Best Ping Monitoring Tools

Ping monitoring is one of the go-to techniques that an administrator uses to check the availability and responsiveness of network devices. But what is it?

How Ping Monitoring Tools Work

Ping monitoring is where a user pings a device and waits for a response. The monitor then assesses the connection strength based on the response time.

Ping monitoring tools automate the process of sending ICMP echo requests (pings) to multiple devices at regular intervals, typically in real-time or at predetermined intervals (e.g., every minute). These tools collect and analyze the ping responses to provide information about the status and performance of the monitored devices.

Here is our list of the best ping monitoring software tools:

  1. SolarWinds Ping Sweep tool with Engineer’s Toolset EDITOR’S CHOICE A comprehensive toolset supporting ping monitoring. Offers autodiscovery and reports on metrics like availability, CPU load, memory utilization, and latency. Offers real-time graphing of responses and the built-in alerts system will warn of any issues which need attention. Download a 14-day free trial.
  2. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor (FREE TRIAL) A broad set of monitors including the Ping Sensor, the Ping Jitter Sensor, and the Cloud Ping Sensor. Access a 30-day free trial.
  3. Pingdom (FREE TRIAL) Cloud-based service that uses ping to check a website’s accessibility from more than 70 locations around the world.
  4. Site24x7 (FREE TRIAL) A bundle of monitoring tools delivered from the cloud that checks on network and website performance.
  5. ManageEngine OpManager (FREE TRIAL) A network performance monitor and server monitoring bundle that is available in free and paid editions. Installs on Windows Server and Linux.
  6. Domotz (FREE TRIAL) This network monitoring service operates from a cloud platform and offers Ping response time tests as well as constant performance monitoring.
  7. ManageEngine Applications Manager (FREE TRIAL) This package provides a Ping tool as part of its User Experience section and you can get at-a-glance status recognition through a traffic light color symbol in the summary page. Runs on Windows Server, Linux, AWS, and Azure. Start a 30-day free trial.
  8. Nagios XI A network management software tool that includes a Ping utility.
  9. MCO Ping Monitor Lightweight utility for networks that uses Ping to monitor devices attached to a network.
  10. PingInfoView Free simple ping tool with a graphical interface for Windows.
  11. Power Admin A Ping sweep tool that is available for Windows.

Primary Functions of Ping Monitoring Tools

The main purpose of a ping monitoring tool is to track the uptime and responsiveness of network devices. It can detect when a device becomes unreachable or experiences increased response times. The tool may generate alerts or notifications when certain thresholds, such as packet loss or high latency, are exceeded, allowing network administrators to promptly address any issues.

The best ping monitoring software tools

Our methodology for selecting ping monitoring tools

We reviewed the ping monitoring tools market and analyzed the options based on the following criteria:

  • The ability to sweep a network periodically on a schedule
  • The option to target one device of a range of IP addresses
  • Availability results in graphical format
  • Alerts for contact attempt failure
  • Ping results storage for long-term performance analysis
  • A free tool or a free trial period for no-cost assessment
  • Utilities that add value to a network administrators toolkit at a fair price

We also looked at robustness of the tool in terms of diverse industry use cases, reliability, documentation and support, ease of use, and software updates and maintenance.

Feature Comparison Table:

Product/FeaturesSolarWinds Ping SweepPaessler PRTGPingdomSite24x7ManageEngine OpManagerDomotzManageEngine Applications Manager
Nagios XIMCO Ping MonitorPingInfoViewPower Admin
Real-time monitoringYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Alerts and NotificationsYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoYes
ReportsYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoYes
TracerouteNoYesNoNoNoNoNoYesNoNoNo
Multi-protocolNoYesNoNoYesNoNoYesNoNoNo
IPv6 SupportNoYesNoNoNoNoNoYesNoNoNo
Customizable intervalsYesYesYesYesYesNoNoYesYesYesYes
Ease of setupHighMediumHighMediumMediumHighHighLowHighHighMedium
Multi-PlatformWindowsWindowsWeb-basedWeb-basedWindows, LinuxCloud-basedWindows Server, Linux, AWS, AzureWindows, LinuxWindowsWindowsWindows
Free trial or free version14-day30-day30-day30-day30-day14-day30-day and Free editionNoYes (Limited)Full version is freeYes (Limited)

1. SolarWinds Ping Sweep tool with Engineer’s Toolset (FREE TRIAL)

Ping Sweep dashboard - with Engineer's toolset

The SolarWinds Ping Sweep tool performs a recursive Ping routine on a list or range of IP addresses. The information pulled back from this ping utility gives you insights into the devices on your network and the performance of your DHCP and DNS servers as well as reporting on the transfer speeds to all of your network’s endpoints.

Key Features:

  • Network autodiscovery
  • Server metrics
  • Live status reports
  • Performance alerts
  • 14-day free trial

Why do we recommend it?

SolarWinds Ping Sweep is a great utility to have for ad-hoc tests of device availability. It will also let you see very easily if there are gaps in the allocation of IP addresses. This service also performs DNS resolution, which lets you know if your DNS server is functioning properly.

The tool requires a list of IP addresses as a parameter. However, it is possible to load these in from a text file or you could enter a range that goes from the lowest possible IP address up to the highest possible IP address. This won’t result in an endless list because you can specify to filter out non-responsive addresses from the results table.

SolarWinds Engineers Toolset

The Ping Sweep lists all IP addresses in the scan or just those that responded. In each record, the results screen shows the response time to the node and its hostname, which gets referenced out of the DNS server. This simple report tells you where there might be problems. For example, a blank hostname shows that the address is missing from your DNS server.

The results can be exported out to CSV, TXT, or XLS file so that you can import them into other utilities for analysis and comparison with data from other sources.

Who is it recommended for?

Any network administrator for all but the smallest networks will benefit from using this tool. It is specifically used for testing LANs, so if you operate a virtual office with no local resources, you won’t benefit from this tool.

Pros:

  • Easy to use, doesn’t include any unnecessary ‘fluff’
  • Includes a suite of other helpful tools, specifically designed for network administrators and on-site technicians
  • Aids in device discovery and testing
  • Can help verify DNS and DHCP functionality for different devices
  • Can easily export or import results from previous scans

Cons:

  • Could benefit from a longer 30-day trial time

The Ping Sweep tool is part of the SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset. This is a bundle of more than 60 useful network management and monitoring tools. The SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset starts at a price of $1,585 (£1,197). SolarWinds offers the entire network bundle on a 14-day free trial, so you can get a look at the Ping Sweep tool and try it out on your network.

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Ping Sweep lets you scan a range of IP addresses to see which ones are in use. You can also use this tool to perform reverse DNS lookups. The Engineer’s Toolset also includes a wide set of administrator tools for configuration management, diagnostics, IP monitoring, log management, network discovery and monitoring, and security.

Get 30 Day Free Trial: solarwinds.com/engineers-toolset

OS: Windows Server® 2008 R2, 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 or later

2. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor (FREE TRIAL)

Paessler PRTG Ping Monitoring the Cloud
Paessler PRTG Ping Monitoring the Cloud

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is a very popular network monitoring tool that delivers a first-class ping monitoring experience. PRTG Network Monitor pings devices in your network to measure their availability. With this tool, you can scan for devices to scan by IP range. PRTG Network Monitor offers many different sensors that can be used for ping monitoring; these include the Ping Sensor, Ping Jitter Sensor and Cloud Ping Sensor.

Key Features:

  • Measures connection availability
  • Jitter statistics
  • Transmission speed reports
  • Live status graphs

Why do we recommend it?

Paesser PRTG offers a number of Ping tools within its bundle that are suitable for testing local networks and for checking on the speed and reliability of internet connections between sites.

