B.2. Testing TCP/IP

B.2.1. Testing Windows TCP/IP

In Windows, the best way to quickly test the TCP/IP installation is to use a telnet client, or either a ping client or a ping command line executable. These programs are executed from within a Windows DOS shell. The following example shows you how you can ping the other nodes on the network, and represents what you might see inside the DOS shell window.

    Microsoft(R) Windows 95
            (C) Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981 -1995.
    
    C:\Windows>ping 1.1.1.1
    
    Pinging 1.1.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
    Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
    Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
    Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
    Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
    
    C:\Windows>_

You should repeat the ping exercise from the last section ensuring that each Windows computer can see each of the non-Windows networked computers.

B.2.2. Testing data server TCP/IP

From each non-Windows computer on the network, ping each Windows computer using both the IP address and the nickname. For example, consider the following setup that involves three networked computers:

To test the connection from the data server computer, log in and type the following:

    ping 1.1.1.2

You should see the following results:

    /tmp> ping 1.1.1.2
    PING 1.1.1.2 (1.1.1.2): 56 data bytes
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=32 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=32 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=32 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.2: icmp_seq=3 ttl=32 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.2: icmp_seq=4 ttl=32 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.2: icmp_seq=5 ttl=32 time=0 ms

Type Ctrl - c to stop the ping command and display its statistics:

    ‐‐‐ 1.1.1.2 ping statistics ‐‐‐
    6 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 0% packet loss
    round-trip min/avg/max = 0/0/0 ms
    
    /tmp>

Then repeat the test with ping 1.1.1.10 to test the link to the other Windows computer.

The data server node can also ping itself to ensure the local-host or loop-back setup is correct. Try the following command:

    ping 1.1.1.1

You should see results similar to this:

    /tmp> ping 1.1.1.1
    PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1): 56 data bytes
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0 ms
    64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=0 ms

Type Ctrl - c to stop the ping command and display its statistics:

    ‐‐‐ 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ‐‐‐
    5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
    round-trip min/avg/max = 0/0/0 ms
    
    /tmp>

The exercise should be repeated using the node names instead of IP addresses. In this case you would try:

    ping mark

This should give you the same results. If you do not get these results then check your hosts files on your data server computer.