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/

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:

http://fping.sourceforge.net/man/