The advantage of this sensor model of network monitoring is that it provides you with lots of detailed information. Each sensor has its own pane where you can choose between live and historic data before viewing the results on the dial displays. The Ping Sensor provides you with the basics such as ping time, minimum ping time, maximum ping time, and the percentage of packet loss. This provides you with the basic information you need to see if there’s a problem with a device.

However, Paessler PRTG Network Monitor also allows you to monitor for more advanced ping concerns like jitter. The Ping Jitter Sensor allows you to measure how much network jitter there is on your network. This sensor shows the statistical jitter value and the execution time of requests. Monitoring for jitter is especially important in environments with important services like VoIP phones. Of course, PRTG Network Monitor also has notifications to alert you if any particular thresholds are exceeded.

PRTG Network Monitor image

Who is it recommended for?

PRTG is suitable for businesses of all sizes because you can choose which of its services to turn on. With local and remote Ping options, the service is useful for both single-site and multi-site businesses. The free version means that even very small businesses can benefit from this tool.

Pros:

  • Uses flexible sensors to monitor ping, as well as dozens of other metrics across networks, applications, and servers
  • Can detect jitter, useful for VoIP services
  • Sensors can be customized and tailored to specific applications
  • Pricing is based per sensor and allows both large and small businesses to scale within the PRTG ecosystem

Cons:

  • Feature rich, and takes time to learn all of the features and functionality the platform offers

PRTG Network Monitor is also available for free for your first 100 sensors. However, those with larger networks will need to purchase one of the paid versions. The paid versions of PRTG Network Monitor range from $1,750 (£1,321) for 500 sensors to $15,500 (£11,701) for unlimited sensors. There is also a 30-day free trial of PRTG Network Monitor.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor Download 30-day FREE Trial

3. Pingdom (FREE TRIAL)

Pingdom screenshot

Pingdom is a ping monitor for websites. The only way to be sure that everyone everywhere can get to your site is to test access regularly from many locations around the world. Ping is the ideal tool for performing these checks.

Key Features:

  • External source for test
  • Tests websites
  • Performance alerts

Why do we recommend it?

Pingdom is a great service for testing your Web assets from different locations around the world. It is very common for administrators to check a site and see that everything is working fine without realizing the website is inaccessible in other parts of the world.

The Pingdom system operates on servers in more than 1,000 locations around the world. As a cloud service, the system doesn’t take up any space on your servers or use up CPU power on your site. Even the dashboard is hosted on the cloud. The service is a little more sophisticated than just a recursive ping execution. It judges response times for sites that are still accessible, so you can get a range of performance metrics out of the service.

The system includes alerts that arise when response times drop or when a testing location is unable to get through to the site. This means that it isn’t necessary to sit and watch the dashboard all day. As well as displaying the alert, Pingdom will send out a notification by SMS or email. Pingdom also has an API that funnels alerts, so you can integrate those notifications into any custom application.

Once a problem is detected, the Root Cause Analysis module will perform tests, such as traceroute to work out exactly why the site is unavailable or slow.

Pingdom Ping Monitoring

Who is it recommended for?

The Pingdom service is aimed at businesses that operate websites or any other service that allows access to users from all over the world. Content Delivery Networks (CDN) and local caching can mean that one relay in the delivery of a network has gone down without anyone realizing it. This can make your website unavailable for an entire continent on the other side of the world without you knowing. Pingdom lets you check availability from 1,000 locations.

Pros:

  • Can monitor externally from over 1,000 locations, making it a great option for monitoring applications and services that serve a global audience
  • Lives in the cloud, meaning no onboarding or complicated setup
  • Dashboard is accessible from anywhere an internet connection is available
  • Alerts can be sent to email, SMS, and even integrate into custom solutions via API
  • Uses root cause analysis to assist admins in fixing issues quickly

Cons:

  • No self-hosting option

Pingdom is a subscription service and the price is set on a menu with a rate for the number of Synthetic Monitoring actions that you select plus a price for the number of Real User Monitoring credits that you choose. The standard plan doesn’t allow you to choose just Synthetic Monitoring or just Real User Monitoring. However, there is an Enterprise plan available, which is a customized package and that would enable you to subscribe to just one of those two services. You can assess the service with a 30-day free trial.

