In Python, is there a way to ping a server through ICMP and return TRUE if the server responds, or FALSE if there is no response?

This function works in any OS (Unix, Linux, macOS, and Windows)
Python 2 and Python 3

EDITS:
By @radato os.system was replaced by subprocess.call. This avoids shell injection vulnerability in cases where your hostname string might not be validated.

import platform    # For getting the operating system name
import subprocess  # For executing a shell command

def ping(host):
    """
    Returns True if host (str) responds to a ping request.
    Remember that a host may not respond to a ping (ICMP) request even if the host name is valid.
    """

    # Option for the number of packets as a function of
    param = '-n' if platform.system().lower()=='windows' else '-c'

    # Building the command. Ex: "ping -c 1 google.com"
    command = ['ping', param, '1', host]

    return subprocess.call(command) == 0

Note that, according to @ikrase on Windows this function will still return True if you get a Destination Host Unreachable error.

Explanation

The command is ping in both Windows and Unix-like systems.
The option -n (Windows) or -c (Unix) controls the number of packets which in this example was set to 1.

platform.system() returns the platform name. Ex. 'Darwin' on macOS.
subprocess.call() performs a system call. Ex. subprocess.call(['ls','-l']).

If you don’t need to support Windows, here’s a really concise way to do it:

import os
hostname = "google.com" #example
response = os.system("ping -c 1 " + hostname)

#and then check the response...
if response == 0:
  print hostname, 'is up!'
else:
  print hostname, 'is down!'

This works because ping returns a non-zero value if the connection fails. (The return value actually differs depending on the network error.) You could also change the ping timeout (in seconds) using the ‘-t’ option. Note, this will output text to the console.

There is a module called pyping that can do this. It can be installed with pip

pip install pyping

It is pretty simple to use, however, when using this module, you need root access due to the fact that it is crafting raw packets under the hood.

import pyping

r = pyping.ping('google.com')

if r.ret_code == 0:
    print("Success")
else:
    print("Failed with {}".format(r.ret_code))

import subprocess
ping_response = subprocess.Popen(["/bin/ping", "-c1", "-w100", "192.168.0.1"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout.read()

For python3 there’s a very simple and convenient python module ping3: (pip install ping3, needs root privileges).

from ping3 import ping, verbose_ping
ping('example.com')  # Returns delay in seconds.
>>> 0.215697261510079666

This module allows for the customization of some parameters as well.

Because I like to have my Python program universal on version 2.7 and 3.x and on platform Linux, Mac OS and Windows, I had to modify the existing examples.

# shebang does not work over all platforms
# ping.py  2016-02-25 Rudolf
# subprocess.call() is preferred to os.system()
# works under Python 2.7 and 3.4
# works under Linux, Mac OS, Windows

def ping(host):
    """
    Returns True if host responds to a ping request
    """
    import subprocess, platform

    # Ping parameters as function of OS
    ping_str = "-n 1" if  platform.system().lower()=="windows" else "-c 1"
    args = "ping " + " " + ping_str + " " + host
    need_sh = False if  platform.system().lower()=="windows" else True

    # Ping
    return subprocess.call(args, shell=need_sh) == 0

# test call
print(ping("192.168.17.142"))

After looking around, I ended up writing my own ping module, which is designed to monitor large numbers of addresses, is asynchronous and doesn’t use a lot of system resources. You can find it here: https://github.com/romana/multi-ping/ It’s Apache licensed, so you can use it in your project in any way you see fit.

The main reasons for implementing my own are the restrictions of the other approaches:

• Many of the solutions mentioned here require an exec out to a command line utility. This is quite inefficient and resource hungry if you need to monitor large numbers of IP addresses.
• Others mention some older python ping modules. I looked at those and in the end, they all had some issue or the other (such as not correctly setting packet IDs) and didn’t handle the ping-ing of large numbers of addresses.

#!/usr/bin/python3

import subprocess as sp

def ipcheck():
    status,result = sp.getstatusoutput("ping -c1 -w2 " + str(pop))
    if status == 0:
        print("System " + str(pop) + " is UP !")
    else:
        print("System " + str(pop) + " is DOWN !")


pop = input("Enter the ip address: ")
ipcheck()

Make Sure pyping is installed or install it pip install pyping

#!/usr/bin/python
import pyping

response = pyping.ping('Your IP')

if response.ret_code == 0:
    print("reachable")
else:
    print("unreachable")

Programmatic ICMP ping is complicated due to the elevated privileges required to send raw ICMP packets, and calling ping binary is ugly. For server monitoring, you can achieve the same result using a technique called TCP ping:

# pip3 install tcping
>>> from tcping import Ping
# Ping(host, port, timeout)
>>> ping = Ping('212.69.63.54', 22, 60)
>>> ping.ping(3)
Connected to 212.69.63.54[:22]: seq=1 time=23.71 ms
Connected to 212.69.63.54[:22]: seq=2 time=24.38 ms
Connected to 212.69.63.54[:22]: seq=3 time=24.00 ms

Internally, this simply establishes a TCP connection to the target server and drops it immediately, measuring time elapsed. This particular implementation is a bit limited in that it doesn’t handle closed ports but for your own servers it works pretty well.

