Testing TCP/IP connectivity with Ping

Ping is a utility included with all current versions of Windows and can be used to test the connectivity between computers on the LAN, and the Internet. It does so by sending tiny packets (called ECHO_REQUEST ) packets to the target machine, who will reply back with ECHO_REPLY packets, so that the pinging machine can determine the "distance" (in time)to the target machine. For exact technical details/ settings of the Ping utility please refer to Microsoft documentation.

With regards to WinGate functionality, Ping is extremely useful in making sure that clients can communicate effectively over the LAN to the WinGate Server, and for the WinGate server to test connectivity to locations on the Internet. It is also used most effectively in WinGate VPN scenarios to ensure that routing has been configured properly.

Outlined below are the main scenarios in which Ping can be used to test the functionality of WinGate:

Test Client TCP/IP configuration is setup correctly:

1. From the Cmd line type: Ping 127.0.0.1 (which is the loopback address used to identify a machine to itself, often referred to as local host)
   If the ping is successful (and inturn TCP/IP setup correctly) you should see:
   
   Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   
   
2. Next, you should use Ping to check that the client can communicate with the WinGate Server:
   
3. From the Cmd line type: Ping X.X.X.X (Where X.X.X.X is the internal address of the WinGate Server e.g. 192.168.0.1)
   If the ping is successful then you have established that TCP/IP communication is working correctly between the two machines. You should see:
   
   Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   

It should be noted that Ping can be used in conjunction with Domain names (eg. Qbik.com) to verify connectivity between the WinGate Server and external sites. This is where the IP address is simply replaced with the Domain Name when pinging. Because ping will always return the result as a reply from an IP address, it can also be helpful in determining that DNS resolution is working correctly.

Eg Ping www.somewhere.com

Reply from 201.167.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from 201.167.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from 201.167.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from 201.167.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128