README for nsPing.exe, version 1.4
copyright 2002, Julian Robichaux
www.nsftools.com


DESCRIPTION
nsPing is a command-line utility that "pings" a Notes server using the NSPingServer API call and returns information about the availability of the server and the round-trip ping time. It's essentially a Notes version of the classic "ping" program for TCP/IP. Good to use with the /b and /t options to ping a server all day, so you know if it becomes non-responsive.


REQUIREMENTS
Windows 95/98/NT/2000
Notes Client 4.5 or higher


INSTALLATION
Copy the nsPing.exe program to your Notes executable directory (the directory that has the nnotes.dll file). Run it from a command prompt, as described below.


USAGE
nsPing <Notes server name> [/b] [/c] [/e:errCount] [/n:count]
             [/o:fileName] [/t] [/w:seconds]

  /b            beep if an error occurs trying to ping the server
  /c            display the current time for each ping attempt
  /e:errCount   stop after a certain number of errors occur
  /n:count      number of pings to send
  /o:fileName   also send output to the specified text file
  /t            ping until CTRL-C is used to stop the program
  /w:seconds    number of seconds to wait between pings


EXAMPLES
To ping a Notes server named 'nserver1':
  nsPing nserver1

To ping a Notes server named 'nserver1' 20 times:
  nsPing nserver1 /n:20

To ping a Notes server named 'nserver1' 20 times, with the pings coming 15 seconds apart:
  nsPing nserver1 /n:20 /w:15

To ping a Notes server named 'nserver1' 20 times, and send the output of the ping session to a text file called C:\pingout.txt:
  nsPing nserver1 /n:20 /o:c:\pingout.txt

To ping a Notes server named 'some server' continuously (until you press CTRL-C to stop it), with the pings coming 15 seconds apart, with optional timestamps and beeps if there's an error reaching the server:
  nsPing "some server" /b /c /t /w:15


KNOWN PROBLEMS
1.  Occasionally on one of my Windows 2000 machines, if nsPing has been running for a long time with the /t option, CTRL-C sometimes doesn't stop the program. No idea why or under what circumstances this happens.

2.  If the server goes down and comes back up in the middle of a long string of pings (like if you're using the /t option), you may be prompted for a login, even if you've previously logged in. This is a Notes authentication issue that seems to be built in to the API.


VERSION HISTORY
Version 1.0
-  Initial release

Version 1.1
-  Compiled with 4.62 libraries (instead of 5.06)
-  Fixed problem with time stats

Version 1.2
-  Compiled with 4.5 libraries
-  Added stats for load
-  Added /e option

Version 1.3
-  Added /o option

Version 1.4
- Changed the program name from "nPing.exe" to "nsPing.exe", to avoid confusion with the NotesConnect program, which also uses an executable name of "nPing.exe"

