Pinger Help File

Main view. Click to enlarge

Introduction
Pinger has been produced to help out network administrators in keeping close contact with the devices that are working on their network. This program is included in all Baraka's Network Software free of charge.

Fig 1.0

Config
The configuration window (fig 1.2) has two options, 1: Number of polls before reporting failure, which in fact is the number of consecutive times that an error has to occur before Pinger reports a failure. This selection has the capability to be configured from 1 to 100 times before reporting. 2: Poll interval, this option can be anywhere between 10 and 1000 seconds based on a multiple a 10. These configurations can be seen in the status bar (fig 1.3). The first window in the status bar is showing the remaining time before a new ping will occur, the second window shows the poll intervals in seconds and he third window shows Number of polls before reporting failure.

 Reporting will be done in the logging window unless otherwise configured.

fig 1.2

Fig 1.3

Details
The detail panel will show you all the errors that occurred, including the Name of the host, the date and time that it occurred and the ping error type. The numbers of errors are also indicated at the top of the details window.
Note: this is not the logging profile of the program, you need to configure the program so it will log the events to a file. See logging option.

Beep on error
This option lets you select if you want to be notified by audio. On every error that Pinger will encounter.

Logging
Keeping records of errors can easily be done by clicking on the appropriate host name. Notice that a blue check mark (fig1.4) will appear at the end of the line of each host that will be selected. A .txt file will also be created for each host selected.

fig 1.4

Click on the selected host a second time to stop logging that host (blue check mark will disappear).

Viewing Logs
Click Menu / View Logs and the log viewing selector will appear (fig 1.5). By clicking the desired host name followed by OK or double clicking the host name, the corresponding .txt file will open in Notepad. This file contains the details of all error that occurred on the selected host. Date, time and ping error type is recorded.

fig 1.5

Pinging
The second button on the toolbar (fig 1.0) is the trigger button to ping all devices that are listed in the main pane. Successful pings will be shown with the time it took to receive acknowledgment on a green back ground. Unsuccessful pings will be indicated with the ping error type on a red back ground.

Adding and deleting addresses
Adding and deleting addresses is straight forward. On the toolbar (fig 1.0) click on the Add button. Figure 1.6 shows the add dialog box. Just type in the desired host name and the appropriate IP address that the host has. The log option can also be triggered here or it can be done later if desired (see Logging). Click OK and the new host will be added to the main list and will be pinged when the Add Host dialog box is closed.

fig 1.6

Deleting
On the toolbar (fig 1.0) click on the Delete button. Figure 1.7 shows the deleting dialog box. Deleting can be achieved in 2 manners. 1: clicking the desired host name or any where on the same line and clicking OK. 2: Double click on the desired host. The select host is automatically delete without notification. All hosts will be pinged when Delete Host window is closed. Logging activities can also be seen. The Log column is either 0 or 1, 0=no logging, 1=logging activated.

Minimizing
Minimizing the program to the system tray is triggered on the 5th button of the toolbar. An icon will appear in the system tray indicating that Pinger has been minimized. Double click the Pinger icon in the system tray to bring back Pinger window in focus.