network_ping
Check if a host is reachable and measure its round-trip latency using ICMP ping or HTTP probe. Reports average ping time, TTL, or HTTP response status and time.
Instructions
Ping Host (ICMP/HTTP Reachability). Measure reachability and round-trip latency to a single host. Prefers a registered remote worker that runs a real ICMP ping (system ping -c, method remote_icmp) and returns average time, TTL, and full raw_output; if no worker is available it falls back to an HTTP HEAD/GET reachability probe (method HTTP simulation) that reports HTTP response time and status_code instead of true ICMP. Use this to confirm a host is up and gauge latency to ONE target. Use network_traceroute instead to see the per-hop path, network_website_status_checker to validate an HTTP(S) URL response/status, network_dns to resolve names to records, or networking_network_latency_calculator for offline RTT/jitter statistics. target may be a hostname or IPv4/IPv6 address (no scheme/path); private, reserved, and loopback addresses are rejected (SSRF guard, re-checked after DNS resolution). Performs an OUTBOUND network probe to the target, so results vary between calls and are not idempotent; it never modifies
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| target | Yes | Hostname or IPv4/IPv6 address to ping, e.g. 8.8.8.8 or example.com. No scheme or path. Private, reserved, and loopback addresses are rejected. | |
| packet | No | Number of ICMP echo packets to send on the remote-worker path; the reported time is the average across replies. Ignored by the HTTP fallback, which always issues one request. | |
| worker_id | No | Optional registered healthy worker peer ID. Omit to use the default master-server behavior. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| success | No | True when the host responded (ICMP exit code 0, or a completed HTTP request). | |
| target | No | The hostname or IP that was pinged, echoed from the request. | |
| host | No | Host that answered: the target hostname on the worker path, or the resolved public IP on the HTTP fallback path. | |
| packet | No | Number of packets sent (worker path) or 1 (HTTP fallback). | |
| time | No | Round-trip time in milliseconds: average ICMP reply time on the worker path, or total HTTP response time on the fallback. Null when no reply was received. | |
| ttl | No | Time To Live from the reply (parsed from ICMP on the worker path; defaulted to 64 on the HTTP fallback). | |
| method | No | Which mechanism produced the result: remote_icmp for a real ICMP ping via a worker, or HTTP simulation for the HTTP reachability fallback. | |
| raw_output | No | Full raw text output of the system ping command. Present only on the remote_icmp worker path. | |
| bytes | No | Payload size in bytes (fixed 32). Present only on the HTTP simulation fallback path. | |
| status_code | No | HTTP status code returned by the reachability probe. Present only on the HTTP simulation fallback path. | |
| timestamp | No | ISO 8601 timestamp of when the ping completed. |