What is PingLost?

It's a batch file that logs lost packets and state changes to a text file. It automatically creates a text file according to the date and time and the hostname or IP address you're monitoring.

It's not guaranteed to be locale-independent so it may not work properly on some computer with different language (I know for sure that it works with french).

Why do I need it?

You probably want to monitor some distant server or computer, or just monitor your internet or wifi connection, and you don't want to sit in front of a command prompt window that shows the result of a ping -t 192.168.1.1 so you search the interweb and find this.

You won't have to sit in front of your PC

Just drop the batch file into your windows dir for example and start pinglost just as a normal ping command. Except that, in addition to giving you the usual ping output, it logs the lost packets and state changes so you know exactly when it happened.

Monitor more than one host

Launch it in two command prompt windows with two different hostnames or IPs, and see if both were losing packets at the same moment. Keep them running over night and explore the logs the next day.

How does it work?

Just call pinglost /? to see this:

The pinglost command sends a ping request to "hostname_or_IP" then logs the
lost packets and state changes into a file called
"PingLost_hostname_AAAAMMDD_HHMM.txt" with a timestamp.

call: pinglost hostname_or_IP [-n count] [-l size] [-i time] [-w timeout] [-o fi
lename] [-f]

-n count         Specifies the number of Echo Request messages sent.
                 The default is 4. Use 0 for infinite ping (like -t option).
-l size          Specifies the length, in bytes, of the Data field in
                 the Echo Request messages sent. The default is 32.
                 The maximum size is 65,527.
-i time          TTL, Time To Live in miliseconds. Default is 128.
-w timeout       Specifies the amount of time, in milliseconds, to wait
                 for the Echo Reply. The default time-out is 4000 (4 seconds).
-o filename      Optional filename replacement. You must include the extension.
                 e.g. "MyPingFile.txt"
-f               Do not fragment packet flag.
-p               Don't output lost packets inside the log file.

The parameters following the hostname can be in any order.

Where is the log file?

It is supposed to be in the working directory.

Story time

So you might be wondering why a batch file when there are all those multi-plateform programming languages? Well, it's simple. Here's the initial goal and constraints:

• Log the lost packets (overnight);
• Multiple hosts at the same time;
• Can't need an installation because of restricted rights on the target computer (Windows XP);
• Have to be similar to the ping command since the users were used to that command.