Pingdom Start 30-day FREE Trial

4. Site24x7 Website Monitoring (FREE TRIAL)

Site24x7 Website monitoring

Site24x7 is a cloud-based service that monitors IT infrastructure, applications, and website performance, user behavior. The focus of this tool is the performance of all IT services. The multiple layers of services needed to support a website mean a failure in one element will impact on the performance of the public-facing web presence.

Key Features:

  • Cloud-based
  • Tests from more than 110 locations
  • Free version available

Why do we recommend it?

The Site24x7 Website Monitoring service is offered as part of a bundle of different services, so you get network, server, and application monitoring tools as well. This combination allows you to keep automated checks on the availability and performance of all of the infrastructure that supports your websites while getting availability reports on the sites themselves.

The speed that data travels around a network and across the internet is a very important factor in the successful delivery of a web page. Ping measures the roundtrip time from one point to another over a connection.

Site24x7 operates from 110 locations around the globe, which gives customers of the service a view of the speed of delivery of their sites to all corners of the earth. The speed statistics delivered by Site24x7 include DNS time, connection time, first-byte time, download time, and SSL handshake time.

Apart from checking on internet speeds, the Site24x7 makes sure that systems administrators get early warnings when equipment problems are likely to impact on the delivery of websites. The service constantly scans the statuses of servers, the network, and supporting applications. These checks, together with security protection of website coding, enable web enterprises to continue to successfully deliver information, services, and goods to site visitors.

Site24x7 Ping Monitoring
Site24x7 Ping Monitoring

Who is it recommended for?

If you run multiple websites and you are constantly stretched for time, you would benefit most from the Site24x7 service. This is because its concurrent infrastructure monitoring provides alerts that warn of evolving performance issues. So, you can head off disaster before it happens and keep your sites available.

Pros:

  • Has one of the best user interfaces among other ping monitoring tools
  • Features a mobile app for both Android and iOS
  • Can measure can detect latency, jitter, and performance over time, making it a viable long-term solution for ping monitoring
  • Can measure the difference between DNS resolution versus IP address queries
  • Free version can support up to five sites, making it a great introductory option for smaller businesses

Cons:

  • Site24x7 is a feature dense platform that can take time to fully learn all of its features and customization options

There is a free version of Site24x7 which is limited to monitoring five websites or servers. Four paid editions give potential subscribers a choice of modules. All of the paid editions of Site24x7 can be tested on a 30-day free trial.

Site24x7 Start 30-day FREE Trial

Further Reading: Site24x7 – Full Review

5. ManageEngine OpManager (FREE TRIAL)

ManageEngine OpManager Ping Availability

ManageEngine OpManager uses Ping and the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to track down network devices, test their response times, and log their statuses. The system shows live performance data on its dashboard and raises alerts if issues arise on the network. Those alerts can be set up to forward notifications to operation staff, so they don’t have to watch the monitor all of the time – they will be drawn back to the dashboards when problems evolve.

Key Features:

  • Constantly polls for device availability
  • Tracks network performance live
  • Automatically create a network topology map
  • Also monitors servers

Why do we recommend it?

ManageEngine OpManager is a general system availability monitor that integrates Ping into its network discovery and availability tests. The system is mainly based on SNMP for device checks but those reports are supplemented by information from continuous Ping sweeps.

The OpManager system operates an autodiscovery processes, which identifies all connected devices and logs them in a network inventory. The system also automatically draws up a network topology map from the discovery data. Both the network inventory and topology map are live and so get automatically updated whenever you make changes to the network.

This monitoring service is able to identify and map virtual services as well as physical resources. It discovers all virtualizations and watches their resource usage. It will also monitor server resources. All of these monitoring systems operate simultaneously, while network monitoring is also going on. These constant performance checks lighten the load of operation staff, making the IT data center more efficient and cost-effective.

