How to ping a machine in a simple way?

[Lexy Zhitenev]

Hello, Graham!
You wrote on 13 May 2003 19:53:10 -0700:
<snip>
 GF> I wonder what you mean by "available?" Perhaps a ping is the wrong
 GF> test, depending on what you're planning to do based on the results of
 GF> the test.

I'll use one of the shares on this machine (reading and writing) after
'pinging'.

 GF> Are the hosts all machines that you manage, or are you looking for a
 GF> generic solution for any Internet host?
These are the machines I manage, they are in our domain.

 GF> Just out of curiosity, why can't you use raw sockets?
Dunno, perhaps this is something with my domain permissions, I am not an
administrator

 ??>> My friend in Java just creates a socket on 139 port, and if it fails -
 ??>> the machine is not available.

 GF> Port 139 (netbios-ssn) is certainly not guaranteed to be open on any
 GF> given host, nor can any ping-like test to that (or any!) port be
 GF> considered reliable when firewalls are brought into play.
This port is guaranteed to be open on the hosts I need to ping in my domain.

With best regards, Lexy Zhitenev.  E-mail: zhitenev at cs.vsu.ru