The Ping v2 sensor sends an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request ("ping") from the probe system to the parent device to monitor its availability.
This sensor is in beta status. The operating methods and the available settings are still subject to change. Do not expect that all functions work properly, or that this sensor works as expected at all.
Ping v2 Sensor
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
Sensor in Other Languages
Dutch: Ping v2
French: Ping v2
German: Ping v2
Japanese: Ping v2
Portuguese: Ping v2
Russian: Пинг v2
Simplified Chinese: Ping v2
Spanish: Ping v2
Remarks
This sensor requires that the Beta Sensors experimental feature is enabled.
Select if you want the sensor to show the Down status if the target is reachable:
Disable (default): Show the Down status if the target is not reachable.
Enable: Show the Down status if the target is reachable.
To change this behavior after sensor creation, open the channel settings of channel Status and change the Lookup. Select prtg.standardlookups.paessler.icmp.reachability_state if you want that thesensor shows the Down status if the target is not reachable. Select prtg.standardlookups.paessler.icmp.reachability_state_reversed if you want that the sensor shows the Down status if the target is reachable.
If you select Enable, Status is the primary channel.
If the name contains angle brackets (<>), PRTG replaces them with braces ({}) for security reasons. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What security features does PRTG include?
This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.
Tags
Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited.
It is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>).
For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added.
The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:
icmp
ping
pingsensor
Priority
Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority () to the highest priority ().
Ping Settings
Ping Settings
Setting
Description
Timeout (Sec.)
Enter a timeout in seconds for the ping. If the reply takes longer than this value, PRTG cancels the request and shows an error message. Enter an integer. The maximum timeout value is 300 seconds (5 minutes).
Packet Size (Bytes)
Enter the packet size for the ping in bytes. You can enter any value between 1 and 10000.Enter an integer.
We recommend that you use the default value.
Ping Method
Define the kind of ping check that the sensor performs with each scanning interval:
Send one single ping: Send a single ping only. The sensor then shows the ping time only. This setting is useful for monitoring availability.
Send multiple ping requests (default): Send multiple pings in a row. The sensor then also shows the minimum and the maximum ping time as well as the packet loss (in percent). This setting is useful if you want to create reports about average ping times out of a series of ping requests. If you select this setting, all of the ping requests must be lost for the sensor to show the Downstatus. For example, if only one ping request is answered in a series of five, the sensor still shows the Up status.
Ping Count
This setting is only visible if you select Send multiple ping requests above.
Enter the number of pings that the sensor sends in a row in one scanning interval. Enter an integer. The default value is 5.
Ping Delay (ms)
This setting is only visible if you select Send multiple ping requests above.
Enter the time in milliseconds (ms) that the sensor waits between two ping requests. Enter an integer. The default value is 5.
Increase the value if the target device drops ping packets because of denial of service (DoS) suspicion.
Time to Live (hops)
Define the time to live (TTL) for the request. You can limit the number of network hops that the request can traverse before it is dropped. The default value is 64.
Sensor Display
Sensor Display
Setting
Description
Primary Channel
Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.
You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.
Graph Type
Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:
Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic. You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).
Stack Unit
This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above.
Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.
Debug Options
Debug Options
Setting
Description
Result Handling
Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:
Discard result: Do not store the sensor result.
Store result: Store the last sensor result in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file name is Result of Sensor [ID].log. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites this file with each scanning interval.
This option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance.
In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.
Inherited Settings
By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.
The recommended scanning interval of this sensor is 1 minute.
Scanning Interval
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
You cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.
Access Rights
Access Rights
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.
Channel Unit Configuration
Which channel units are available depends on the sensor type and the available parameters. If no configurable channels are available, this field shows No configurable channels.
Channel Unit Configuration
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Channel Unit Configuration.
Channel List
Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.
Channel
Description
Downtime
In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status
Maximum Response Time
The maximum ping time when using more than one ping per interval
Minimum Response Time
The maximum ping time when using more than one ping per interval
Packet Loss
The packet loss when using more than one ping per interval (%)
Response Time
The ping time
This channel is the primary channel by default.
Status
The target status
Up status: Reachable
Down status: Unreachable
This is the primary channel if you enable Inverted Error Status.