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One of the annoying features of remote administration of Windows is the delay in waiting for the RPC timeout to return control back to the user when an attempt is made to access a remote computer that is offline or not responding. Applications, such as Hyena, are unable to set a RPC timeout, and are also blocked by the operating system from aborting the connection attempt on their own.
Hyena has an option to offer some relief from this problem, by allowing for a brief ping to be sent to the remote computer prior to initiating any remote action. To configure or enable this option, select the "Enable Ping Support" under Tools > Settings > View.
For various technical/logical reasons, Hyena cannot determine what actions a user may be intending to perform on a computer at any given time. Moreover, Hyena cannot attempt to perform a ping action once another action, such as viewing a remote computer's services, has been initiated.
To provide for an option to alert the user that a remote computer may be offline, that is, it has failed to respond to a ping in the user-configured timeout period, Hyena can initiate the ping whenever the remote computer is selected. This includes when the computer object is clicked on, expanded in the left window, or right-clicked on. The ping is carried out in a separate thread (with slightly higher priority).
The results of the ping will be displayed in the status bar. A beep can also be configured to be sent when the ping fails. By initiating the ping this way, the ping will be started during the time that the user takes to start a remote action by selecting that action from a menu or object selection. Ideally, by the time the action is selected, the ping will have completed (if a reasonable timeout is configured) and the user can decide whether they want to carry out the desired operation.
Setting Ping Options
Click the Ping Options button to configure specific ping settings.
Ping Type - Windows supports sending a ping three (3) different ways. If one method does not work, try selecting a different method. Only the IPHLPAPI method supports Ipv6 pings. Restart Hyena after changing the ping type.
Raw Sockets - The raw sockets method will work in most environments, however its main drawback is that it requires full administrator rights, and the application (Hyena) must be run as an administrator. Generally, this may not be the case for Windows Vista/7/8 clients.
ICMP.DLL - The ICMP.DLL file is found on all Windows systems, and is the preferred ping method when only IPv4 is needed.
IPHLPAPI.DLL - This newer ping library adds support for IPv6, and can also be used for IPv4. There are several options for this ping type. See the IPHLPAPI Ping Options below.
Note
that Microsoft chose to only allow administrators to use raw sockets.
Therefore, if Hyena is run under an account with less than full
administrative rights, the raw sockets ping interface will generally fail.
In these cases, try using the ICMP.DLL or the IPHLPAPI.DLL methods.
IPHLPAPI Ping Options
Address Types - When using the IpHlpApi library, Hyena retrieves all ip addresses, both Ipv4 and Ipv6, from all of the network interfaces installed on the computer. The Address Types option lets you control which type of address is used for the ping attempt, either only Ipv4, only Ipv6, or any address. If any address type is selected, Hyena will ping the first address in the list, which could be an Ipv4 or Ipv6 address. (Its unclear what order or convention Windows uses to provide this address list to applications)
Ping Attempt Options - Since all of the ip addresses are available, Hyena can be configured to either stop on the first failed ping, or ping all addresses until there is a successful ping (or the end of the address list is reached)
To assist in troubleshooting what address is being pinged, Hyena will display the address in the ping message on the status bar.
Timeout / TTL / Buffer Size - Set these values to best suit your network environment. The ping packet that is sent by default is 32 bytes long; only one ping is sent.
Play sound (beep) when ping fails - Enable this option to play the standard Windows error sound when a ping fails.
Show ping results on status bar - Enable this option to show the results (performance) of the ping.
Cancel remote operation/function if ping fails - If this option is set, Hyena will not attempt an operation on a computer that fails to respond to a ping. If this option is NOT set, Hyena will initiate the ping and if it fails, display a failure message on the status bar; however, Hyena will not abort or stop any operation that is requested.
Use Netbios name (instead of DNS) for ping functions - Enable this option to force Hyena to use the Netbios name (instead of the DNS name) when attempting to ping a computer that is part of an Active Directory domain. By default, Hyena will use the value of the 'dnshostname' Active Directory attribute for the target address of any ping operations.
Advanced Ping Options - Several advanced options are also available to further fine-tune the ping settings. See the Advanced Settings topic for more information.