#!/usr/bin/python3

import subprocess as sp

ip = "192.168.122.60"
status,result = sp.getstatusoutput("ping -c1 -w2 " + ip)

if status == 0: 
    print("System " + ip + " is UP !")
else:
    print("System " + ip + " is DOWN !")

I resolve this with:

def ping(self, host):
    res = False

    ping_param = "-n 1" if system_name().lower() == "windows" else "-c 1"

    resultado = os.popen("ping " + ping_param + " " + host).read()

    if "TTL=" in resultado:
        res = True
    return res

“TTL” is the way to know if the ping is correctly. Saludos

My reduction using ideas from answers in this post but only using the newer recommended subprocess module and python3:

import subprocess
import platform

operating_sys = platform.system()
nas = '192.168.0.10'

def ping(ip):
    # ping_command = ['ping', ip, '-n', '1'] instead of ping_command = ['ping', ip, '-n 1'] for Windows
    ping_command = ['ping', ip, '-n', '1'] if operating_sys == 'Windows' else ['ping', ip, '-c 1']
    shell_needed = True if operating_sys == 'Windows' else False

    ping_output = subprocess.run(ping_command,shell=shell_needed,stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    success = ping_output.returncode
    return True if success == 0 else False

out = ping(nas)
print(out)

This script works on Windows, and should work on other OSes : It works on Windows, Debian, and macosx, need a test on solaris.

import os
import platform


def isUp(hostname):

    giveFeedback = False

    if platform.system() == "Windows":
        response = os.system("ping "+hostname+" -n 1")
    else:
        response = os.system("ping -c 1 " + hostname)

    isUpBool = False
    if response == 0:
        if giveFeedback:
            print hostname, 'is up!'
        isUpBool = True
    else:
        if giveFeedback:
            print hostname, 'is down!'

    return isUpBool

print(isUp("example.com")) #Example domain
print(isUp("localhost")) #Your computer
print(isUp("invalid.example.com")) #Unresolvable hostname: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6761
print(isUp("192.168.1.1")) #Pings local router
print(isUp("192.168.1.135")) #Pings a local computer - will differ for your network

I ended up finding this question regarding a similar scenario. I tried out pyping but the example given by Naveen didn’t work for me in Windows under Python 2.7.

An example that worked for me is:

import pyping

response = pyping.send('Your IP')

if response['ret_code'] == 0:
    print("reachable")
else:
    print("unreachable")

Using Multi-ping (pip install multiPing) I made this simple code (simply copy and paste if you will!):

from multiping import MultiPing

def ping(host,n = 0):
    if(n>0):
        avg = 0
        for i in range (n):
            avg += ping(host)
        avg = avg/n
    # Create a MultiPing object to test hosts / addresses
    mp = MultiPing([host])

    # Send the pings to those addresses
    mp.send()

    # With a 1 second timout, wait for responses (may return sooner if all
    # results are received).
    responses, no_responses = mp.receive(1)


    for addr, rtt in responses.items():
        RTT = rtt


    if no_responses:
        # Sending pings once more, but just to those addresses that have not
        # responded, yet.
        mp.send()
        responses, no_responses = mp.receive(1)
        RTT = -1

    return RTT

Usage:

#Getting the latency average (in seconds) of host '192.168.0.123' using 10 samples
ping('192.168.0.123',10)

If you want a single sample, the second parameter “10” can be ignored!

Hope it helps!

