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From: howie@yo.uucp (howie)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Questions about the use of ping.
Message-ID: <227@voodoo.UUCP>
Date: 29 Aug 90 21:36:52 GMT
Sender: news@voodoo.UUCP
Organization: BoGART To You Buddy, Renton, WA
Lines: 29


A couple of questions about the use of ping:


1) Because ping uses ICMP packets, we are not getting a true picture of how
   long it takes for data to be transferred to another machine, True?

   Is there an easy way to determine the transfer time of data, other 
   than setting up a connection with FTP, and moving some test data?


2) The man page for ping warns against using ping in shell scripts.  Is it
   really that dangerous to use ping automatically, if the number of packets 
   is limited to say, 3?

   This would be helpful to our users, but we don't want to cause undue
   congestion.


3) Is there an alternative to the standard BSD ping that we should consider
   using?



				thanks for any help,
--
				       howie              

				       uw-beaver!ssc-vax!voodoo!howie