how long the target spent in previous status. ie. 5 minutes in Timeout - Can specify multiple Ips and hostnames using comma separated list. - Multiple options such as ping like a standard ping utility (verboses every return echo) using '-s' - Ctrl+C to cancel the utility which provides a disconnection report (Start, End, and Lenght it was disconnected). - Can ask pinger to only ping ipv6 addresses for a single target - Refer to the options below for more options
Development Information
This program is developed under Visual Studio Code for MacOS (M1). The code is compiled under MacOS M1 (arm) and Windows 11 (arm), because that's what I own.
Installation
[Windows only]
a) Download it to your computer
b) Open a terminal
c) Execute pinger (pinger.exe)
Windows should prompt you to **Unblock** it, you have to to proceed.
d) [Optional] You can modify your Path variables and add the path where pinger.exe lives into your global path.
[MacOS only]
a) Download "pinger" from the release to where ever
b) Set executable permission on pinger via terminal
❯ chmod +x ~/Downloads/pinger
c) Run it
❯ ~/Downloads/pinger
d) You should get a warning from MacOS like
Then click [Allow Anyway]
Then run the code again
❯ ~/Downloads/pinger
Then click OK
This is what it looks like when it works
e) [Optional] create an alias for pinger (for example, add the following to .zshrc)
alias pinger=~/Downloads/pinger
Syntax
pinger [HOST LIST] [OPTIONS], or
pinger [OPTIONS] [HOST LIST]
[HOSTS LIST]:
single or multiple hostnames,fqdn,ipv4, and ipv6 IP addresses. Must comma separate (no spaces).
[OPTIONS]:
-n: Pinger runs once then exists
-d : Set the amount of duration in Decimal pinger runs for before exiting - Specify a positive value such as 0.25 for 15 minutes or 1.5 for 1hr20mins.
-c : Specify how many times pinger will poll before exiting - Specify a positive value 'n' greater than 1.
-s: Runs like a Standard ping which prints every ping results onscreen.
-p : Specify how often (in seconds) Pinger will poll the target. Useful with '-s'. Specify a positive value 'n' greater than 1.
-t : Set a Round Trip timeout value of 'n' seconds - Default value is 1 seconds. For high latency links above 4000ms latency,
increase this value above 4. When this value is reached, pinger will assume the target is unreachable.
-q: (Windows only) Mute default audible alarms. By default, pinger will beep when the status changes in the following instance.
> 2 beeps when Status transitions from Timeout to Pingable
> 4 beeps when Status transitions from Pingble to TimeOut
-f: Fastping makes pinger starts a new poll as soon it receives the previous response. Fastping is automatically
activated when the Round Trip is above 1 seconds. Use in combination with the '-s' switch.
-csv: Saves all onscreen responses to a CSV. Does not yet take any arguments. The resultant CSV is prefixed with
the target name in your current directory.
-csvall:Saves all ping results to a CSV even regardless what's onscreen. Useful when wanting only the differences in
results onscreen but all of the ping results in a CSV.
The resultant CSV is prefixed with the target name in your current directory.
-skipDnsLookup: Skip DNS lookup.
-dnsonly: Ping DNS resolvable targets only from the list.
-i: Ping all IP addresses enumerated from the NSLOOKUP query.
-ipv4: Ping all IPv4 addresses only.
-ipv6: Ping all IPv6 addresses only.
-v: Verbose a bit more info on screen.
-vv: Verbose .
-r: Return Code only. Pinger does verbose to screen (0=Pingable,1=failure).
