tcppinglib

TCPPINGLIB

When it comes to measuring the connectivity and latency to web servers on the network level, an alternative method exists, which we call TCP Ping: a ping with special options that mimic the TCP handshake that takes place when an HTTP/HTTPS connection is established.

TCPPingLib is a TCP oriented ping alternative written in pure Python. It is used to test the reachability of a service on a host using TCP/IP and measure the time it takes to connect to the specifed port.

It is not only measuring connection overall time to the web server, but also measuring every steps between start point of a tcpping and connection which are dns lookup time, socket connection time, SSL socket connection time if possible and it also send basic HTTP GET request for the response and measure the response time.

Features

• :love_you_gesture: No Dependency: TcpPingLib is a pure Python implementation of TCP Ping. It has no external dependency.
• :mechanical_leg: IPv6 Support: You can use TcpPingLib with the URLs with IPv6 address. You can also see the all resolved IP addresses for the specified address.
• :rocket: Fast: Developed for best and fastest performance with async functions like async_tcpping, async_multi_tcpping.
• :fire: Built-in Properties: Easily get the necessary information with the built-in models' properties about the TCP Ping which is sent.
• :eyes: Monitor: Determine whether the host is online or not whenever ping is disabled or blocked, measure the latency.
• :hourglass: Certificate Expire: Check the days to certification expire date for the given URL if SSL connection can be established.
• :gem: Modern: This library uses the latest mechanisms offered by Python 3.6/3.7+ and is fully object-oriented.

Installation

• Recommended way to install tcppinglib is to use pip3

  $ pip3 install tcppinglib
  

  Python 3.7 or later is required to use the library.

Usage

Command Line Interface (CLI)

tcppinglib provides a command-line tool tcpping to perform TCP ping operations directly from the terminal. It is a simple and easy-to-use tool that allows you to quickly check the availability of a port on a URL.

CLI Usage

$ tcpping --help
usage: tcpping [-h] [-p PORT] [-t TIMEOUT] [-c COUNT] [-i INTERVAL] address

CLI Arguments

• address

  The IP address or FQDN of the host to ping. You can also specify the port using <ip_address>: format.

  • Type: str

CLI Options

• -p PORT, --port PORT

  The port number to connect to (default: 80). This will be overridden if a port is specified in the address.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 80(HTTP)

• -t TIMEOUT, --timeout TIMEOUT

  The maximum waiting time for receiving a reply in seconds.

  • Type: float
  • Default: 1 seconds

• -c COUNT, --count COUNT

  The number of packets which will be sent to address.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 5

• -i INTERVAL, --interval INTERVAL

  The interval between sending each packet in seconds

  • Type: float
  • Default: 1 seconds

Example

$ tcpping example.com -p 443 -i 2 -t 2 -c 4

TCPPING example.com:443: 4 packets...
Reply from example.com (93.184.215.14) on port 443 tcpping_seq=0 time=78.76 ms
Reply from example.com (93.184.215.14) on port 443 tcpping_seq=1 time=80.52 ms
Reply from example.com (93.184.215.14) on port 443 tcpping_seq=2 time=81.60 ms
Reply from example.com (93.184.215.14) on port 443 tcpping_seq=3 time=84.86 ms
------------------------------------------------------------
  example.com (93.184.215.14)
------------------------------------------------------------
  Packets sent:                           4
  Packets received:                       4
  Packet lost:                            0
  Packet loss:                            0.0%
  min/avg/max/stddev Round-trip times:    78.758 ms / 81.434 ms / 84.864 ms / 2.224 ms
------------------------------------------------------------

tcpping

• Send TCP Ping to a URL.
• Import the function with the below code snippet.

from tcppinglib import tcpping

Function Parameters

tcpping(address, port: int = 80, timeout: float = 2, count: int = 3, interval: float = 3)

• address

  The hostname or FQDN of the host which tcp ping will be sent to.

  • Type: str

• count

  The number of packets which will be sent to address.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 5

• port

  The TCP port number that packets will be sent to.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 80(HTTP)

• timeout

  The maximum waiting time for receiving a reply in seconds.

  • Type: float
  • Default: 2 seconds

• interval

  The interval between sending each packet in seconds

  • Type: float
  • Default: 3 seconds

Return Value

• A TcpHost object will be returned containing with many usefull values about the TCP Ping.
  ip_address, port, packets_sent, packets_received, packet_loss, is_alive, min_rtt, avg_rtt, max_rtt, stddev_rtt

Example

>>> from tcppinglib import tcpping

>>> host = tcpping('www.google.com', interval=1.5)

>>> host.is_alive           # Check whether host is responding
True

>>> host.ip_address         # Resolved ip addresses of the given url
['172.217.17.100']

>>> host.min_rtt            # Minimum round trip time for all process
15.532

>>> host.avg_rtt            # Average round trip time for all process
18.789

>>> host.stddev_rtt         # Standard deviation of round trip time for all process
2.142

>>> host.packet_loss        # Percentage of packet loss
0.0

>>> host.port               # Port number
80

multi_tcpping

• Send TCP Ping to multiple URL.
• Import the function with the below code snippet.

from tcppinglib import multi_tcpping

Function Parameters

multi_tcpping(addresses: list, port: int = 80, timeout: float = 2, count: int = 5, interval: float = 3, concurrent_tasks=50):

• address

  The hostname or FQDN of the host which tcp ping will be sent to.

