Ping Sweep
Jumpstart ping scanning by pinpointing available IP addresses within a specific range
Jumpstart ping scanning by pinpointing available IP addresses within a specific range
Ping scanning is a quick and efficient way to tackle network discovery in a large enterprise, which can be made easier with the flexible ping sweep features in SolarWinds® Engineer’s Toolset™ (ETS).
Learn which IP addresses are in use and which ones are currently free by pinging multiple devices and IP addresses at the same time. This information is essential for network monitoring, troubleshooting, and resource provisioning. You can also allocate resources more effectively by knowing which IP addresses in a specific range are active and inactive.
Drill down on IP addresses with a granular ping sweeper to help identify DNS names
Drill down on IP addresses with a granular ping sweeper to help identify DNS names
The ping sweep tool in ETS can help you create a comprehensive network directory. While executing an ICMP sweep, ETS can also look up the DNS name for each IP address. You can use this information to add more detail to your list of IP addresses, making it easier to stay organized even as your network grows or changes.
Easily export results from a ping scan or ping sweep for more efficient troubleshooting and reporting
Easily export results from a ping scan or ping sweep for more efficient troubleshooting and reporting
Once you’ve executed a ping sweep, you’ll need an easy and efficient way to share your analysis with your IT team. With the ETS ping sweep tool, results and calculations can be exported in many different formats, including CSV, TXT, XLS, and HTML page.
When it comes to preparing for audits, having the ability to provide reporting in various formats can help you more easily demonstrate compliance in whatever format an auditor prefers.
Enhance ping monitoring best practices with an intelligent ping sweeper
Enhance ping monitoring best practices with an intelligent ping sweeper
ETS is designed to be more than a first-class ping scanner. This intelligent ping sweeper can also help network administrators monitor and analyze pings as well. You can graph ping sweep results using intuitive bar, column, ribbon, step, or area graphs in addition to more easily visualizing response time problems to better troubleshoot performance issues. SolarWinds ETS can also help speed up ping sweeping with the ability to create custom profiles to automatically monitor a specific set of devices.
Access over 60 must-have network management tools, including multiple ping sweep tools
Access over 60 must-have network management tools, including multiple ping sweep tools
You may need more than an enterprise-grade ping sweeper to comprehensively manage and monitor your networks.
Engineer’s Toolset’s suite of over 60 products includes five top ping tools and seven top IP address management tools built to help ensure you have the solutions you need. All tools are accessible by a unified web console, and five of the most popular network management tools — Response Time Monitor, Open Port Scanner, CPU Monitor, Memory Monitor, and TraceRoute — are available online.
Get More on Ping Sweep
What is ping?
Ping is a signal used to see if a device connected to a network is reachable or measure how long it takes a networked device to respond to a request. The actual ping is a packet of 32 to 56 bytes containing an “echo” request for the host to respond to if it is online, available, and performing network operations at speed.
Ping is predominantly used to keep track of device availability and network latency, but this simple and effective technique has many different use cases:
- Discovery: Ping can be used as a network discovery tool. Since virtually all devices will respond to a ping if they’re connected to the network, you can ping a range of devices or IP addresses to quickly and easily find all available devices within the range.
- Monitoring: If you’re running a ping with a “run until stopped” option, failed pings will let you know there’s something wrong with your system.
- Troubleshooting: A simple ping can tell you valuable information. For example, if a ping is successful by name and IP address but the device takes a long time to respond, you now know there might be a network speed or congestion issue. If a ping fails altogether, you can ping surrounding parts of the network to see if the issue is isolated or widespread.
What is ping sweep?
Ping sweep, also known as ICMP sweep or a ping scan, is a network scanning technique you can use to find out which IP addresses map to live hosts. In contrast to a single ping, a ping sweep uses ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) ECHO requests to communicate with multiple hosts at the same time. Only the live hosts will reply or “pong” back, giving you equivalent results of multiple single pings in one fell swoop.
Ping sweeps have the same three major use cases as single pings — discovery, monitoring, troubleshooting — plus applications in network security. For instance, you could use ping sweep to detect any unauthorized devices on your network or make sure the IP addresses on your network match up to your records. Ping sweeps are also useful for auditing purposes.
Ping sweeps are more complex than single pings, but they’re also slower and may require more advanced ping sweep software with specialized capabilities to get the most out of them. An enterprise-grade ping sweep tool can help network administrators reap the benefits of using a ping sweep and avoid common pain points.
How does ping work?
A ping command consists of two parts — an echo request and an echo response. The echo request/ping command is a set of packets sent to a single IP address or a range of IP addresses, and the echo response or “pong” comes from the IP address to which the ping was sent. The input value of the host determines what route the ping will take and exposes any performance issues along the route. It can be a domain name, an IP address, or a host. The echo response, or lack thereof, can reveal important information about networked devices to help aid troubleshooting.