The OpManager service will track the performance of key application servers, such as Web server, Active Directory, mail servers, and VoIP systems. It acts as a Syslog server and collects Windows Events messages, consolidating log files to enhance performance and security monitoring.

ManageEngine OpManager Ping Response Time

Who is it recommended for?

OpManager is an automated device monitoring service that covers servers as well as network devices. As such, it is suitable for all types of business except for the very smallest. The Free edition would appeal to those very small businesses. However, anyone with just three devices wouldn’t need all of the functionality of this monitoring system.

Pros:

  • Utilizes autodiscovery to detect new devices for performance monitoring and inventory management
  • Leverages both ping and SNMP protocol to detect uptime and performance issues
  • Build an automatic network topology map based on devices it probes, good for detecting new devices and rogue access points
  • Has log collection capabilities, allowing it to provide much more detailed information than other simple ping monitors

Cons:

  • OpManager is a tool designed for IT professionals, it is not designed for non-technical users

ManageEngine OpManager is available in four editions: Free, Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. The Free edition is limited to monitoring only three devices but you can monitor 10 with the Standard and Professional plans and 250 with the Enterprise plan. The Enterprise edition extends the capabilities of the monitoring package to cover multiple sites. The software for OpManager installs on Windows Server and Linux and you can get it on a 30-day free trial.

ManageEngine OpManager Download 30-day FREE Trial

Related post: How to Fix Packet Loss

6. Domotz (FREE TRIAL)

Domotz Manage

Domotz is a cloud platform that implements automated network monitoring. The system performs constant checks on network devices through SNMP data collection. Each site needs an agent installed on one of its servers to get included in Domotz monitoring. One of the tools in the Domotz package is a Ping service that tests all devices for response times.

Key Features:

  • Ping one device or many
  • Ping burst or limited Pings
  • Store historical results

Why do we recommend it?

Domotz is able to access a local network from its cloud-based through a local agent. The tool provides network discovery and constant status checks on network devices with DNMP but its availability checks are supplemented by a continuous Ping.

You can enroll multiple sites in one account with Domotz and the survive is also available in a multi-tenanted architecture for use by managed service providers. You can even enroll multiple networks in each sub-account. The cloud platform downloads an agent and then starts a discovery phase. It compiles a network inventory and draws up a topology map. These two services are constantly updated.

The Ping monitor in the Domotz platform is an on-demand service. However, it is also possible to launch the test on a repeating schedule. Options include a limited number of Pings or a Ping burst. You can get the service to Ping every single device or just target one of them. The report gives you the response time (roundtrip time) and packet loss. You can specify threshold conditions that will trigger an alert if Ping results are worrying.

DoMotz Ping

Who is it recommended for?

Domotz is one of a number of cloud-based system monitoring tools on this list that perform more or less the same service. So, that group of network monitoring systems should be compared together if that is the type of service that you seek. However, this is a very good choice for multi-site businesses.

Pros:

  • A fixed price per site no matter how many devices it has
  • Automated network monitoring
  • Remote network management

Cons:

  • A longer trial period would be nice

The Domotz system runs on a cloud server and it includes storage space for network data, including Ping statistics, which can be examined in the analysis tools of the platform. You can assess Domotz with a 14-day free trial.

Domotz Access 14-day FREE Trial

7. ManageEngine Application Manager (FREE TRIAL)

branch-office-monitoring-3

ManageEngine Applications Manager provides a monitoring system for servers, services, applications, and software. One of its screens examines general system performance statistics, which is called the User Experience monitor. The page lists overall system health metrics and includes Ping.

Key Features:

  • Ping summary
  • Detailed Ping report page
  • Availability alerts

Why do we recommend it?

ManageEngine Applications Manager provides many automated monitoring utilities and they include a Ping monitor. This service presents an availability status that is calculated by Ping. Drill down further to get a detailed view of Ping tests. The tool can be set up to constantly test connections to specific locations.

