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System Administration Guide: IP Services

ProcedureHow to Determine if a Host Is Dropping Packets

Use the -s option of the ping command to determine if a remote host is running but nevertheless losing packets.

  1. Type the following form of the ping command:


    $ ping -s hostname
Example 7–13 ping Output for Detecting Packet Dropping

The ping -s hostname command continually sends packets to the specified host until you send an interrupt character or a time out occurs. The responses on your screen resemble the following:


& ping -s host1.domain8
PING host1.domain8 : 56 data bytes
64 bytes from host1.domain8.COM (172.16.83.64): icmp_seq=0. time=1.67 ms
64 bytes from host1.domain8.COM (172.16.83.64): icmp_seq=1. time=1.02 ms
64 bytes from host1.domain8.COM (172.16.83.64): icmp_seq=2. time=0.986 ms
64 bytes from host1.domain8.COM (172.16.83.64): icmp_seq=3. time=0.921 ms
64 bytes from host1.domain8.COM (172.16.83.64): icmp_seq=4. time=1.16 ms
64 bytes from host1.domain8.COM (172.16.83.64): icmp_seq=5. time=1.00 ms
64 bytes from host1.domain8.COM (172.16.83.64): icmp_seq=5. time=1.980 ms

^C

----host1.domain8  PING Statistics----
7 packets transmitted, 7 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip (ms)  min/avg/max/stddev = 0.921/1.11/1.67/0.26

The packet-loss statistic indicates whether the host has dropped packets. If ping fails, check the status of the network that is reported by the ifconfig and netstat commands. Refer to Monitoring the Interface Configuration With the ifconfig Command and Monitoring Network Status With the netstat Command.