NWA-PCUG 12/99 NewsLetter Article 18861 N. Hwy 112, Springdale, AR 72762-9303 FreePing by Simac Software Kevin Wood {3416 Fountain Circle, Montgomery, Alabama 36116} Generally, there are two types of software. There is software you swear by and software you swear at. Since June of 1998, I have been using one utility from the first category. The program is FreePing by Simac Software. You can download the program from www.tools4nt.com. This program does one thing and does it very well. At an interval defined by the administrator, FreePing attempts to "ping" remote location(s). For those who are not Network Administrators, when you 'ping' a remote site, you are checking to determine if a virtual circuit or 'connection exists between your machine and the remote machine. You could open a command prompt and enter "ping www.microsoft.com" or "ping 10.11.10.11". I have over 100 workstations located on a Wide Area Network (WAN) all over the state of Alabama. I need to know when the sites go off-line so I can start diagnosing and correcting the problem. How do I constantly check these remote sites? Other software exists that will do this, but it costs hundreds to thousands of dollars. The other software also comes with features I do not need, and the configuration tends to be difficult. Do not think, "Pull out the checkbook, Woody is going to sell some software." This utility is free. FreePing costs nothing. There is a version for both Windows 95/98 and NT. It is easy to install and configure. The program takes up 465 KB of hard drive space. Monitoring over 120 hosts (routers, servers, and workstations - anything with an IP address can be monitored) takes up about 1.4 MB of RAM. If a host fails to respond to two pings in a row, the program sends an alert. You can configure the destination of the alert as well as how frequently a ping is sent. How good is this FreePing? Before using FreePing, we had to wait until someone called complaining before we knew a problem existed. Now, many times, we are notified a site is off-line, and are able to resolve the problem before the user realizes there is a problem. If you are a network administrator, or need to monitor remote workstations, printers, router, or servers, this is the utility for you. This article is brought to you by the Association of Personal Computer User Groups, an organization to which this user group belongs. The author, Kevin Wood first started programming in high school - he won't tell how long ago that was. When he left the military in 1992, he started working with computers again. His expertise currently lies with operating systems and networks. He is a past Advisor to the APCUG, President of the Atlanta PC User Group and on the COMDEX Committee. He's worked for Georgia State University, College of Business, and is currently President of Koalacomputers. He is currently under contract to the State of Alabama, Department of Public Safety.