Can I measure PING time between two other computers?

Question

I am investigating a perf issue in the field. Typically, there just isn't enough bandwidth for my app to be speedy. Typically the way it works, is that I ask to Terminal (via VNC or WebEx) into the user's machine, then crank up the command window and run PING to the server to see the latency.

This procedure is pretty time consuming (e.g. sometimes people are not even at their desk, etc...).

Is there a way for me to run PING remotely from the user's machine to the server without ever involving the user?

Or is there a better alternative?

Answer 1

There is a program I have used called Desktop Central Free. It allows you to connect into a remote computer's command prompt and run whatever you want. As long as the machine is up, this tool can help out a lot. It also has many other options/tools that you can do from remote computers without involving other user input.

Answer 2

If the user's machine has a public IP address (it's not behind NAT) you can ping their machine from the server.

Answer 3

I rather like PowerShell's Test-Connection

Test-Connection computerperformance.co.uk 

Source        Destination     IPV4Address      Bytes    Time(ms) 
------        -----------     -----------      -----    -------- 
WIN7          computerperf... 72.26.108.9      32       148      
WIN7          computerperf... 72.26.108.9      32       149      
WIN7          computerperf... 72.26.108.9      32       149      
WIN7          computerperf... 72.26.108.9      32       149    

Naturally you can use a ComputerName instead of a website. I suggest this solution because it gives the time, hence the ability to measure latency.