How MultiPing Works

MultiPing uses the basic concept of an ICMP ping to do its work. This utility has been a core network troubleshooting tool for a number of years. MultiPing takes this core concept, and then adds long-term monitoring, graphical displays, alerts, and a variety of other useful features.

The performance of a network target (i.e.: web site, service, device, or similar) can be measured by sending an ICMP ping packet. Your computer sends a "packet" of data (sometimes called an "echo request") to a remote computer or router. When this remote computer or router receives this data, it responds back (sometimes called an "echo reply").

If we measure the time it takes for the packet to get to that site, and then return to you, we call this the "ping time" or "latency." In general, the lower this is, the better your connection to a site is. This ping time is displayed in MultiPing as the response time in milliseconds (also called "Round Trip Time" - the time it takes a packet to travel the full round trip). This is useful in monitoring situations to alert you in the event the target server isn't responding (which will show up as a lost packet, red, in MultiPing), or is responding slowly.

MultiPing's high performance, low overhead engine allows you to send multiple ping requests to multiple targets simultaneously at an interval of your choosing (while minimizing CPU use - so you're able to monitor continuously without it affecting other running programs). From there - it takes the information that is gathered, and displays it in easy-to-read timeline graphs, so you're able to quickly view and diagnose any issues that may arise. The built in alerting system can also notify you of any conditions that you deem to be unsuitable, and notifies you when any of the targets you're monitoring start to behave poorly.