Speed check when ICMP packets are disabled, hping3

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Today I’m going to show you a simple way to check your speed to a location where ICMP packets are disabled or filtered. The process in this test is to use the ping command but to a different port and protocol, port 80 and using syn packets.

I’m currently testing this from Ubuntu x64 LTS, linux, where the binary of the package I used for testing was in the repository. What I used was the hping3 application/package, this is mostly used for firewall testing or port scanning, so yes it could be used for doing bad things rather then doing good.

However, what I currently was interested recently was to use the ping command on a different port to measure the time taken until connection. Basically a ping to the server, just on port 80.

Lots of internet provider now started blocking ICMP packets at their edge network to suppress for security reason, however in some case, ping is the traditionally way to see if the hostname is active or if this has latency. Unfortunately while ICMP packets are being blocked, ping no longer works.

The command to ping a server/hostname using a different port and protocol is quite simple:

Do not forget to add there the -S flag to send syn packets rather then ICMP packets. Next is the -p which is the port number at the destination and -c with the number of connection to establish (stops sending after this count).

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