The system administrator needs to set up the Ping monitor to test connections to specific locations, such as branch offices. The Ping tests run continuously and it is possible to set up an alert to raise if the Ping tests fail. The administrator can specify that the connection should be tried a couple of times more to confirm a broken connection before raising the alert.

The Ping alert and all of the other performance alerts in the Applications Manager package can be set up as notifications that can be sent to specific technicians by email, SMS, or Slack message. These alerts mean that technicians don’t have to sit and watch the monitor all the time because they will be notified of a problem when their attention is needed. This frees up staff for other tasks and improves productivity.

ManageEngine Applications Manager Ping

Who is it recommended for?

The Applications Manager can monitor software running on multiple sites and also on cloud platforms. The tool is also able to monitor serverless microservices through distributed tracing. So, it is suitable for use by any business and there is a Free edition for small businesses to monitor five assets.

Pros:

  • Constant Ping tests to specific locations
  • A connection quality overview
  • Detailed graphs and charts for time-series analysis

Cons:

  • On a back page of the dashboard and you might miss it

ManageEngine provides three editions for the Applications Manager with a Free edition that will monitor five assets. The Professional edition will monitor a single network and the Enterprise edition provides multi-site coverage. The software package will install on Windows Server or Linux or you can get the tool on AWS Marketplace or Azure Marketplace. You can examine Applications Manager with a 30-day free trial.

ManageEngine Applications Manager Start a 30-day FREE Trial

Related post: Ping Sweep Tools

8. Nagios XI

Nagios XI image

Nagios XI is widely regarded as one of the best network monitoring tools in the world. Yet Nagios XI offers an excellent ping monitoring experience in isolation as well. With Nagios XI you can view the availability of your devices and see how prevalent packet loss is while your network is in transition. This allows you to cut to the nuts and bolts of how well your network devices are performing.

Key Features:

  • Network autodiscovery
  • Extendible with plugins
  • Constant availability checks

Unique feature

The standout feature of Nagios XI is its system of plug-ins. There are thousands of free plug-ins available on Nagios Exchange and these extend the capabilities of the monitoring tool to provide extra functions or monitoring capabilities for specific products.

Why do we recommend it?

Nagios XI is one of a number of on-site network monitors on this list. It provides network discovery, network mapping, and constant device health checks with SNMP. It includes built-in availability tests with Ping that operate constantly and are also available for on-demand troubleshooting.

As a ping monitoring tool, Nagios XI offers a blend of modern network monitoring alongside more classic visual displays, and more advanced displays like network topology maps have also been incorporated. However, if the user design isn’t to your taste then you can customize the layout for each user. This ensures that users have complete control over how to monitor their network.

Nagios XI Ping

For smaller organizations, Nagios XI can be downloaded for free on RHEL Linux and CentOS. You can also use Nagios XI on Microsoft but you will have to do so through the use of a VMware workstation or alternative service. As a result, Nagios XI is most simple when deployed within a Linux environment.

Who is it recommended for?

Nagios XI is recommended for all but the smallest networks. Choose the Standard Edition for a single network or the Enterprise Edition if you have multiple sites to monitor.

Pros:

  • Plugins keep the base installation light, while still offering option features for those who want it
  • Uses autodiscover to help save time and eliminate the need for manually hunting devices down
  • Great option for Linux/RHEL

Cons:

  • Interface feels antiquated
  • Requires virtualization to run in a Windows operating system
  • Pricing for the enterprise version is high when compared to leading products
  • Reporting features could be made easier to use

There are two paid versions of Nagios XI; Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. The Standard Edition is the cheaper of the two at $1,955 (£1,498). The Standard Edition provides you with all the basic monitoring capabilities, but if you want to schedule reports and create capacity planning reports, you need to buy the Enterprise Edition. The Enterprise Edition can be purchased for a price of $3,495 (£2,679). You can download Nagios XI on a 30-day free trial.

