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From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Testing if a host is up
Message-ID: <2091:Feb1722:50:4991@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 17 Feb 91 22:50:49 GMT
References: <529@trux.UUCP> <EMV.91Feb16014229@poe.aa.ox.com> <1917@fallst.UUCP>
Organization: IR
Lines: 10

In article <1917@fallst.UUCP> tkevans@fallst.UUCP (Tim Evans) writes:
> Assuming you have appropriate /etc/hosts.equiv and/or .rhosts set up,
> you could 'rsh' something like /bin/echo on the remote:

That still wouldn't prove that ftp is available.

What's wrong with simply connecting to the service in question and
seeing whether it responds?

---Dan