Knowing how to run a ping sweep manually can help you check on a single address or get a quick look into your network’s devices. Here’s how to ping an IP address:
- Open the command line interface: Windows users can access this by searching “cmd” in the Start taskbar search field or Start screen. Mac users can find the command by opening the terminal in the Utilities folder. Linux users can access the terminal from the applications menu.
- Input the ping command: Input “ping [insert IP address here].” Mac users have a convenient “Ping” tab allowing you to execute a ping command by filling in relevant fields.
- Press enter: Once you execute the command, the first line shows the ping command pinged from a specific host, and the following lines list all the responses to each ping. Below these lines, you’ll find more detailed statistics like average ping response time and the number of pings sent, received, and lost.
If the ping returns no data and your network connection is strong, it’s reasonable to assume the host you pinged is unavailable or offline. If the ping request timed out, you might have input the IP address incorrectly or the address doesn’t exist. If your ping statistics show many packets were lost, it’s reasonable to assume you have a connectivity issue. At this point, it’s best to use a ping scan tool to investigate further.
Why is ping important?
Ping is a quick and versatile method network administrators can use to find out valuable information about their network. If you’re managing a large enterprise, especially one handling VoIP calls or any other service taking a toll on your network, it’s critical devices and IP addresses stay online and operate as efficiently as possible.
How does ping work in SolarWinds ETS?
Network administrators should use a ping sweeper to execute ping scans in their network because even though technological advancements have made it possible (and much faster) to ping multiple devices at once, using command-line prompts often don’t offer the same data collection, retention, and analysis capabilities dedicated ping sweep tools do.
SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset is a bundle of over 60 of the best network management tools, including tools for ping sweep. Key functions include:
- Executing multiple ping sweeps at once
- Allowing network administrators to upload a list of text file of IP addresses and pulling all addresses allocated from a DHCP server
- Displaying ping scan results
- Exporting IP sweep results in various file types
- Comparing ping sweep results to the DHCP server list to identify abandoned IP addresses
- Ensuring DHCP reports match network address status
- Supporting IP address management best practices
- Visualizing response time
Combine the ETS ping sweep tool with any of the other ping and IP address-related tools to achieve comprehensive network management.
More tools from Engineer’s Toolset
Engineer’s Toolset brings together over 60 of IT’s best enterprise network management tools under one collection. This tool includes everything you need to execute a standard ping sweep, plus more advanced ping sweep tools.
The following list includes the top five tools related to ping and ping sweep in ETS:
- Ping: Continuously maintain and update a running log of response times and export the logs as needed
- Enhanced Ping: Monitor and show response times for servers, routers, workstations in addition to the capabilities of standard ping
- Ping Sweep: Scan IP addresses within a certain range to find which ones are in use and execute reverse DNS lookups
- Network Diagnostics with Advanced Ping: Simultaneously diagnose network problems, monitor devices in real time, and display response rates using charts or graphs
- Proxy Ping: Remotely execute ping tests on any SNMP-supported device
For more help monitoring and managing IP addresses, you can also try these other included tools:
- DHCP Scope Monitor: Extract IP scopes
- DNS “Who Is” Resolver: Identify and report on IP addresses, domain names, URLs, network addresses, and email addresses
- IP Address Management Tool: Find out how long IP addresses have gone unused
- IP Network Browser: Look for subnets in your IP addresses using SNMP and ICMP sweep
- MAC Address Discovery: Scan for subnets and build tables to show relationships between IP addresses and MAC addresses, DNS, and manufacturer addresses
- Port Scanner: Test IP addresses for open TCP ports
- SNMP Sweep: Find used and unused IP addresses
What is ping?
Ping is a signal used to see if a device connected to a network is reachable or measure how long it takes a networked device to respond to a request. The actual ping is a packet of 32 to 56 bytes containing an “echo” request for the host to respond to if it is online, available, and performing network operations at speed.
Ping is predominantly used to keep track of device availability and network latency, but this simple and effective technique has many different use cases:
- Discovery: Ping can be used as a network discovery tool. Since virtually all devices will respond to a ping if they’re connected to the network, you can ping a range of devices or IP addresses to quickly and easily find all available devices within the range.
- Monitoring: If you’re running a ping with a “run until stopped” option, failed pings will let you know there’s something wrong with your system.
- Troubleshooting: A simple ping can tell you valuable information. For example, if a ping is successful by name and IP address but the device takes a long time to respond, you now know there might be a network speed or congestion issue. If a ping fails altogether, you can ping surrounding parts of the network to see if the issue is isolated or widespread.
The Engineer’s Toolset provides the needed tools to help us in day to day operations and management.
User in Transportation/Trucking/Railroad
Enterprise (1001 – 5000 employees)
Perform quality ping sweeps faster than ever with a ping sweep tool
Engineer's Toolset
Automatically discover network devices as well as map network topology.
Track device availability, memory utilization, CPU load, interface statistics, and performance & latency of network paths.
Quickly troubleshoot your network with enhanced ping capabilities and packet route tracing.