Which OS are you using ??

kitbson

Can i know which OS you are using through the PING command ??

THX

sprkymrk

The ping command will work on most all OS's that I know of - from Windows to Linux to Unix and Mac. The switches and exact operation will vary a little, but the command is the same.

kujayhawk93

Maybe he really meant to ask what protocol the PING command uses, in which case it is ICMP.

remyforbes777

I think what he is asking is, can he use the ping command to tell what OS the computer he is pinging is using.
Answer: not that I know of unless you use a program like Nmap. I don't know of any flags for ping that would reply with the OS of the computer.

Webmaster

remyforbes777 wrote:

I think what he is asking is, can he use the ping command to tell what OS the computer he is pinging is using.

Yes, looks he is. Even though one could perhaps narrow down the choices based on certain responses, it doesn't provide direct info about the target OS. But especially since this question is posted in the Network+ forum, the answer is no.

sprkymrk

Webmaster wrote:

remyforbes777 wrote:

I think what he is asking is, can he use the ping command to tell what OS the computer he is pinging is using.

Yes, looks he is. Even though one could perhaps narrow down the choices based on certain responses, it doesn't provide direct info about the target OS. But especially since this question is posted in the Network+ forum, the answer is no.

Webmaster is correct, you won't run into this on the Net+. It is an interesting topic though, and if you care to read up on how to use ICMP for OS Fingerprinting, check this out:

http://www.sys-security.com/index.php?page=icmp

It basically amounts to using ICMP packets both standard and malformed, then watching the responses. Different OS's respond in unique ways to such packets, thus you can try to determine which OS is running on a system.

kitbson

THX ALL

Philippatos

Check the TTL value. A Windows box will default to 128.

Below are two pings. First is to a Windows XP box and second to a Linux box.

[climber@blackhole ~]$ ping 192.168.1.100
PING 192.168.1.100 (192.168.1.100) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.100: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=94.4 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.100: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=0.862 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.100: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=0.768 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.100: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=0.797 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.100: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=0.756 ms

--- 192.168.1.100 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 3999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.756/19.522/94.429/37.453 ms
[climber@blackhole ~]$ ping 192.168.1.7
PING 192.168.1.7 (192.168.1.7) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.7: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.044 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.7: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.034 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.7: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.032 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.7: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.033 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.7: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.034 ms

--- 192.168.1.7 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.032/0.035/0.044/0.006 ms
[climber@blackhole ~]$