How to ping a specific port

Question

I often use the ping command to check if a website is available or not, or if I can access a machine, so basically mostly for diagnostics, and what would be really useful is if I could specify which port(s) those ICMP echoes go to, is there any way of doing this with ping, or another tool which would allow for me to easily do this without having to generate packets manually?

An option for instance would be to create a custom ICMP packet set to go to a specific port, and then I could use bittwist to send it, and Wireshark to monitor if I am getting anything in return, but this seems a bit of a hassle to do every time, so I was wondering if there is an easier route?

Solution

IIRC you cannot send a "ping" packet to a specific port.

On a port, there is a "software" listening. This software will implement it's own protocol - HTTP, SMTP, FTP, or even some own protocol.

Those servers won't respond to an ICMP packet. ICMP packets need to be sent to the ICMP port.

However, you may just try to open a TCP connection (telnet host 12345) and see if the connection is successfully.

Comments

[Geo Hurling]

you can try with TCPPing or smokeping tools...