fping
fping is a ping-like tool that probes many hosts in parallel and reports which are reachable.
Legal & ethical use. Use this tool only on systems, networks and data that you own or have explicit written permission to test. Unauthorised access or scanning can break computer-misuse laws (for example Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and equivalents elsewhere). Practise in your own lab or in authorised environments such as CTFs.
What it is used for
- Check a list of servers for reachability
- Scripting uptime checks across a subnet
Key features
- Parallel ICMP probing
- Reads host lists from files
- Script-friendly output
Installation
Install from your distribution (for example `sudo apt install fping`).
Beginner usage guide
Give it a subnet with -g and use -a to print only the alive hosts.
Example commands
Run these only against your own lab or authorised targets. Placeholder addresses such as 192.0.2.x are documentation ranges.
List alive hosts in a lab subnet
fping -a -g 192.168.56.0/24 2>/dev/null-a shows only alive hosts, -g expands the CIDR range, and errors for dead hosts are discarded.
References
Source verification
Last reviewed: 2026-10-27
Links checked over HTTP: 2026-10-27 07:51 UTC — official: 200, docs: 200, repo: 200
Command flags checked against the real binary fping (fping: Version 5.1) on 2026-10-27.