TELNET & TRACEROUTE commands

PING allows you to know whether a machine is accessible via the internet. With this tool you can also check whether you are addressing the right machine, during a DNS change for example, by looking at the IP address obtained. You can carry out a ping on a domain name, a hostname or an IP address.

TELNET allows you to test the connection to a server irrespective of all the additional rules of a mail client or an FTP client in order to determine the source of a problem. If the connection does not pass via an SMTP server, you will need to check for example whether your firewall is blocking port 587.

Under Mac OS X

1. search for Network utility
2. Go to the Ping tab , Lookup or Traceroute tab, depending on what you want to test
3. You can also use Terminal and in the window which opens, depending on what you want to test, type:

traceroute [serveur] 

nc [serveur] [port] 

Replace [server] with the name of the server or its IP address, the same for [port]

Under Windows (enable Telnet beforehand if necessary)

1. open Run and type cmd
2. In the window that opens, depending on what you want to test, type:

traceroute [serveur]

telnet [serveur] [port]

For example: telnet mail.infomaniak.com 587 (enables you to test the SMTP port if your messaging software does not allow you to send email

Under Android

1. use the free Simple Telnet Client application, which allows you to test very simply via 2 fields to be completed (via mail.infomaniak.com and port 143).

However, if you mainly want to check that your site is correctly online (e.g., the use of scripts to ping the hosting at regular intervals) then you need to use another method (click here).