A pinging application for network enthusiasts designed for Windows.

Pros: A ping is essentially a utility that is already part of most OS including Windows, that can be used to detect connectivity. This is done by sending out a message to a remote host (IP address, or URL / alias) and hearing for a reply. This process is called pinging after the nautical term which describes a similar process of sending a ping and hearing for a reply.

WinPing is a tool that has been designed to enhance the basic pinging capabilities of Windows. Among the additions are: Infinite looping pings, Multi-ping, adjustable number of retries, Displaying of information about hosts, and saving the ping results in a log file.

Cons: It does little to add to the existing Ping application in Windows, except for adding a couple of options such as infinite pinging and logging of each ping. Neither of this is of much use for anyone, including hardcore networking people. Extra information about a host can be gotten from a WHOIS query. It is not at all clear why this information is required as part of the Ping reply. Basically, this tool will be useful for a person who is specifically interested in trying out various flavors of pinging and not for too many others. If the application had supplied a trace route feature or a link to a trace route server then it could possibly be much more interesting. But even then there are web based applications already available for that purpose. For basic network troubleshooting the in-built Windows ping application is more than sufficient. Thankfully, this is freeware, so enthusiasts can try and play around with it to their heart’s content. Users should be aware that there will be run-ins with their Firewall / Network Security suite when using pings, disable those before you can receive them.

Overall: 3 stars. Adds some features to the basic ping. But really who needs all these options on pinging.