My version of a ping function:

• Works on Python 3.5 and later, on Windows and Linux (should work on Mac, but can’t test it).
• On Windows, returns False if the ping command fails with “Destination Host Unreachable”.
• And does not show any output, either as a pop-up window or in command line.

import platform, subprocess

def ping(host_or_ip, packets=1, timeout=1000):
    ''' Calls system "ping" command, returns True if ping succeeds.
    Required parameter: host_or_ip (str, address of host to ping)
    Optional parameters: packets (int, number of retries), timeout (int, ms to wait for response)
    Does not show any output, either as popup window or in command line.
    Python 3.5+, Windows and Linux compatible (Mac not tested, should work)
    '''
    # The ping command is the same for Windows and Linux, except for the "number of packets" flag.
    if platform.system().lower() == 'windows':
        command = ['ping', '-n', str(packets), '-w', str(timeout), host_or_ip]
        # run parameters: capture output, discard error messages, do not show window
        result = subprocess.run(command, stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, creationflags=0x08000000)
        # 0x0800000 is a windows-only Popen flag to specify that a new process will not create a window.
        # On Python 3.7+, you can use a subprocess constant:
        #   result = subprocess.run(command, capture_output=True, creationflags=subprocess.CREATE_NO_WINDOW)
        # On windows 7+, ping returns 0 (ok) when host is not reachable; to be sure host is responding,
        # we search the text "TTL=" on the command output. If it's there, the ping really had a response.
        return result.returncode == 0 and b'TTL=' in result.stdout
    else:
        command = ['ping', '-c', str(packets), '-w', str(timeout), host_or_ip]
        # run parameters: discard output and error messages
        result = subprocess.run(command, stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL, stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL)
        return result.returncode == 0

Feel free to use it as you will.

Seems simple enough, but gave me fits. I kept getting “icmp open socket operation not permitted” or else the solutions would hang up if the server was off line. If, however, what you want to know is that the server is alive and you are running a web server on that server, then curl will do the job. If you have ssh and certificates, then ssh and a simple command will suffice. Here is the code:

from easyprocess import EasyProcess # as root: pip install EasyProcess
def ping(ip):
    ping="ssh %s date;exit"%(ip) # test ssh alive or
    ping="curl -IL %s"%(ip)      # test if http alive
    response=len(EasyProcess(ping).call(timeout=2).stdout)
    return response #integer 0 if no response in 2 seconds

I had similar requirement so i implemented it as shown below. It is tested on Windows 64 bit and Linux.

import subprocess
def systemCommand(Command):
    Output = ""
    Error = ""     
    try:
        Output = subprocess.check_output(Command,stderr = subprocess.STDOUT,shell='True')
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        #Invalid command raises this exception
        Error =  e.output 

    if Output:
        Stdout = Output.split("\n")
    else:
        Stdout = []
    if Error:
        Stderr = Error.split("\n")
    else:
        Stderr = []

    return (Stdout,Stderr)

#in main
Host = "ip to ping"
NoOfPackets = 2
Timeout = 5000 #in milliseconds
#Command for windows
Command = 'ping -n {0} -w {1} {2}'.format(NoOfPackets,Timeout,Host)
#Command for linux 
#Command = 'ping -c {0} -w {1} {2}'.format(NoOfPackets,Timeout,Host)
Stdout,Stderr = systemCommand(Command)
if Stdout:
   print("Host [{}] is reachable.".format(Host))
else:
   print("Host [{}] is unreachable.".format(Host))

When IP is not reachable subprocess.check_output() raises an exception. Extra verification can be done by extracting information from output line ‘Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss)’.

Here’s a solution using Python’s subprocess module and the ping CLI tool provided by the underlying OS. Tested on Windows and Linux. Support setting a network timeout. Doesn’t need root privileges (at least on Windows and Linux).

import platform
import subprocess

def ping(host, network_timeout=3):
    """Send a ping packet to the specified host, using the system "ping" command."""
    args = [
        'ping'
    ]

    platform_os = platform.system().lower()

    if platform_os == 'windows':
        args.extend(['-n', '1'])
        args.extend(['-w', str(network_timeout * 1000)])
    elif platform_os in ('linux', 'darwin'):
        args.extend(['-c', '1'])
        args.extend(['-W', str(network_timeout)])
    else:
        raise NotImplemented('Unsupported OS: {}'.format(platform_os))

    args.append(host)

    try:
        if platform_os == 'windows':
            output = subprocess.run(args, check=True, universal_newlines=True).stdout

            if output and 'TTL' not in output:
                return False
        else:
            subprocess.run(args, check=True)

        return True
    except (subprocess.CalledProcessError, subprocess.TimeoutExpired):
        return False

Use this it’s tested on python 2.7 and works fine it returns ping time in milliseconds if success and return False on fail.

import platform,subproccess,re
def Ping(hostname,timeout):
    if platform.system() == "Windows":
        command="ping "+hostname+" -n 1 -w "+str(timeout*1000)
    else:
        command="ping -i "+str(timeout)+" -c 1 " + hostname
    proccess = subprocess.Popen(command, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    matches=re.match('.*time=([0-9]+)ms.*', proccess.stdout.read(),re.DOTALL)
    if matches:
        return matches.group(1)
    else: 
        return False

One thing a lot of the answers miss is that (at least in Windows) the ping command returns 0 (indicating success) if it receives the reply “Destination host unreachable.”

