fping – Fast Ping Tool for Multiple Hosts

fping is a high-performance ping utility designed to efficiently ping multiple hosts in parallel. Unlike the traditional ping command that waits for each host to respond before moving to the next, fping sends probes to multiple targets simultaneously, making it ideal for network monitoring, scripting, and quickly checking the availability of many hosts on your network.

Key Features

• Parallel Execution – Ping multiple hosts simultaneously for faster results
• Round-Robin Mode – Continuously ping hosts in rotation
• Scriptable Output – Clean output formats suitable for parsing
• File Input – Read target hosts from a file
• DNS Resolution – Resolve and ping hostnames efficiently
• Customizable Timing – Adjust intervals, timeouts, and retry counts

Installation

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install fping

# RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
sudo dnf install fping

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S fping

Common Usage Examples

# Ping multiple hosts
fping 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.3

# Ping a range
fping -g 192.168.1.0/24

# Generate range with statistics
fping -g -s 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.254

# Read hosts from file
fping -f hosts.txt

# Continuous monitoring
fping -l -p 1000 server1 server2

# Show only alive hosts
fping -a -g 10.0.0.0/24 2>/dev/null

Use Cases

fping is perfect for network discovery scripts, monitoring dashboards, health checking multiple servers, subnet scanning, and any scenario requiring rapid verification of host availability.

Download fping