NAME

atping − Sends AppleTalk ECHO packets to the specified host

SYNOPSIS

atping net.node (object:type@zone) [ packetsize ] [ count ]

DESCRIPTION

atping uses the AppleTalk AEP (AppleTalk Echo Protocol) to obtain data on AppleTalk entities.  The ECHO_REQUEST datagram contains a DDP header, followed by the struct timeval and padding bytes consisting of random numbers to fill out the packet.  The default datagram length is 64 bytes, but this can be changed using an option. 

To specify a host, the address indication displayed by atlookup (or the like) is used.  It is acceptable to specify the address either as the net.node number combination or as the address indication displayed by atlookup.  However, if numbers are used they must be in hexadecimal format.  % atping  6b.5c % atping  ’David T. Chang:Sony NEWS@Sony’ Both of the above are acceptable.

In order to use atping to detect malfunctions it is first necessary to activate the local host and confirm that the local network interface is running and working properly.  Next, run atping on one host or gateway after another, successively moving farther away.  atping sends one datagram per second and displays each returned ECHO_RESPONSE as one line of output.  If there is no response nothing is displayed, If count has been specified, a request for the count is send.  Statistics are kept on recovery times and lost packets.  A brief summary is displayed if all responses are received normally, if the number of packets specified by count have been sent or if SIGINT is used to terminate the program. 

This program is designed for network testing, measurement and management.  Its primary application is to diagnose malfunctions. Running atping increases the load on the network, so it should not be using during normal operation or executed automatically from a script. 

BUGS

The roundtrip time displays are sometimes inaccurate. 

SEE ALSO

atnetstat(1), atlookup(1), atconfig(8). 

NEWS-OSRelease 4.2.1R