9. EMCO Ping Monitor

EMCO Ping Monitor screenshot

Next up on this list, we have EMCO Ping Monitor which provides one of the most underrated ping monitoring solutions available right now. From the Host Status Overview you can see hosts across your network, their status, ping response rates, and outages information. You can monitor each host in real-time with the help of a color-coded graph to see how your connection changes over time. This provides you with a snapshot perspective so that you can see if there are any pressing issues that you need to deal with.

Key Features:

  • Host discovery
  • Live network performance reports
  • Automation scripts

Emcos Software Emco ping monitor

Why do we recommend it?

EMCO Ping Monitor provides extensive network monitoring and device checking by using Ping rather than the SNMP service that most of the other network performance monitoring tools that you will encounter.

If you want to look at your network from another perspective then you can look at your historic host data. You simply select the time period that you want to go back to for monitoring. Once you’ve retrieved this information you can create reports to send to other team members in PDF or HTML format. This simple setup keeps you close to what is going on so that you don’t get distracted by more elaborate displays.

One particularly interesting feature offered by EMCO Ping Monitor is the ability to configure scripts. You can configure scripts to run once a network event happens. This is good because it allows you to incorporate a little automation into your monitoring experience. This is supported by the use of alerts that send you email notifications when something changes. EMCO Ping Monitor is available as both a Windows program and Windows service.

Who is it recommended for?

This tool is probably a better choice for small businesses than large organizations. While Ping is able to track availability and response times, it doesn’t provide the device internal status reports that you would get from an SNMP-based monitor.

Pros:

  • Can create PDF or HTML reports with ease
  • Users can script powerful automations and scheduled tasks
  • Can run as either a service or application

Cons:

  • Cluttered interface feels outdated and overwhelming
  • Marketed more towards network professionals
  • Available only for Windows

EMCO Ping Monitor is available as a freeware version for up to five hosts. In terms of paid versions, you can purchase the Professional Edition or the Enterprise Edition. The Professional Edition can monitor up to 250 hosts for $199 (£150) per copy or $455 (£343) for unlimited copies. The Enterprise Edition offers unlimited monitoring of hosts and costs $445 (£336) for a single copy and $995 (£751) for unlimited copies. You can also download the free trial version of EMCO Ping Monitor.

10. PingInfoView

PingInfoView

PingInfoView is a ping monitoring tool for those occasions where you just want to conduct basic ping scans. With this lightweight utility, you can ping multiple host names and IP addresses at once to see whether the connection was successful or not. This information is shown in the main table view which shows you whether the connection succeeded or failed and the final ping time.

Key Features:

  • Tests all IP addresses
  • Reports on connection speed
  • Free ping monitoring tool

Why do we recommend it?

PingInfoView is a nice free tool that implements the standard Ping function through a GUI for Windows. This is useful as an easy-to-use troubleshooting tool.

Devices that are up are signified by a green button whereas those which have gone down can be identified by a red button. Even though this is a basic tool you can still schedule regular ping scans to keep your monitoring data up-to-date. You can configure PingInfoview to ping devices at regular intervals of your choosing. This ensures that your ping scan data is accurate and up to the minute. After you’re done pinging hostnames and IP addresses you can save the results in text, HTML, or XML file formats.

Who is it recommended for?

It is worth anyone’s time to just download PingInfoView and have it on your PC for occasional use in troubleshooting. If all of your computers run Linux and you don’t have any Windows endpoints, you can’t use this tool.

Pros:

  • Lightweight utility, good for quick network scans
  • Simple visual cues help technicians see problems quickly
  • Supports XML and HTML report exports
  • Available for free

Cons:

  • Lacks enterprise features like root cause analysis or in-depth reporting
  • Interface would be made more user-friendly, especially when tracking a high number of devices

While this tool won’t be suited to those looking for a product-driven more by visualization, PingInfoView does a good job of providing the user with the basic data. PingInfoView is available for free on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. You can download PingInfoView for free.

Further reading: What is ICMP?