Here is my code that checks if b'TTL=' is in the response, since that is only present when the ping reached the host. Note: Most of this code is based on the other answers here.

import platform
import subprocess

def ping(ipAddr, timeout=100):
    '''
    Send a ping packet to the specified host, using the system ping command.
    Accepts ipAddr as string for the ping destination.
    Accepts timeout in ms for the ping timeout.
    Returns True if ping succeeds otherwise Returns False.
        Ping succeeds if it returns 0 and the output includes b'TTL='
    '''
    if platform.system().lower() == 'windows':
        numFlag = '-n'
    else:
        numFlag = '-c'
    completedPing = subprocess.run(['ping', numFlag, '1', '-w', str(timeout), ipAddr],
                                   stdout=subprocess.PIPE,    # Capture standard out
                                   stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)  # Capture standard error
    # print(completedPing.stdout)
    return (completedPing.returncode == 0) and (b'TTL=' in completedPing.stdout)

print(ping('google.com'))

Note: This captures the output instead of printing it, so if you want to see the output of ping, you’ll need to print completedPing.stdout before returning.

WINDOWS ONLY – Can’t believe no-ones cracked open Win32_PingStatus Using a simple WMI query we return an object full of really detailed info for free

import wmi


# new WMI object
c = wmi.WMI()

# here is where the ping actually is triggered
x = c.Win32_PingStatus(Address='google.com')

# how big is this thing? - 1 element
print 'length x: ' ,len(x)


#lets look at the object 'WMI Object:\n'
print x


#print out the whole returned object
# only x[0] element has values in it
print '\nPrint Whole Object - can directly reference the field names:\n'
for i in x:
    print i



#just a single field in the object - Method 1
print 'Method 1 ( i is actually x[0] ) :'
for i in x:
    print 'Response:\t', i.ResponseTime, 'ms'
    print 'TTL:\t', i.TimeToLive


#or better yet directly access the field you want
print '\npinged ', x[0].ProtocolAddress, ' and got reply in ', x[0].ResponseTime, 'ms'

sample output

My take borrowing from other answers. Attempt to simplify and minimize queries.

import platform, os

def ping(host):
    result = os.popen(' '.join(("ping", ping.param, host))).read()
    return 'TTL=' in result

ping.param = "-n 1" if platform.system().lower() == "windows" else "-c 1"

I needed a faster ping sweep and I didn’t want to use any external libraries, so I resolved to using concurrency using built-in asyncio.

This code requires python 3.7+ and is made and tested on Linux only. It won’t work on Windows but I am sure you can easily change it to work on Windows.

I ain’t an expert with asyncio but I used this great article Speed Up Your Python Program With Concurrency and I came up with these lines of codes. I tried to make it as simple as possible, so most likely you will need to add more code to it to suit your needs.

It doesn’t return true or false, I thought it would be more convenient just to make it print the IP that responds to a ping request. I think it is pretty fast, pinging 255 ips in nearly 10 seconds.

#!/usr/bin/python3

import asyncio

async def ping(host):
    """
    Prints the hosts that respond to ping request
    """
    ping_process = await asyncio.create_subprocess_shell("ping -c 1 " + host + " > /dev/null 2>&1")
    await ping_process.wait()

    if ping_process.returncode == 0:
        print(host)
    return 


async def ping_all():
    tasks = []

    for i in range(1,255):
        ip = "192.168.1.{}".format(i)
        task = asyncio.ensure_future(ping(ip))
        tasks.append(task)

    await asyncio.gather(*tasks, return_exceptions = True)

asyncio.run(ping_all())

Sample output:

192.168.1.1
192.168.1.3
192.168.1.102
192.168.1.106
192.168.1.6

Note that the IPs are not in order, as the IP is printed as soon it replies, so the one that responds first gets printed first.

  1 #!/usr/bin/python
  2
  3 import os
  4 import sys
  5 import time
  6
  7 os.system("clear")
  8 home_network = "172.16.23."
  9 mine = []
 10
 11 for i in range(1, 256):
 12         z =  home_network + str(i)
 13         result = os.system("ping -c 1 "+ str(z))
 14         os.system("clear")
 15         if result == 0:
 16                 mine.append(z)
 17
 18 for j in mine:
 19         print "host ", j ," is up"

A simple one i just cooked up in a minute..using icmplib needs root privs the below works pretty good! HTH