Hello there,
I've a question regarding failed Tcp - ping while on VPN (using PingPlotter).

I am using PingPlotter to determin latency to gameserver in Frakfurt, Germany, due to ICMP block I am forced to use TCP-Ping on port 10100 (game client). I can ping using both ICMP without and with VPN with same results i.e. it tries to reach destination, but fails, because of ICMP block.
With TCP it's another story, I can successfully ping it without VPN, but with VPN I fail to even begin the trace.
First thing I did, was question the VPN support (About ICMP and TCP ping), their answer was as follows


Now I am not super-tech-savy, so maybe I failed to turn on/off some option/s in PingPlotter.

Attaching files with ICMP/TCP with and without VPN (with options displayed)

Help please.

Hey Samyaza,

Thanks for writing in. That's a great question!

TCP requires WinPcap to work, and typically VPN's don't like to play nicely with WinPcap. You can read more about that in this article (specifically question 5):

https://www.winpcap.org/misc/faq.htm#Q-5

You can ping using TCP on a VPN, but traceroute is a different story, because without WinPcap, PingPlotter cannot separate the hops.

You may want to try using UDP to see if that gets a response.

I hope this helps. If you need any other help with this or anything else, feel free to write us back at any time.

Cheers!

-Phillip

Oh thanks for reply, that surely explains it. Unfortunately UDP doesn't work (well works like ICMP - it doesn't reach the last hop).

Simple question, can I do simple TCP ping with pingplotter, or does it do "only" complete trace?

Thanks a lot.

There is not a way to do a simple and direct ping with TCP using PingPlotter (sorry).

We do, however, have a plug-in for PingPlotter Pro (PingPlotter Pro is required - Standard won't do it) that does TCP connects on a port - it negotiates through the TCP handshake (a "TCP Connect"), which is a generic test for server responsiveness. The TCP handshake is a little bit more than a ping, but it will give you responsiveness results.

If you're interested, you can download this script here:

http://www.pingplotter.com/beta/TCP%20Connect.zip

To install this script, you'll want to extract the contents of the zip file into your scripts directory (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\PingPlotter\Scripts), and then close and relaunch the program. Once you've relaunched the program, you'll want to set up a new named configuration (which we cover in more detail here):

http://www.pingplotter.com/manual/named_configurations.html

and set the "packet type" to "TCP connect" (and you'll have the ability to choose which port you'd like to target from there).

Go ahead and try this and let me know where this leaves you.

Cheers!

-Phillip

Seems like the connection is refused when using this TCP connect plugin. This is without VPN btw. I assume it won't work with VPN if it doesn't work without it.

I am kind of confused, since the normal trace works without VPN and this one doesn't, unless I have failed at setting it up, but it's the same IP and same port I've used before.

*edit forgot to add file

It seems like the target you are trying to reach is refusing a TCP Connection (handshake). While it may be responsive to a TCP ping, the TCP Connect script actually initiates a conversation with the target (which is what is being refused). You may want to attempt to trace to a target that you know is responsive to TCP conversations (i.e. PingPlotter.com using port 80) to ensure the script is working correctly.

Unfortunately, at this time, we don't have any other options available for you. I am going to submit this to our team to attempt to resolve for a future point release.

Ok, thanks a lot for help and Happy New year.

*edit Forgot to tell, that the script indeed works can ping google.com on P80.