Using Traceroute Feature in Pinkie More Effectively!

Traceroute is a feature often used in network troubleshooting. Pinkie, as a suite network troubleshooting tools, has this feature well integrated into its One Window, On App user interface and also enable you to execute the trace automatically thus eliminating the manual work and save time.

There are a number of fine enhancements added to Pinkie’s Traceroute feature that you can’t find in other tools:

  • Copy The Host Address: If you want to copy the host address on the Traceroute result, just simply click on the hop and either the IP address or the hostname (depends on your prefence in the Settings menu) will be copied automatically.
  • Manually Start/Stop a Traceroute: Right click on a host in the Workspace, select Traceroute and click on Start/Stop menu item to start/stop the traceroute.
  • Copy Last Hop Address: At times, a network administrator might need to log into the last hop router to troubleshoot network issues. To get the last hop router, just right click the host, select Traceroute then click on Copy Last Hop to Clipboard. Pinkie will figures out the last hop that responded to the traceroute and copy the IP address to the clipboard which can be then pasted into your favorite Telnet or SSH client.
  • Copy Traceroute Result to Clipboard: There will be time when a network administrator needs to send the traceroute result to a third party. This can be done easily in Pinkie’s Traceroute function by right click on the host, select Traceroute then click on Copy Result to Clipboard. The entire traceroute result for that particular host will be copied to the clipboard.
  • Save Traceroute Result to a File: Similar to copy result, sometime, you might just want to save the traceroute result to disk. This can be done by right click on the host, select Traceroute then click on Save to File. A Save As dialog will popup prompting you for the location where you want to save it.

Those are just some basic enhancements of the Traceroute feature in Pinkie. I’ll cover the rest in another Tips & Tricks blog.

With these enhancements, I hope you will not go back to the Command Prompt again to do another manual traceroute.

Best regards,
Brian Dao

Using DNS Feature in Pinkie More Effectively!

DNS is a feature in Pinkie that uses the least amount of system resources. A DNS query happens very fast in a LAN environment. And that’s the reason why I have opted to enable the DNS lookup automatically every time a new host is pinged.

There are a few enhancements added to the DNS lookup in Pinkie that should make your work a little easier compared to the good old Command Prompt.

First off, Pinkie does the lookup automatically in the background. You don’t have to manually type the DNS query in the Command Prompt any more. Then there are the enhancements below:

Copy The IP Address: If you click on any IP address in the DNS result tab, the address will be copied to the clipboard automatically and you can paste it anywhere you like.

Force A DNS Lookup Manually: Right click on the host you to perform a DNS lookup, select DNS then click on Resolve. This will force Pinkie to do a DNS lookup.

Copy DNS Result: Right click on the host you want to copy, select DNS then click on Copy Result To Clipboard. After that you can paste it to another application.

For now, that should be sufficient. In the next release, if time permit, I’ll add some more enhancements that will be particularly useful in a large, enterprise environment.

Hope you enjoy all of these enhancements to DNS. Let me know what you like or like not about them.

Best regards,
Brian Dao

Using Ping Feature More Effectively!

Ping is one of the features of Pinkie that I use extensively as a network admin.  In this blog, I’ll show you how to take advantage of all the extra enhancements that come with Pinkie which you don’t have in the Command Window.

  • Ping Multiple Hosts: Press F1 to bring up the Add Host Address dialog. Enter hosts/IP addresses which can be separated by space, comma, semi-colon, tab or a line feed.
  • Reduce/Increase # of Rows Displayed For Ping Results: By default, Pinkie will show you 4 lines of ping results. This can fill up the window pretty quick if you ping multiple hosts at the same time. To reduce the # of rows, press F3 or increase it by F4.
  • Check Ping Statistics For a Host: Select a host by clicking on it, the status bar at the bottom will change to show the ping statistics for the selected host which includes packets sent/received, lost count & percentage, last ping RTT along with Min, Max & Avg RTTs.
  • Start/Stop a Ping: Right click on the host you want to start/stop pinging, select Ping first menu item in the context menu will change to Start/Stop as appropriate. Clicking on it will stop a ping in progress or start it if it’s not started yet.
  • Reset Ping Statistics: Right click on a host you want to reset statistics, select Ping then click on Reset Statistics.
  • Copy Ping Results: When troubleshooting network or server issues, you might have the need to send the ping result to someone. This can be done by simply right click on the host and select Copy Result to Clipboard. then paste it to an email or wherever you wish.
  • Logging Ping Results to Disk: If you wish to log ping results to a file to analyze later or send it to someone else, right click on the host, select Ping then in the context menu, click on Start Logging or Stop Logging as appropriate. By default, the ping results will be saved in C:\Users\[username]\Documents\ipUptime.net\Pinkie_Logs\. You can change this path in the Settings menu.

