(2) Problems:

1. If I try to ping using a host name I get a msg stating, "Couldn't resolve host name". The only way I can get it to plot anything is to use an IP address. Why?

2. I am trying to ping IP 216.109.117.107 which should be yahoo.com. There are (14) Hops. The first (13) Hops show 100% packect loss. The first (13) hops do not display IP address or DNSName. Why?

1) PingPlotter uses standard DNS lookup Windows API calls to resolve names into IPs. Make sure you're entering the names plain - without any additional protocol specifiers or slashes or colons. Try using just www.nessoft.com. If you've already tried that, are you having any problems with your DNS servers / service? Maybe it's a temporary problem. I had some problems with my DSL provider's DNS service last week, and I've also had instances where my VPN software would mess with the DNS server settings and cause problems. In general, if you can go to a command line and ping a server, then PingPlotter should work as well (ie: if "ping www.nessoft.com" works, then entering "www.nessoft.com" in PingPlotter should work too - no quotes, of course).

2) Some routers block ICMP TTL Expired packets. Have a look here for more details:

http://www.nessoft.com/kb/29

- Pete

If you're an AT&T customer (or a customer that uses AT&T DNS like CableOne), the DNS has been really flaky lately. Yesterday and this morning it was almost as bad as it was when they absorbed all those [email]Excite@Home[/email] customers back in 2001.