  • Type: str

• count

  The number of packets which will be sent to address.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 5

• port

  The TCP port number that packets will be sent to.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 80(HTTP)

• timeout

  The maximum waiting time for receiving a reply in seconds.

  • Type: float
  • Default: 2 seconds

• interval

  The interval between sending each packet in seconds

  • Type: float
  • Default: 3 seconds

• concurrent_tasks

  The maximum number of concurrent tasks to speed up processing. This value cannot exceed the maximum number of file descriptors configured on the operating system.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 50

Return Value

• A TcpHost object will be returned containing with many usefull values about the TCP Ping.
  ip_address, port, packets_sent, packets_received, packet_loss, is_alive, min_rtt, avg_rtt, max_rtt, stddev_rtt

Example

>>> from tcppinglib import multi_tcpping

>>> hosts = multi_tcpping(['www.google.com', 'https://www.python.org', 'http://cnn.com'], interval=1.5, concurrent_tasks=20)

>>> [host.is_alive for host in hosts]                               # Check whether hosts are responding respectively
[True, True, True]

>>> [host.avg_rtt for host in hosts]                                # Averate round trip times list for whole process.
[88.602, 279.328, 131.029]

>>> [host.ip_address for host in hosts]                             # Resolved ip addresses list
[['172.217.169.100'], ['151.101.12.223'], ['151.101.193.67', '151.101.65.67', '151.101.1.67', '151.101.129.67']]

>>> [host.port for host in hosts]                                   # Port Number
[80, 80, 80]

async_tcpping

• Send TCP Ping to a URL.
• This function is non-blocking.
• Import the function with the below code snippet.

from tcppinglib import async_tcpping

Function Parameters

async_tcpping(address, port: int = 80, timeout: float = 2, count: int = 5, interval: float = 3)

• address

  The hostname or FQDN of the host which tcp ping will be sent to.

  • Type: str

• count

  The number of packets which will be sent to address.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 5

• port

  The TCP port number that packets will be sent to.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 80(HTTP)

• timeout

  The maximum waiting time for receiving a reply in seconds.

  • Type: float
  • Default: 2 seconds

• interval

  The interval between sending each packet in seconds

  • Type: float
  • Default: 3 seconds

Return Value

• A TcpHost object will be returned containing with many usefull values about the TCP Ping.
  ip_address, port, packets_sent, packets_received, packet_loss, is_alive, min_rtt, avg_rtt, max_rtt, stddev_rtt

Example

>>> import asyncio
>>> from tcppinglib import async_tcpping

>>> async def host_specs(address):
...     host = await async_tcpping(address, count=7, interval=1.5)
...     return host.is_alive, host.avg_rtt, host.packet_loss
...

>>> asyncio.run(host_specs('https://www.google.com'))
(True, 450.629, 0.0)

async_multi_tcpping

• Send TCP Ping to multiple URL.
• This function is non-blocking.
• Import the function with the below code snippet.

from tcppinglib import async_multi_tcpping

Function Parameters

async_multi_tcpping(address, port: int = 80, timeout: float = 2, count: int = 5, interval: float = 3, concurrent_tasks=50)

• address

  The hostname or FQDN of the host which tcp ping will be sent to.

  • Type: str

• count

  The number of packets which will be sent to address.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 5

• port

  The TCP port number that packets will be sent to.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 80(HTTP)

• timeout

  The maximum waiting time for receiving a reply in seconds.

  • Type: float
  • Default: 2 seconds

• interval

  The interval between sending each packet in seconds

  • Type: float
  • Default: 3 seconds

• concurrent_tasks

  The maximum number of concurrent tasks to speed up processing. This value cannot exceed the maximum number of file descriptors configured on the operating system.

  • Type: int
  • Default: 50

Return Value

• A TcpHost object will be returned containing with many usefull values about the TCP Ping.
  ip_address, port, packets_sent, packets_received, packet_loss, is_alive, min_rtt, avg_rtt, max_rtt, stddev_rtt

Example

from tcppinglib import async_multi_tcpping
import asyncio

urls = [
    # FQDNs
    'https://www.google.com',
    'https://www.trendyol.com',
    'cnn.com',

    # IP Addresses
    '1.1.1.1'
    ]

hosts = asyncio.run(async_multi_tcpping(urls, count=7, interval=1.5))

for host in hosts:
    print(host.is_alive, host.avg_rtt_all)

# True 226.72
# True 62.649
# True 93.685
# True 9.165

Contributing

Comments and enhancements are welcome.

All development is done on GitHub. Use Issues to report problems and submit feature requests. Please include a minimal example that reproduces the bug.

License

Copyright 2017-2022 Valentin BELYN.

Code released under the GNU LGPLv3 license. See the LICENSE for details.