[clug] Re: Determining availability of a remote machine

[Jepri]

On 2003.04.04 18:53, Michael Still wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Apr 2003, Jepri wrote:
> 	"The echo service sits on port 7, and replies back with
> whatever
> 	you said, just like a senile grandmother" [9]

My grandmother just says 'oh, really?' all the time :)

The original discussion was a request for a way to test servers, 
without using ICMP (which you gave a good summary of).  Under those 
circumstances I thought that pointing out a user level, non ICMP 
alternative was a good idea.  I was completely wrong about it being 
part of a ping standard though, it's just that I've heard (and used) 
the phrase 'tcp ping' enough times for it too seep into my idea of 
'ping'.

A reasonable firewall administrator should let port 7 requests go out, 
but I'd be blocking it incoming.

Intruigingly enough, it is enabled by default on my Debian box.

> I can only imagine that this is a deliberate attempt to offend Kim,
> who is
> regularly helpful on this mailling list. Would you care to rephrase
> [3]?

I do hope Kim didn't take that as a personal attack, because it 
wasn't.  Kim was first in with the best answer(as I'm sure s/he knows), 
and I do appreciate Kim's input on the mailing list.  I'm currently 
looking up the programs mentioned in that answer, and they look cool 
(and don't use ICMP).

It was just a frustrated comment that had little to do with the people 
in the discussion.


> Yours in a ongoing effort to learn more about everything,
> Mikal


Me too,
Jeremy