That’s not all of the enhancements that come with the Ping feature in Pinkie but it will definitely make you like and use Pinkie more.

If you can come up with a better way to use Ping or wish to have enhancements added to it, please let me know.

Best regards,
Brian Dao

A Fresh New Look

I’ve decided to switch to WordPress and use it as the CMS platform to manage the website. By doing this, I can leverage the CMS to maintain and update the website, giving me more time to focus on the development of Pinkie itself.

The primary reason for this decision basically boils down to time & resource management. For the last six months or so, I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t been able to keep up with all the work that I have in the pipeline for Pinkie. As the result of that, Pinkie’s v2.15 was delayed about 4-5 months.

Hopefully, going forward I can devote more time to develop Pinkie and add more functionality to it.

What do you think of the new website?

Best Regards,
Brian Dao

Download Pinkie v2.15

Pinkie v2.15 is the current release as of May 2012. The older versions are no longer supported and have been removed.

v2.15 is available in both 32 and 64 bit. Please select the appropriate version for your operating system.

Pinkie v2.15

Pinkie has been through over three years of continuous development and improvements. The current version is v2.15. This is the latest and greatest as of May 2012. Below are the changes/bug fixes that have been implemented in this version.

  • Added IPv6 support for Ping, DNS, Traceroute, Subnet Calculator & PortScanner
  • Added Bulk DNS lookup
  • Added input validation for IPv4 & IPv6
  • Added option to use Enter key as new line
  • Added option to edit host list
  • Added option to exclude primary hosts
  • Added option to keep main window on top of other screens
  • Added feedback option
  • Added View menu
  • Added delimiters (comma, semi-colon, space, pipe) for new hosts
  • Added input validation for various input controls
  • Added option to show last notification
  • Added keyboard shortcuts
  • Added Tell a Friend feature
  • Added Comment feature
  • Added link to report bug
  • Added link to request feature
  • Added application icons
  • Fixed keyboard bugs for input fields (up, down, left, right, backspace, delete….)
  • Fixed screen flickering on Ping tab
  • Fixed bug in portscanner when using range of ports
  • Fixed bug in pingsweep where resolving/responding host count doesn’t reset
  • Fixed column formatting when export for pingsweep
  • Fixed split distance when restore to default size (F12)
  • Fixed program still runs in the background if it is closed by user X it out
  • Fixed IPv6 logging issues
  • Fixed dropdown boxes
  • Updated software registration/action process
  • Updated system notification protocol & UI
  • Updated application logo

Pinkie v1.85

Pinkie v1.85 was the next major and stable release. It didn’t get another update for about a year and a half later.

  • Added keyboard shortcuts
  • Added support for 64 bit computers
  • Added implementation of RFC 1350 (TFTP Protocol)
  • Added implementation of RFC 1783 (Block Size Negotiation)
  • Added implementation of RFC 1784 (Timeout & Transfer Size Negotiations)
  • Added logging options to include timestamp, packet sequence number and file extention
  • Added icon to indicate host being pinged
  • Added Labels to hostnames
  • Added /notation to subnet mask
  • Added ability to copy PingSweep result to clipboard
  • Added label to show default ports for PortScanner
  • Updated various default setting values and validations
  • Bug fixes for DNS results copy to clipboard
  • Bug fixes for logging ping & trace results to disk
  • Miscellaneous UI bug fixes

Pinkie v1.25

Pinkie v1.17 was followed by v1.25 a short few weeks later.

  • Miscellaneous UI fixes
  • Bug fix for Ping when Stop All Hosts is clicked
  • Bug fixes for PingSweep
  • Bug fixes for DNS lookup when addresses are not resolved & hosts are deleted
  • Copy IP address when it is clicked on in PingSweep tab
  • Optimized PingSweep procedures
  • Encrypted application settings

Pinkie v1.17

This was Pinkie’s second public release. Introducing the PortScanner for the first time.

  • Bug fixes for PingSweep and Subnet Calculator UI
  • Bug fixes for status bar
  • Bug fix for PingSweep threading
  • Bug fix for copy ping stats to clipboard
  • Migrated application settings to XML file
  • Added saved settings for Traceroute, Subnet Calculator, PingSweep and PortScanner
  • Added option to show/hide binary information for Subnet Calculator
  • Added option to copy host name when its clicked on in the treeview
  • Added option to configure maximum trace hops
  • Added PortScanner

Pinkie v1.08

This was the first public release for Pinkie:

  • Bug fixes for ping & traceroute
  • Bug fix for reverse DNS lookup
  • Added option start/stop pinging all hosts
  • Added ability to copy to clipboard for ping, traceroute & DNS
  • Added logging option for ping
  • Added logging option for traceroute
  • Added menu bar
  • Added status bar
  • Added features to save & restore window size, location & other options
  • Added Subnet Calculator
  • Added Ping Sweep