The Linux ping utility has an audible option (-a) that just seems to make a lot of sense from a system administration point of view. Ping is typically used to see if the machine your own is connected to the network or if another machine on the network is accessible. If you’re working on a system with a network problem, you might be diving under a desk, working behind the monitor checking the cables, or even working on a server rack and you’re unable to see the screen to know whether your Ping has changed status. With the audible tone, you’ll be able to hear that something has changed without having to come around and look at the monitor.
How can we get that functionality on Windows? One simple solution is to use the free utility called Bping (like “beeping”) which has even more versatility than the Linux ping. By default it will produce a sound every time it has a successful connection. You can also use a different option (-d) to switch the behavior so that it only makes its sound when the connection times out. By default it will also ping indefinitely. This is handy in the case where you need to confirm that you unplugged the correct cable. Run Bping on the server or workstation that you need to unplug and then go unplug the cable. If it starts making a sound (with the -d option) or stops making a sound (default), then you know you unplugged the correct cable. If the sounds didn’t change, try a different cable.
Bping is an executable just under 2MB in size. You can put it on your flash drive and make it portable or copy it to the C:WindowsSystem32 folder so you can using it from Start, Run… or the command prompt. To access the full options, you’ll want to run it from the command prompt, but you could easily create a batch file to run the different options you commonly use. You can even configure Bping to use your own .wav file for the audio!
You can download the file from http://gizmoware.net/bping/
Here’s what you’ll see if you run bping.exe /?
[shell]BPing v1.6 by Gizmoware.net!
Usage:
bping [options] [target]
Options:
-q Quiet. Suppresses the beep.
-i Internal. Use computer’s internal speaker.
-d Down. Only beep when ping fails.
-t Timeout. For example -t=1 to set a 1 second timeout.
-r Resolve host. Will try to resolve IP addys to hostnames.
-s Scan. Scans the network.
-c Count. Count the number of times its run.
-a Available. Shows available IP addys after the scan.
-m Minimal. Outputs less info. Currently only affects
scan mode.
-v Volume of beep. For example, v=1.
-f File. Specify a wav file to play.
-h Help. Shows this info.
Usage examples:
bping google.com Pings google.com.
bping 192.168.1.1 -q Pings 192.168.1.1 and suppress the beep.
bping 192.168.1.1 -d Pings 192.168.1.1 and only beeps if no response.
bping 192.168.1.1 -s Scans the network 192.168.1.X.
bping 192.168.1.1 -s -r Scans the network 192.168.1.X and resolves
hostnames.
bping 192.168.1.1 -s -a Scans the network 192.168.1.X and show
available IP addys.
bping 192.168.1.1 -t=.02 Pings 192.168.1.1 with a timeout of .02 seconds.
bping Tries to ping gizmoware.net by IP address. Useful
if internet is down and you want a beep when it
returns.
[/shell]