It's true. I just tested it and it works on Linux too.

I'll time them both and see if I can get below the 500 ms that upset Karl so much. I think we should try to eliminate the interference of Solar Flares.

Hi Guys,

Well here are the timings (the code is at the bottom for you to critique):

It is using a mobile router from three.com, so it may be less stable than a fibre optic connection.

1) Here is a straight ping at t the command prompt (Range 75-400 ms):

PING www.google.com (173.194.34.146) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=1 t
+tl=55 time=394 ms
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=2 t
+tl=55 time=332 ms
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=3 t
+tl=55 time=362 ms
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=4 t
+tl=55 time=276 ms
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=5 t
+tl=55 time=92.4 ms
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=6 t
+tl=55 time=219 ms
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=7 t
+tl=55 time=116 ms
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=8 t
+tl=55 time=265 ms
64 bytes from lhr14s21-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.34.146): icmp_seq=9 t
+tl=55 time=75.9 ms
^C
[download]

using Net::Ping  (Range 500-1000 ms)
1031.06737136841 ms
729.610681533813 ms
1004.48346138 ms
775.990009307861 ms
600.036859512329 ms
589.807271957397 ms
754.30154800415 ms
605.571508407593 ms
560.036897659302 ms
782.053709030151 ms
using Net::Ping::External (Range 400-800 ms)
791.388988494873 ms
570.100784301758 ms
687.773942947388 ms
402.096509933472 ms
430.928707122803 ms
398.749589920044 ms
712.586641311646 ms
837.354421615601 ms
560.385465621948 ms
650.154113769531 ms
[download]

3) Here is the program:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Time::HiRes qw( usleep ualarm gettimeofday tv_interval nanosleep
                    clock_gettime clock_getres clock_nanosleep clock
                    stat lstat );
use strict;
use warnings;
use Net::Ping;


print "using Net::Ping\n";
my $p = Net::Ping->new("tcp", 2);

$p->port_number(80);
my $basetime = clock_gettime();
my $realtime = clock_gettime();
my $roundtrip = ($realtime-$basetime) * 1000;
for (my $i=1; $i<=10 ; $i++){
    if ($p->ping("www.google.com")) {
        $realtime = clock_gettime();
        $roundtrip = ($realtime-$basetime) * 1000;
        print  $roundtrip," ms\n";
    } else {
        print "Host is not reachable\n";
    }
    $basetime = clock_gettime();
}


use Net::Ping::External qw(ping);

print "using Net::Ping::External\n";
#my $p = Net::Ping->new("tcp", 2);

#$p->port_number(80);
    $basetime = clock_gettime();
    $realtime = clock_gettime();
    $roundtrip = ($realtime-$basetime) * 1000;
    for (my $i=1; $i<=10 ; $i++){
        if (ping(host => "www.google.com")) {
            $realtime = clock_gettime();
            $roundtrip = ($realtime-$basetime) * 1000;
            print  $roundtrip," ms\n";
        } else {
            print "Host is not reachable\n";
        }
        $basetime = clock_gettime();
    }
[download]

I'm interested in your opinions.

Actually everything takes too long. Rather than doing it synchronously, I'm thinking of setting a global variable which I set from a background loop every ten seconds. That way the information is recent, but i don't need to wait for it.

Then I'll check the variable not the ping.

Regards

Steve