SECTION 3 - USING TJPING

TJPingPro Main Screen

TJPing Starting Screen (15683 bytes)

Figure 8 – TJPingPro main screen


Performing Pings, Lookups, and Traceroutes

To do a ping, lookup, or traceroute, enter an Internet Protocol (IP) address or a Domain Name Service (DNS) name in the "Host:" edit box on the main screen (See Figure 8). An IP address has the format "123.251.011.119", for instance (called "Internet dot notation"), while a DNS name is a string such as "www.anywhere.org". Next, click on the corresponding button or menu item of the operation you want to perform, either the "Ping", "Lookup", or "Trace" button. Figure 2 is a shot of the Toolkit toolbar:

Operations Bar

Figure 9 – Operations buttons

The "Toolkit" drop-down menu’s (See Figure 43) options provide the same functionality as the operation buttons. The results of the operation will be displayed in the results window of the main screen. Figure 10 below is an example of a ping operation and the results being displayed in the "Results" window.

Ping Operation

Figure 10 – Ping operation


Ping

Upon doing a ping, status information will be shown in the main information window. If the user enters an IP address in the "Hosts:" edit box and begins a ping, TJPingPro will begin pinging right away. If a DNS name is entered, the status window will show:

Looking up IP address for ‘DNS name’

as TJPingPro must first find the IP address that corresponds to the DNS name before pinging.

Next, if the user has selected the "Verbose" option, the status window will show:

Ping #

IP Address

RTT(ms)

TTL

Bytes Received

1

74.208.21.58

92

111

5000

2

74.208.21.58

92

111

5000

Figure 11 – Timeout Display

This response shows:

- The ping number
- The IP address that was returned (which should match the IP address being pinged)
- The Round Trip Time (RTT) in milliseconds, that the packet took in getting to the host
- The Time To Live (TTL), which can indicate how many hops the packet took along the way
- How many bytes the host returned in response to the ping (should be the same as the number of bytes sent)

However, if the ping doesn't complete successfully before the Timeout period, you will see results similar to the following:

1

TIMED OUT

Figure 12 – Timeout Results

If at least one of the packets returned successfully, the status window will declare:

Ping Successful

If not,

Ping Unsuccessful 

will appear.

Next, if the user has checked the "Statistics" option, the line:

x of y packets succesfully: w.z% PACKET LOSS

will be shown. This shows how many packets were sent, how many packets were received in response, and the overall percentage of packets that were lost during that ping operation. Following this line, a line will appear stating:

Round Trip Time (in milliseconds) Maximum/ Minimum/Average: 113/0/95

This example line shows the maximum, minimum, and average RTT’s for that ping operation.


Lookup

Upon starting a Lookup, the main status window will show something similar to:

Starting lookup on www.microsoft.com - Apr 01, 2008 16:05:21

where the IP address/DNS name corresponds to what you have entered in the "Host:" edit box. If the lookup is successful, the status window will show:

Official Name: DNS name

IP address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

The official name is the actual DNS name of the IP address. Some IP addresses have alias DNS names. If so, they will show up below the IP address(es), like this:

Alias: DNS name

If there is more than one IP address to a DNS name, they will show up in columnar fashion, one after the other. Figure 8 is an example of a lookup operation:

A Lookup

Figure 13 – Lookup operation


Traceroute

If the user enters an IP address in the "Host:" edit box and begins a traceroute, TJPingPro will begin trying to contact the host right away. If a DNS name is entered, the status window will show:

Starting lookup on DNS Name. 

as TJPingPro must first find the IP address that corresponds to the DNS name before tracing. TJPingPro then tries to contact the host before starting a traceroute, by sending two packets with a timeout of 1500 milliseconds. The status bar at the bottom of the application will show something like

Figure 14 – TraceRoute StatusBar Message

to let you know the traceroute is working to contact the site.

If the host could not be contacted, "DNS Name could not be contacted. " will appear to let you know the server can't be contacted. TJPingPro will then begin tracing (pinging each host along the route to the desired host). Depending on whether or not the user has checked the "Show DNS Names:" option, either:

Hops

IP Address

RTT(ms)

or

Hops

IP Address

RTT(ms)

DNS Name

will appear, and the corresponding information for each "Hop" will appear in columnar fashion below this header. If a host doesn’t respond to a ping within the Timeout period,

REQUEST TIMED OUT

Will appear for that hop row. If a ping is successful, and the user has checked "Show DNS names", and the DNS lookup is unsuccessful for that particular host’s IP address,

Hops IP Address RTT(ms) DNS Name

x xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx x HOST LOOKUP FAILED

will appear, indicating that the the DNS lookup on the IP address failed. Figure 9 below is an example of a traceroute operation:

Trace Operation

Figure 15 – Traceroute Operation


Stopping a Ping, Lookup, or Traceroute

TJPingPro has the ability to cancel any of the above-mentioned operations.  Once pressed, an operation button's text will change to display the word "Cancel".   Pressing "Cancel" will terminate an active operation. In the case of a ping or traceroute, the operation will terminate when it completes its operation on the current packet (i.e., if you press "Cancel" when packet 2 out of 10 packets has been sent on a ping, the operation will end when there is a successful response to packet 2, or when that ping times out). Lookups will terminate immediately.