From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Jan 8 07:54:35 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id HAA17166 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 8 Jan 1996 07:54:35 -0800 (PST) Received: from tfs.com (tfs.com [140.145.250.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id HAA17161 for ; Mon, 8 Jan 1996 07:54:32 -0800 (PST) Received: from critter.tfs.com by tfs.com (smail3.1.28.1) with SMTP id m0tZJu2-0003vuC; Mon, 8 Jan 96 07:54 PST Received: from localhost.tfs.com (localhost.tfs.com [127.0.0.1]) by critter.tfs.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id QAA01096; Mon, 8 Jan 1996 16:54:30 +0100 X-Authentication-Warning: critter.tfs.com: Host localhost.tfs.com didn't use HELO protocol To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Using `ping' to diagnose network connections reasonable? In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 08 Jan 1996 07:27:57 PST." <24751.821114877@time.cdrom.com> Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 16:54:29 +0100 Message-ID: <1094.821116469@critter.tfs.com> From: Poul-Henning Kamp Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk > I'd like to add some code to sysinstall which will attempt to > `diagnose' a link before accepting the configuration parameters, > catching a lot of adapter misconfiguration and incorrect data errors > that sysinstall misses now (to fail less gracefully later). My > question is whether or not `ping' is a reasonable way to measure > connectivity between your host and the gateway & dns machines. Is it > reasonable to assume that if a host supports forwarding or DNS > queries, it will also answer pings? What if you've got pings blocked > somehow but allow DNS traffic through? I wouldn't want to flag a host > as `unreachable' when in fact it would have worked fine for its > intended purpose! That would be worse than no error checking at all. For the gateway ping is reasonable, for dns we could make a dns query for the to-level domain or something that will have to work everywhere for the dns to work at all. Good idea. We could even offer to ping the ftp/nfs host before trying and informing the user about the result so they can choose the optimal server... -- Poul-Henning Kamp | phk@FreeBSD.ORG FreeBSD Core-team. http://www.freebsd.org/~phk | phk@login.dknet.dk Private mailbox. whois: [PHK] | phk@ref.tfs.com TRW Financial Systems, Inc. Future will arrive by its own means, progress not so.