Ping Failure Monitor Command

ping_failure_monitor_command.md

Ping Failure Monitor Command

This command continuously pings google.com and logs any connection failures. It's useful for monitoring network connectivity and identifying intermittent issues.

while true; do
  if ! ping -c 1 -W 5 google.com &> /dev/null; then
    echo "$(date): Connection to google.com failed"
  fi
  sleep 1
done

Explanation of Ping Command Arguments

1. if !: Starts an if statement that executes the following block if the command returns a non-zero exit status (i.e., if it fails).

2. ping: The command used to test the reachability of a host on an IP network.

3. -c 1:

   • Argument: -c
   • Value: 1
   • Meaning: Tells ping to send only one packet. The 'c' stands for "count".

4. -W 5:

   • Argument: -W
   • Value: 5
   • Meaning: Sets the timeout to 5 seconds. The uppercase 'W' stands for "timeout" and waits longer than the lowercase 'w'.

5. google.com: The target host to ping.

6. &> /dev/null: Redirects both standard output and standard error to /dev/null, effectively silencing all output from the ping command.

7. ;: Separates the ping command from the then keyword that follows.

8. then: Indicates the beginning of the code block to be executed if the ping fails.