11. Power Admin Server Monitor

Power Admin Server Monitor Console

Power Admin Server Monitor also monitors network devices. It is able to reach across the internet and monitor remote networks as well. With Power Admin you can ping multiple IP addresses simultaneously. In addition, you can keep track of data on Ping tests, CPU, memory, and disk usage. This provides you with the basics needed to monitor effectively.

Key Features:

  • Multi-host ping
  • Speed tests
  • Remote site monitoring

Why do we recommend it?

Power Admin Server Monitor is a good choice if you want an availability tester for remote assets, which as Web servers, but you don’t want to use a cloud service, such as Pingdom. This tool installs on Windows and it can test connections across your LAN as well as across the internet.

Power Admin has its own alerts system that aims to minimize the number of alerts you receive. For instance, you only receive ping alerts if two or more ping responses haven’t been received. The alerts system also allows you to enter a variety of additional configurations. For instance, you can select the maximum response time for a successful ping, and limit alerts to events where an error has been detected for a specific period of time.

Configuring alerts in this way stops you from being bombarded with notifications every time a ping request has failed! When a notification is raised you know that it is something serious that needs to be addressed. Power Admin is available on Windows.

PowerAdmin PA Server Monitor Ping

Who is it recommended for?

This is a good tool for technicians who have to manage multiple sites and/or Web assets and want in-house tools. You can set up continuous tests that will alert you if a device goes offline.

Pros:

  • A lightweight tool, takes up very little space and system resources
  • Supports testing multiple hosts at the same time
  • Uses threshold-based alerting to keep repeat alarms to a minimum

Cons:

  • Outdated interface
  • Lacks advanced features found in higher-end tools
  • Limited reporting capabilities
  • Must reach out to sales for a quote, pricing not transparent

Overall we recommend Power Admin to those users who need a lean ping monitoring platform through which to ping multiple IP addresses. If you’d like to purchase a copy of Power Admin, then you’ll need to contact the company directly and fill out a short email form. There is also a 30-day free trial of Power Admin Server Monitor.

Choosing a Ping Monitoring Tool Verdict

In today’s world of fast-moving networking, ping monitoring has become a prerequisite for managing network devices. Pinging devices is one of the best ways to see if they are experiencing network performance issues. In many cases, you can spot problems before they start to result in downtime if you’re looking carefully enough. However, in the event that a device goes down, you’ll be able to tell immediately by using a tool with alerts like SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolkit or Paessler PRTG Network Monitor.

Ping Monitoring FAQs

Could you recommend a free ping tool with logging?

Any Ping tool can be set to record results, thus implement logging. Free Ping tools with logging include:

  • ManageEngine Free Ping and Traceroute Tool
  • Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard
  • EMCO Ping Monitor
  • PingInfoView

How do I ping multiple devices at once?

You can ping multiple devices at once from the command line by writing a one-line for loop around the Ping command. However, it is much easier to use a graphical Ping tool that will automatically scan the entire network, a range of IP addresses, or work through a list of IP addresses fed into the Ping too via a file.

How do I monitor network stability?

Run Ping recursively to each IP address to monitor network stability. Even the most sophisticated network monitors use Ping for network stability checking. The Ping needs to be run recursively to multiple addresses. It is easier to use an automated Ping tool for monitoring network stability. High-quality Ping tools include thresholds for automated performance monitoring that triggers alerts when network stability deteriorates.

How do I ping my application server?

You can Ping your application server from anywhere as long as you know its IP address. From within your network, find the network IP address of the application server. Just give that IP address with the Ping command, for example, ping 192.168.0.20. If you have a Ping tool just enter your application server’s IP address into it and execute the search.

What is the command for continuous ping?

The Ping command includes switches that modify its behavior. The switch to use on a command for a continuous Ping is -t. So, try

ping -t comparitech.com

at a command prompt in Windows. Press Control-C to break out of the routine. On Macs and Linux computers continuous mode is the default for Ping, so just enter:

ping comparitech.com

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