Examples
Simple ping
❯ pinger google.com.au,sdngad,8.8.8.8 Success | google.com.au (142.251.221.67) Success | dns.google (8.8.4.4) ....Ctrl+C... --- pinger statistics --- google.com.au (142.251.221.67): 4 packets transmitted, 0.0% loss dns.google (8.8.4.4): 4 packets transmitted, 0.0% loss
Same simple ping as before with a bit more info
❯ pinger google.com.au,sdngad,8.8.8.8 -v 3 hosts, 1sec intervals, ttl=64, RoundTripMaxTimeout 1 sec Target 1: google.com.au (142.251.221.67) DnsOK Target 0: sdngad (nodename nor servname provided, or not known) <- Skipping Target 3: dns.google (8.8.4.4) DnsOK google.com.au,142.251.221.67,Success,RT=31ms,ttl=64,Frag=True,replyBuffer=64,count=1 dns.google,8.8.4.4,Success,RT=27ms,ttl=64,Frag=True,replyBuffer=64,count=1 ....Ctrl+C... --- pinger statistics --- google.com.au (142.251.221.67): 36 packets transmitted, 0.0% loss dns.google (8.8.4.4): 36 packets transmitted, 0.0% loss
Same simple ping as before with a bit more info, AND ping all resolvable interfaces (ipv4 and ipv6)
❯ pinger google.com.au,sdngad,8.8.8.8 -v -i 7 hosts, 1sec intervals, ttl=64, RoundTripMaxTimeout 1 sec Target 1: google.com.au (142.251.221.67) DnsOK Target 2: google.com.au-IP-1 (2404:6800:4006:80b::2003) DnsOK Target 2: sdngad (nodename nor servname provided, or not known) <- Skipping Target 4: dns.google (8.8.4.4) DnsOK Target 5: dns.google-IP-2 (8.8.8.8) DnsOK Target 6: dns.google-IP-3 (2001:4860:4860::8844) DnsOK Target 7: dns.google-IP-4 (2001:4860:4860::8888) DnsOK google.com.au,142.251.221.67,Success,RT=71ms,ttl=64,Frag=True,replyBuffer=64,count=1 google.com.au-IP-1,2404:6800:4006:80b::2003,NoReply,RT=-,ttl=-,Frag=-,replyBuffer=-,count=1 dns.google,8.8.4.4,Success,RT=76ms,ttl=64,Frag=True,replyBuffer=64,count=1 dns.google-IP-2,8.8.8.8,Success,RT=24ms,ttl=64,Frag=True,replyBuffer=64,count=1 dns.google-IP-3,2001:4860:4860::8844,NoReply,RT=-,ttl=-,Frag=-,replyBuffer=-,count=1 dns.google-IP-4,2001:4860:4860::8888,NoReply,RT=-,ttl=-,Frag=-,replyBuffer=-,count=1 --- pinger statistics --- google.com.au (142.251.221.67): 12 packets transmitted, 0.0% loss google.com.au-IP-1 (2404:6800:4006:80b::2003): 12 packets transmitted, 12 lost, 100% packet loss dns.google (8.8.4.4): 12 packets transmitted, 0.0% loss dns.google-IP-2 (8.8.8.8): 12 packets transmitted, 0.0% loss dns.google-IP-3 (2001:4860:4860::8844): 12 packets transmitted, 12 lost, 100% packet loss dns.google-IP-4 (2001:4860:4860::8888): 11 packets transmitted, 11 lost, 100% packet loss
Resolve and ping only ipv6 addresses
❯ ❯ pinger google.com.au,sdngad,8.8.8.8 -i -ipv6 NoReply | google.com.au (2404:6800:4006:809::2003) NoReply | dns.google (2001:4860:4860::8844) NoReply | dns.google-IP-1 (2001:4860:4860::8888) ...Ctrl+C --- pinger statistics --- google.com.au (2404:6800:4006:809::2003): 2 packets transmitted, 2 lost, 100% packet loss dns.google (2001:4860:4860::8844): 2 packets transmitted, 2 lost, 100% packet loss dns.google-IP-1 (2001:4860:4860::8888): 2 packets transmitted, 2 lost, 100% packet loss
Example of disconnection report
❯ pinger google.com.au -v -i
2 hosts, 1sec intervals, ttl=64, RoundTripMaxTimeout 1 sec
Target 1: google.com.au (142.251.221.67) DnsOK
Target 2: google.com.au-IP-1 (2404:6800:4006:809::2003) DnsOK
google.com.au,142.251.221.67,Success,RT=25ms,ttl=64,Frag=True,replyBuffer=64,count=1
google.com.au-IP-1,2404:6800:4006:809::2003,NoReply,RT=-,ttl=-,Frag=-,replyBuffer=-,count=1
google.com.au,142.251.221.67,NoReply,RT=-,ttl=-,Frag=-,replyBuffer=-,count=9(In previous state [Success] for 8 seconds)
google.com.au,142.251.221.67,Success,RT=25ms,ttl=64,Frag=True,replyBuffer=64,count=10(In previous state [TimedOut] for 3 seconds)
....Ctrl+C...
--- pinger statistics ---
google.com.au (142.251.221.67): 15 packets transmitted, 1 lost(Unreachable for a Total of 3 seconds), 6.67% packet loss
: ----- Disconnection Report ------
: (3 seconds) Between 2/16/2024 12:10:20PM - 2/16/2024 12:10:23PM
google.com.au-IP-1 (2404:6800:4006:809::2003): 14 packets transmitted, 14 lost, 100% packet loss
Simple ping but skip DNS lookup
❯ pinger 8.8.8.8 -v -i -skipDnslookup 1 hosts, 1sec intervals, ttl=64, RoundTripMaxTimeout 1 sec Target 1: 8.8.8.8 (DNS resolution skipped) 8.8.8.8,8.8.8.8,Success,RT=26ms,ttl=64,Frag=True,replyBuffer=64,count=1 --- pinger statistics --- 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8): 4 packets transmitted, 0.0% loss