You can still do a "Ping" by going into a command prompt and typing "ping" followed by a MAC address. David's comments still apply, I think. Dean Kukral PS: If you have any more questions on this subject (ping), they would be better posed on PCBUILD. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[log in to unmask]> Thanks, David, for your contribution to overcoming the darkness of my memory, overly DOS-oriented I fear. Turns out there was indeed a "ping" command. Apparently it's been superseded by a little shareware utility that lets one ping a list of addresses/sites and bet a tabulation of results. Pretty exotic, I'd guess. Thanks again. ---ed Ed Nelson (from Chicago's southmost suburbs) [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- > > > Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:00:26 -0800 > From: David Gillett <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: Testing remote address(es) > > You may be thinking of the ancient "finger" command, which at some > point became such a vector for intrusions and enial-of-service attacks > that most firewalls block it by default, and few sites see any value in > overriding that. > > So it has become effectively unusable, even if some hosts do still run > code which includes implementations of it. > > David Gillett > > > On 22 Feb 2009 at 23:17, [log in to unmask] wrote: > >> Long ago, I recall there was a "command" -- like "PING" or something -- >> with which one could test whether an address hen was about to send to >> actually existed. I think the idea was how to see whether I remembered >> an address aright, without actually bugging an addressee or trying it to >> see it a message bounced. >> >> Can anyone tell me whether such a thing still exists, and how I might use >> it. (Just using the WWWeb has been so easy that I've forgotten all the >> "old stuff.") ---ed >> >> Ed Nelson (from Chicago's southmost suburbs) >> [log in to unmask] Curious about the people moderating your messages? Visit our staff web site: http://freepctech.com/staff.shtml