Ping a Specific Port

Question

Just a quick sanity check here.

Can you ping a specific port of a machine, and if so, can you provide an example?

I'm looking for something like ping ip address portNum.

for windows this question can be checked – npocmaka Jan 07 '17 at 17:17 — npocmaka, Jan 07 '17 at 17:17

sfussenegger · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-09T07:28:26.140

848

You can't ping ports, as Ping is using ICMP which is an internet layer protocol that doesn't have ports. Ports belong to the transport layer protocols like TCP and UDP.

However, you could use nmap to see whether ports are open or not

nmap -p 80 example.com

Edit: As flokra mentioned, nmap is more than just a ping-for-ports-thingy. It's the security auditers and hackers best friend and comes with tons of cool options. Check the doc for all possible flags.

edited Feb 09 '22 at 07:28

answered Oct 08 '09 at 10:00

sfussenegger

8,692

18

You might want to add -PN to skip the host discovery nmap usually does before testing the given port. – flokra Oct 08 '09 at 10:06
31

To save some people some trouble: nmap /can/ be installed on windows from link (or google nmap windows), BUT it does not work over VPNs. PaPing didn't seem to be able to scan a range of addresses. I have posted Python script below that will work over VPN to scan a range of ports on a range of addresses. – Sep 08 '11 at 07:19
24

For others: nmap doesn't exist on Mac OS X, you can install nmap via homebrew brew install nmap or MacPorts. – Highway of Life Mar 27 '12 at 15:58
21

nping is better suited for this task than nmap. nping is part of the nmap distribution. – CMCDragonkai Jun 16 '14 at 08:39
8

Mac OSX has 'Network Utility' which has a port scanner tab – Shanimal Jul 27 '15 at 20:53
2

Is there a way to use the Network Utility in shell? – Gerard Apr 05 '16 at 07:43
i did nmap -p 80 , it says host is down , please help, how to open 80 port to internet – user1735921 Aug 15 '16 at 13:23
If it is to use as a test, you can also try (if your version of nc as the option) : nc -z host port (default is tcp, but you can specify udp). The return code can be used in a test. – Esteban May 12 '17 at 06:44

score 224 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 05 '15 at 07:05

224

Open a telnet session to the specific port, for example:

# telnet google.com 80
Trying 74.125.226.48...
Connected to google.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

To close your session, hit Ctrl+].

edited Aug 05 '15 at 07:05

Ajay

137

answered Oct 08 '09 at 10:01

28

netcat works also great and is less verbose. – petrus Sep 09 '11 at 20:17
3

Telnet works well for this iff the port is a TCP port. – Falcon Momot Feb 14 '13 at 22:29
6

netcat works with UDP too (nc -u) – Tsvetomir Dimitrov Apr 21 '13 at 07:35
2

For Mac users - netcat is now built-in MacOS HighSierra, wherein telnet can be installed from HomeBrew brew install telnet – sandiejat Aug 03 '18 at 22:12

score 160 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 16 '15 at 23:27

160

If you're on a windows installation with powershell v4 or newer, you can use the test-netconnection powershell module:

Test-NetConnection <host> -port <port>

Example: Test-NetConnection example.com -port 80

This cmdlet also has the alias tnc. Eg tnc example.com -port 80

edited Jun 16 '15 at 23:27

Ashley

648

answered Oct 26 '14 at 21:09

Kjetil Limkjær

2,053

Rahul Patil · Answer 4 · 2013-04-10T02:13:09.193

126

$ nc -vz google.com 80
Connection to google.com 80 port [tcp/http] succeeded!

edited Apr 10 '13 at 02:13

answered Apr 10 '13 at 01:55

Rahul Patil

2,981
3
15
10

11

Use with time like in time nc -vz www.example.com 80 and you'll have sort of an RTT, too. – xebeche Feb 21 '14 at 08:58
7

Sole solution that works on Amazon EC2 instances without any installation. – Masadow Mar 03 '16 at 15:39
what is -z? ncat 6.40 on rhel7 gives it's an unknown option – Tagar Jul 25 '17 at 04:59
@Tagar according to help in the Ubuntu version, -z is the Zero-I/O mode, which is used for scanning. – Ben Mordecai Aug 01 '17 at 12:01
1

Which package provides this command? I can't find a package called "nc". – Fabian Röling Oct 20 '20 at 19:03

score 85 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 03 '10 at 04:23

85

You can use PaPing:

http://code.google.com/p/paping

C:\>paping.exe www.google.com -p 80 -c 4
paping v1.5.1 - Copyright (c) 2010 Mike Lovell

Connecting to www.l.google.com [209.85.225.147] on TCP 80:

Connected to 209.85.225.147: time=24.00ms protocol=TCP port=80
Connected to 209.85.225.147: time=25.00ms protocol=TCP port=80
Connected to 209.85.225.147: time=24.00ms protocol=TCP port=80
Connected to 209.85.225.147: time=24.00ms protocol=TCP port=80

Connection statistics:
        Attempted = 4, Connected = 4, Failed = 0 (0.00%)
Approximate connection times:
        Minimum = 24.00ms, Maximum = 25.00ms, Average = 24.25ms

answered Sep 03 '10 at 04:23

Can this be used to ping any port or just 80? – Luke Puplett Jul 09 '12 at 16:28
@LukePuplett just change the number 80 in the example. Run it by typing paping.exe <hostname/IP> -p -c – David Costa Jul 09 '12 at 18:39
1

Or instead of paping you could use cryping which has been around much longer and supports pinging of some services as well as ports. – Sep 10 '10 at 09:47
This works great. use -c * for constant papinging(?). – HippoDuck Apr 18 '17 at 09:47

score 39 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

39

Try curl command, like:

$ curl host:port

For example:

$ curl -s localhost:80 >/dev/null && echo Success. || echo Fail.
Success.

Above command will return Fail on a non-zero exit status codes. In some particular cases, such as empty or malformed response (see man curl), you may want to handle specific exit codes as successful, so please check this post for more detailed explanation.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

Community

1

answered Nov 01 '15 at 00:11

kenorb

6,779

5

I like this because curl is present by default on CentOS, so I don't have to install anything. – bdemarest Jan 12 '16 at 17:34
curl worked on a Raspberry Pi (distro Raspian) – John M Jul 25 '16 at 17:41
1

This is by far the most elegant and universal solution. I tweaked it slightly to make it a neat oneliner: IP="<ip>" ; PORT="<port>" ; curl -s "$IP:$PORT" > /dev/null && echo "Success connecting to $IP on port $PORT." || echo "Failed to connect to $IP on port $PORT." – Lefty G Balogh Apr 28 '17 at 14:36

score 31 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 15 '15 at 13:29

31

No, you can't, because ping uses the ICMP protocol, which doesn't even have a concept of ports.

edited Mar 15 '15 at 13:29

Preview

105

answered Oct 08 '09 at 10:00

59

I'm pretty sure the use of "ping" was metaphorical. – Luke Puplett Jul 09 '12 at 16:26

score 28 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 28 '17 at 16:24

28

I found a simpler solution using PsPing:

psping 192.168.2.2:5000

It's part of Windows Sysinternals.

PsPing implements Ping functionality, TCP ping, latency and bandwidth measurement.

edited Apr 28 '17 at 16:24

kenorb

6,779

answered Dec 12 '14 at 19:49

Ayan Mullick

506

3

Also PsPing comes from Microsoft SysInternal team so is might be considered a little more legitimate when dealing with other Microsoft oriented people. (And has better functionality than the very old PortQry) – martyvis Apr 30 '18 at 00:08
2

PSPing has the advantage of providing latency measurement when using a custom port, something that Test-NetConnection cannot do (it only reports the ICMP response time). – Jeff Miles Jan 04 '19 at 19:30

score 18 · Answer 9 · edited Dec 22 '13 at 23:40

18

On Linux you can use hping but it uses TCP, rather than ICMP.

hping example.com -S -V -p 80

edited Dec 22 '13 at 23:40

Ladadadada

26,787

answered Dec 22 '13 at 23:12

c4f4t0r

5,411

1

hping (hping3 in my ubuntu) is excellent. It periodically repeats the probe like ping does, and unlike many of the tools suggested here. It also test both whether the packet gets through, and whether the port is open. If it's open you get flags=SA (i.e. SYN ACK), and if it's closed you get flags=SR (i.e. SYN RST). Note that you probably don't need the -V flag here, but you do need sudo/root to run hping. – mc0e Feb 07 '17 at 04:19
Excellent! Unlike many other answers, this reports RTT latency like ping and pings until stopped. – Edward Anderson Jun 04 '18 at 19:46

score 11 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 08 '09 at 10:06

11

Ping is very specific but if you want to check whether a port is open or not, and are running a Windows box then PortQry is your friend.

