Nping: Measuring the Network

Nping logo Nping is an open source tool for network packet generation, response analysis and response time measurement. Nping can generate network packets for a wide range of protocols, allowing users full control over protocol headers. While Nping can be used as a simple ping utility to detect active hosts, it can also be used as a raw packet generator for network stack stress testing, ARP poisoning, Denial of Service attacks, route tracing, etc. Nping's novel echo mode lets users see how packets change in transit between the source and destination hosts. That's a great way to understand firewall rules, detect packet corruption, and more.

Nping has a very flexible and powerful command-line interface that grants users full control over generated packets. Nping's features include:

Custom TCP, UDP, ICMP and ARP packet generation.
Support for multiple target host specification.
Support for multiple target port specification.
Unprivileged modes for non-root users.
Echo mode for advanced troubleshooting and discovery.
Support for Ethernet frame generation.
Support for IPv6 (currently experimental).
Runs on Linux, Mac OS and MS Windows.
Route tracing capabilities.
Highly customizable.
Free and open-source.

Please see the Nping manual for full details on using these features.

Downloading and Installing Nping

Download Nping for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X as part of Nmap from the Nmap download page. Source code can be downloaded there as well.

For the very latest code, checkout Nmap from our SVN repository (Nping-specific code is in the nping subdirectory). Use the normal steps to compile Nmap and Nping will be compiled along with it.

Patches, Bug Reports, Questions, Suggestions, etc

Questions, comments and bug reports are always welcome. Please use the Nmap development mailing list (nmap-dev). To subscribe, please visit: https://nmap.org/mailman/listinfo/dev.

Code patches to fix bugs are even better than bug reports. If you wish to contribute code to Nping, we have a todo list of features we would like to have. There are also some instructions for creating patch files and sending them, here.

For contact information, please visit section "Authors" in the Nping man page .