Netping
was created with the sole purpose of giving the status of an
ADSL internet connection. It will indicate both in the tray,
on the desktop (if enabled) and with sound (if
enabled) any change of status. You may also log events
to a file to keep detailed track of the service your provider
is giving you.
Netping transmits
an ICMP echo datagram to a remote system (multiple sites in
parallel or in sequence). If the remote returns the message,
the connection is considered valid.
If
the remote
system does not echo the message, it only means that the remote
system did not respond. That is, a lack of a response can be
caused by a number of different reasons (you are not connected
to the network, the remote may not be connected, the remote
may not support echo requests, or it may just be too busy to
reply).
So the philosophy
is simple: You ping known sites on the internet. If you get
an answer, your internet connection must be up. You should
pick at least three different sites to make sure you cover
downtime for maintenance etc. If all sites are down (no answer
received on a ping), your internet connection is assumed down.
Before you add a site to ping, please make sure that the site
actually responds to a ping message.
TRAY FEATURES The system
tray icon gives the status at a glance any time (green, yellow
or red circular icon).
OK STATUS: Green icon.
WARNING STATUS: Yellow icon. Means that one
or more sites are not responding to ping. But some sites are
still OK, so the internet connection is assumed up.
ERROR STATUS: Red icon. Means that no
sites are responding to ping. Internet connection is
assumed down.
You have the option to show all messages that are being
logged in a ballon popup
window so you don’t have to check the log all the time.
You also have the possibility to keep the last message logged in a tooltip which
you can see by moving the mouse pointer over the tray icon.
DESKTOP STATUS WINDOW If
you have enabled the desktop status window, a bitmap (possibly
blinking) or an AVI
animation can be shown on the desktop. The globe on the screen-cap
below is such an animation. If the connection is dropped it is
changed to the error bitmap/animation and possibly popped on top
of any window having the focus.
Of course, you may replace the desktop bitmaps or animations with
your own.
Sample of desktop
status window indicating internet connection down (globe with the red
cross-over).
Also note that the transparency feature introduced in Win 2000 is utilized to
get a seamless integrated look.
LOGGING You
may log all incidents in an event file, which may look like this:
Saturday, May
31, 2003 - 22:37:22 - ************ NetPing ver 1.6 launched ************
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:27 - Site: ns4-s.fg.nextra.no (IP=148.122.161.3).
Status change from UNKNOWN to OK
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:27 - Site: privat.telenor.no (IP=193.215.242.121).
Status change from UNKNOWN to OK
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:27 - Site: abv-sfo1-redirect.cnet.com (IP=206.16.0.148).
Status change from UNKNOWN to OK
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:28 - Site: www.asahi.co.jp (IP=202.242.245.11).
Status change from UNKNOWN to OK
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:28 - Site: www16.thdo.bbc.co.uk (IP=212.58.224.116).
Status change from UNKNOWN to OK
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:28 - Site: web5.webmailer.de (IP=192.67.198.7).
Status change from UNKNOWN to OK
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:28 - Site: www.comviq.se (IP=193.14.238.92).
Status change from UNKNOWN to OK
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:28 - Site: pub.opera.com (IP=193.69.116.2).
Status change from UNKNOWN to OK
Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 22:37:28 - INTERNET CONNECTION UP
Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 03:08:48 - Site: pub.opera.com (IP=193.69.116.2). Status
change from OK to ERROR
Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 03:11:01 - Site: pub.opera.com (IP=193.69.116.2). Status
change from ERROR to OK
URL MONITORING Here you add
the URLs you want to monitor (using the ping protocol). You set
the time for the ping-cycle in the Ping dialog.
The screen should be self explanatory including an explanation
of the status icons. You may start a ping cycle at any time by
pressing the ‘Ping Now’ button.
It is possible to configure emails to be automatically sent
to a sentral location if one or more URLs do not respond to ping. There
is even an 'Email to support' option on the menu which you can
configure to send user support requests to a central location.
Some basic information about the machine is included in this
email: Windows version, computer name, user name, CPU information,
RAM, IP adresses (local and WEB), screen resolution, hard disk
info.
