How can I perform a ping every X minutes and check the response time?

Question

I am currently working in a big company and we have serious latency issues. This is happening in a process control system, and is unacceptable (Open a valve sometimes take 2 minutes before command start)

I want to double-check when the network team says "everything is alright on the network". So, I want to create a loop that pings the server and writes the result in a text file.

I am not a batch expert, but do you think this code is correct to use?

@ECHO OFF

:LOOPSTART

time /T
ping xxx.xx.x.x  -t >> filename.txt
sleep -m 3000

GOTO LOOPSTART

Solution 1

Looks fine to me, but there's no need to loop it if you want to continuously ping the IP. Then you could simply do it like this:

@ECHO OFF
set IPADDRESS=x.x.x.x
ping %IPADDRESS% -t >> filename.txt

If you want to ping every X minute, use the loop:

@ECHO OFF
set IPADDRESS=x.x.x.x
set INTERVAL=60
:PINGINTERVAL
ping %IPADDRESS% -n 1 >> filename.txt
timeout %INTERVAL%
GOTO PINGINTERVAL

As you can see I replaced the sleep command with timeout. That's because sleep isn't always available on some systems whereas timeout usually is.

Missing sleep or timeout commands on your system? Don't fret. Just replace timeout with the following hack:

@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %INTERVAL% > nul

This hack simply pings your local address, and since it will respond instantly we can use this to emulate a delay in execution.

Solution 2

For a one-liner solution use the following:

cmd /v /c "(for /l %a in () do @for /f "tokens=*" %b in ('ping -w 1000 -n 1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ^| findstr "Reply Request Unknown Destination"') do @echo !DATE! !TIME! %b & timeout 3000 >NUL) > pingtestresults.txt"

NB:

1. you can replace xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with google.com
2. to edit the interval change the 3000 to 60 (for 1 minutes) or 10 (for 10 seconds)
3. if you need to put this command in batch file (.bat or .cmd), then make sure you replace % with %%

Solution 3

I know it's a windows question (and an old one at that), but maybe it's similar to Linux and OSX. This is the first thing that came up when I was looking for a simple command to keep network traffic on my laptop. Might be useful to someone looking for something similar.

in a bash script:

WAITSECONDS=30 #or whatever your needs are
IPTOPING=8.8.8.8 #or whatever your needs are
ping -i ${WAITSECONDS} ${IPTOPING} > logfile

Single line ex pinging google dns every 30sec:

ping -i 30 8.8.8.8 > logfile

Works in OSX and Linux, should be pretty standard though, don't know what system you're on.

Solution 4

If you want to just paste it into a command window on windows...

(for /l %a in () do @for /f "tokens=*" %b in ('ping -w 1000 -n 1 8.8.8.8 ^| findstr "Reply Request Unknown Destination"') do @echo %b & timeout 3 >NUL)

It ping's every 3 seconds... until you stop it

This is better because you are not needing to write to a log file, (why would you really need a log file) just to the immediate window and it gives you the desired results "immediately" :)

If for some reason you can also pipe out to log-file by doing this: (for /l %a in () do @for /f "tokens=*" %b in ('ping -w 1000 -n 1 8.8.8.8 ^| findstr "Reply Request Unknown Destination"') do @echo %b & timeout 3 >NUL)>file.txt

Also, you can adjust the timeout by changing the value after 'timeout' as it is in this case 3 seconds...

And you don't have to save to a batch file... Just copy and paste this text string from this text stored in a saved cloud location.. or folder of commands you like to use.. etc..

Solution 5

Thanks to WSL2, this is now an option:

wsl -- ping -i <SECONDS> <ADDRESS>

Examples:

wsl -- ping -i 600 1.1.1.1
wsl -- ping -i 600 1.1.1.1 >> ping.log
wsl -d Ubuntu -- ping -i 10 1.1.1.1 >> ping.log

This may or may not work properly in WSL 1, as low-level network tools were limited in WSL 1. Since this is the Linux ping, it will support all Linux ping features supported by WSL2.

WSL2 needs to be installed, of course.

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Comments

[Admin]

@Zoredache I cannot install such softwares on a Process control computer: dev.pulsed.net/wp/?p=31

[Admin]

"win XP Professional" is not DOS.

[Waza_Be]

timeout is not recognized as an internal or external command

[mekwall]

@Profete162, do you have the sleep command then? If so, just replace timeout with sleep. What version of Windows are you doing this?

[Waza_Be]

Same for sleep... I am using win XP Professional

[mekwall]

@Profete162, old school! :) I'll add a secondary method which you can use when those commands are missing.

[barlop]

maybe in cygwin.. cygwin lets you use bash in windows

[THE JOATMON]

-w just specifies how long it will wait for a reply, not how long it will wait to ping.

[Ben N]

The question asked how to write the information to a file. Can you edit your answer to accomplish that?

[DavidPostill]

Welcome to Super User! This is really a comment and not an answer to the original question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post. Please read Why do I need 50 reputation to comment? What can I do instead?

[wersimmon]

On Windows, -w specifies the maximum time to wait before considering a ping "lost", not the time between pings.

[Máté Juhász]

There are already several answers to this question, please also explain how your answer is better /different.

[Jovylle Bermudez]

Why is there need a file?

[mekwall]

@JovylleBermudez No need, but it was in the example in the question.