IPXPINGIPXPING (1M)

NAME

ipxping - send NetWare Link Services Protocol (NLSP) Ping Request packets

SYNOPSIS

ipxping network:node [packetsize ] [count] [ interval]

DESCRIPTION

ipxping is intended for use in network testing, measurement, and management, primarily for manual fault isolation. Tracking a single-point hardware or software failure in an Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) network can often be difficult. ipxping uses the NLSP Ping Request packet to elicit a Ping Reply from a Novell host or gateway equipped with NLSP. Because of the load it could impose on the network, hosts, and gateways, ipxping should not be used during normal operations and it should not be used from automated scripts.

To use ipxping for fault isolation, the hexidecimal IPX address of the target node must be specified in network:node format. While it is possible to contact the IPX address of the LCS60's Ethernet port, it is not possible to contact the addresses that correspond to the LCS60's virtual IPX network port.

By default, ipxping sends an IPX data packet that is 56-bytes long. The IPX header is followed by a ping header containing signature, version, type, ping id and results fields. The remainder of the packet is padded with additional bytes to fill out the packet. The size of the packet, in bytes, may be changed by specifying an alternate packetsize on the command line (40 >= packetsize <= 1500).

By default, ipxping sends one packet per second and prints one line of output showing the round trip time, in hundredths of a second, for every packet sent. The delay between packets (in seconds) can be changed by specifying an alternate interval on the command line. Since a packet for which no reply has been received by the time the next packet is sent is declared "lost", it may be necessary to increase the inter-packet delay to communicate with hosts over congested net- works.

By default, ipxping continues to send packets until it is killed. If count is specified on the command line, ipxping will send the specified number of Ping Requests, and then exit. Summary round trip time, packet loss, and errored packets statistics are displayed just before ipxping exits.

DIAGNOSTICS

Exit status is zero for normal terminations; a positive number for error termina- tions.

FILES

/usr/etc/ipxping

/usr/etc/ipxnetstat

SEE ALSO

Novell NetWare® Link Services Protocol Specification, Version 1.0, Chapter 2.

Issue 3

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