HTML VIEW There
is a possibility to dump the information in the URL monitoring
window to an HTML
file. This file is updated at the same time as the URL list box.
In this dialog you pick which fields you want to include and the
images you want to use as Status indicators. The base HTML for
the generated HTML file is a template file, and you can do some
modifications to this file if you want.
You may also modify the style of this table by changing the attributes
in the
CSS.
The HTML table may look like the sample below:
ISP BANDWIDTH TEST New in ver 2.00 is the possibility
to check what speed your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is actually
providing. This is done by downloading a user specified file at regular
intervals. This function is using the HTTP download protocol, and therefore
it
requires that Internet Explorer (IE) 4.0 or newer is installed on your
machine. Of course, any internet activity (surfing, downloading files,
torrents,
internet streams etc) takes bandwidth and will impact the results of
this test.
e
Latest Version
2.01
Date:
14
Jan 2007
System
Requirements
Win 2000/XP,
Pentium III - 450MHz - 256MB RAM or better.
(may run on other platforms, but only tested on the above)
License:
Freeware
(NOTE: Unsupported - but bug reports are appreciated)
Filesize:
4.77MB
Changes in latest versions:
2.01
1. Fixed: If the list of sites to ping was cleared, it was impossible to add
new sites
2. Fixed: If the field 'WEB address service site' was left empty, the application
would crash
2.00
1. Added option (new functionality) 'ISP Bandwidth Test'
2. Re-arranged the left menu
3. Updated Help file
4. DLLs for SSL is now included in setup
1.83
1. Added validation button in the 'WEB Address Service Site' dialog (Email).
Two static fields, Local IP address and WEB (External IP) address, also
added to the same dialog
2. Added 'Preview page' under the 'HTML' dialog
3. Added option to edit the HTML template and stylesheet (CS) in the 'HTML'
dialog
1.81
1. Added option (new functionality) 'Dialup Networking' under Email
2. Updated Help file
1.80
1. Added option 'Confirm application exit' in General setup
2. Added new functionality to send notification email if one
or more sites are unresponsive to ping
3. Added new functionality to send email to a support address
(from popup menu)
4. Updated Help file
1.76
1. Added 'Animate tray icon if unresolved sitename' check box in the Misc Options
part of the 'General' dialog. Check this item to get a blinking
tray icon if one (or more) sitenames cannot be resolved.
2. Added 'Log IP if unresolved sitename' check box in the Message Handling part
of the 'General' dialog. Check this item if you like to keep track of such problems
in the log. This may indicate a problem with your DNS server.
NOTE: Help file not
updated in ver 1.76
1.75
1. Added 'Test' buttons in the Sound Options part of the 'General' dialog. Click
the button to try out the sound you have selected.
2. Added 'Clear Log' button in the Message Handling part of the 'General' dialog.
Click the button to clear the log file (no warning is given).
NOTE: Help file not
updated in ver 1.75
1.74
1. The column widths in 'URL's to monitor' dialog are now being saved between
sessions.
2. Column headings for the HTML page can now be edited in the 'HTML dialog'
3. Updated Help file
1.73
1. Added 'Pause' check box in 'URL's to monitor' dialog. If paused all site will still be listed, but not pinged (ping-cycle stopped - status remains unchanged).
NOTE: Help file not updated in ver 1.73
1.72
1. Added 'Activate/Deactivate' items to popup menu in 'URL's to monitor' dialog. If deactivated, the site will still be listed, but not pinged (status UNKNOWN).
2. Improved response time when the 'URL's to monitor' dialog is displayed for the first time
3. Improved response time when a new site is added ('URL's to monitor' dialog)
4. Made sure that a new site is visible in the 'URL's to monitor' dialog after pressing the Add putton (scroll if neccessary)
5. Replaced some icons (tray and 'URL's to monitor' dialog)
NOTE 1: Each record in the file'Addresses.IP' in the working directory has one more field (Inactive flag). So if you have an old version of NetPing and want to use its 'Addresses.IP', you need to add a 0 to every record.
NOTE 2: Help file not updated in ver 1.72
HSI
hopes you find the application usefull. ENJOY!
