fping is a program like ping which uses the Internet Control Message Protocol echo request to determine if a target host is responding. fping differs from ping in that you can specify any number of targets on the command line, or specify a file containing the lists of targets to ping. Instead of sending to one target until it times out or replies, fping will send out a ping packet and move on to the next target in a round-robin fashion. Unlike ping, fping is meant to be used in scripts, so its output is designed to be easy to parse.
To install fping:
Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install fping
openSUSE: sudo zypper install fping
Windows: http://fping.sourceforge.net/ [1]
Examples:
In its most simple form, you can use fping just like ping:
fping 172.31.0.251
You can do a network scan that sends one ping packet per/IP:
fping -a -r 0 -g 172.31.0.0/24
Or 4 ping packets per/IP (the "-r" is for retry):
fping -a -r 3 -g 172.31.0.0/24
You can do an even faster network scan by by adding "-i 1" switch (Requires sudo, waits 1ms between pings):
sudo fping -a -i 1 -r 0 -g 172.31.0.0/24
You can do the same fast scan, but from a host-list like this:
sudo fping -a -i 1 -r 0 < host_list.txt
You can add "-s" to any scan to show cumulative statistics upon exit:
fping -s -a -r 0 -g 172.31.0.0/24
Check the man page for any other options, or leave a comment below and we can try to help: