Ping or Telnet?

Dejuice · October 2003

Which one of these utilities would you use to troubleshoot communications with a Web Server (HTTP)

I personally would choose telnet because PING does not TROUBLESHOOT, according to Sybex it is used to TEST connectivity and to find out if a host is responding.....whereas

'TELNET is a troubleshooting tool, you can telnet any TCP port to see if it is responding, which is especially useful when checking SMTP and HTTP web ports'.

Any input is appreciated

jlambert · October 2003

troubleshooting 'communications' would be ping. troubleshooting the http server itself would be 'telnet' or more likely 'ssh'. well, thats my take on it anyways. looks like one of those questions they put just so you can't get a perfect score

Webmaster · October 2003

Please do NOT post complete multiple choice questions from other sites, books, etc....

The answer is TELNET. Although you can "troubleshoot communication" by using PING, that doesn't work specifically for just an HTTP server, ping can be used to test the connectivity as long as the network device runs IP... Telnet/SSH is also used to administer LINUX based web servers, but in this case you would set up a telnet connection to port 80 specifically (telnet x.x.x.x 80) to actually test the communication with the HTTP server. If it accepts the connection it actually listens to port 80, to further test the communication with the HTTP server you could type GET for example. I've litterally done this hundreds of times, with HTTP, SMTP and POP3 servers.

KingK · October 2003

I never really looked as TELNET as a troubleshooting tool.

Ping and Tracert are definetley troubleshooting tools.

Everytiem Ive set up a network, ping was able to verify weather all nodes could connect to all other nodes.

Tracert is like ping, except instead of hitting the intended target, it shows you what route the packet took.

TELNET is similar to FTP in that its an application that runs on your computer. I suppose in this case you would be using TELNET as a troubleshooting tool.

If you have two computers, set one up as a telnet server and telnet into it from the other computer.

Then ping the telnet server from the same terminal you used to telnet into the server with.

You'll see the difference.

I think what the question is asking is, in this case, the server is up and its possible you can ping it, but maybe some other layer of the TCP/IP stack isnt working.

So in this case telnetting into it to see if its up and possibly, if the configuration is correct.

SO yes, I guess you would be using TELNET as a troubleshooting tool, but I wouldnt really designate TELENT as a troubleshooting tool.

My 02. cents.

ajs1976 · October 2003

I use Telnet as a troubleshooting tool alot. Telnet to port 25 on your email server. The email server should say high. If you telnet to port 1494 on a Citrix server, it should reply by printing ICA over and over until you disconnect.

Telnet is a good tool to test connectivity through a firewall.

Ping or Telnet?

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