I've only used it for testing Domain Controllers for connectivity issues, but it worked a treat for that, so should work for you.

answered Oct 08 '09 at 10:06

Rob

647

1

PortQry was originally released in 1999/2000 by the MS Exchange team but MS recent version appears to have stunted it by removing the ability to query remote ports (health & safety). – Luke Puplett Jul 09 '12 at 16:31

score 8 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 09 '12 at 17:53

Here's a quick and dirty .NET console app:

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string addressArgument = null, portArgument = null;

        System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient tcpClient = null;

        try
        {
            addressArgument = args[0];
            portArgument = args[1];

            int portNumber;
            portNumber = Int32.Parse(portArgument);

            tcpClient = new System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient();
            tcpClient.ReceiveTimeout = tcpClient.SendTimeout = 2000;


            IPAddress address;
            if (IPAddress.TryParse(args[0], out address))
            {
                var endPoint = new System.Net.IPEndPoint(address, portNumber);
                tcpClient.Connect(endPoint);
            }
            else
            {
                tcpClient.Connect(addressArgument, portNumber);
            }

            Console.WriteLine("Port {0} is listening.", portArgument);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            if (e is SocketException || e is TimeoutException)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Not listening on port {0}.", portArgument);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Usage:");
                Console.WriteLine("    portquery [host|ip] [port]");
            }
        }
        finally
        {
            if (tcpClient != null)
                tcpClient.Close();
        }
    }

score 5 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 08 '09 at 10:00

No.

There's no guarantee that the service running on the port understands ping. It also opens up the question of what "flavor" of port you want to ping, TCP or UDP? Since the ping "protocol" uses neither (ping is implemented using ICMP), it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Mark · Answer 13 · 2013-08-11T01:26:06.660

This is the only solution that works for VPNs with the client machine being Windows Vista or Windows 7, as other listed answers simply do not function. This answer was previously deleted and should not have been, as this is the only solution for a real-world common case. Since there is no appeal available for the delete, I am reposting it to save others the frustration I had with trying to use the other answers.

The example below finds which IPs on the VPN that have VNC/port 5900 open with the client running on Windows 7.

A short Python (v2.6.6) script to scan a given list of IPs and Ports:

from socket import *

fTimeOutSec = 5.0
sNetworkAddress = '192.168.1'
aiHostAddresses = range(1,255)
aiPorts = [5900]

setdefaulttimeout(fTimeOutSec)
print "Starting Scan..."
for h in aiHostAddresses:
    for p in aiPorts:
        s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM)
        address = ('%s.%d' % (sNetworkAddress, h))
        result = s.connect_ex((address,p))
        if ( 0 == result ):
            print "%s:%d - OPEN" % (address,p)
        elif ( 10035 == result ):
            #do nothing, was a timeout, probably host doesn't exist
            pass
        else:
            print "%s:%d - closed (%d)" % (address,p,result)

        s.close()
print "Scan Completed."

Results looked like:

Starting Scan...
192.168.1.1:5900 - closed (10061)
192.168.1.7:5900 - closed (10061)
192.168.1.170:5900 - OPEN
192.168.1.170:5900 - closed (10061)
Scan Completed.

The four variables at the top would need to be changed to be appropriate to whatever timeout, network, hosts, and ports that are needed. 5.0 seconds on my VPN seemed to be enough to work properly consistently, less didn't (always) give accurate results. On my local network, 0.5 was more than enough.

Works perfectly on Win 7 XP Pro client / Win Server 2008 R2 to diagnose closed port. (I had to use a 30 second timeout threshold but that may be an issue with specific server environment not a problem with this code) — David Zemens, Sep 04 '15 at 02:04

mwfearnley · Answer 14 · 2022-04-08T09:01:06.430

4

As per CMCDragonkai's comment, you can use nping, which is part of Nmap.

nping example.com --tcp-connect -p 80,443

Here's a link to the manpage.

edited Apr 08 '22 at 09:01

answered Dec 18 '20 at 13:23

mwfearnley

860

score 4 · Answer 15 · answered Oct 08 '09 at 10:22

I'm quite sure that Nagios check_tcp probe does what you want. They can be found here and although designed to be used in a Nagios context, they're all standalone programs.

$ ./check_tcp -H host -p 22
TCP OK - 0.010 second response time on port 22|time=0.009946s;0.000000;0.000000;0.000000;10.000000

score 3 · Answer 16 · answered Oct 20 '16 at 15:29

In Bash shell, you can use TCP pseudo-device file, for example:

</dev/tcp/serverfault.com/80 && echo Port open || echo Port closed

Here is the version implementing a timeout of 1 second:

timeout 1 bash -c "</dev/tcp/serverfault.com/81" && echo Port open || echo Port closed

score 2 · Answer 17 · answered Oct 26 '14 at 22:08

2

There is a lightweigth tool for it, called tcping: http://www.linuxco.de/tcping/tcping.html

answered Oct 26 '14 at 22:08

Craig

570

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Jun 24 '11 at 22:41

0

If you are running a *nix operating system try installing and using "zenmap", it is a GUI for nmap and has several useful scan profiles which are a great help to the new user.

answered Jun 24 '11 at 22:41

Zenmap is also available for windows. – Nick Young Jan 12 '16 at 18:16

Ping a Specific Port

18 Answers18