4 Tools description

CheckWWW includes Ping , Whois , Traceroute , TimeSync , Location , LookUp , and Finger tools.

4.1 Ping (Packet Inter-Network Groper)

This classic tool helps you to detect remote computer's or host's activity.

The Ping tool and is useful for

• Determining the status of the network and various foreign hosts
• Tracking and isolating hardware and software problems
• Testing, measuring, and managing networks

Just type host's domain name or IP address and presss <GO>. As result you will see is host alive or not.

4.1.1 Ping preferences

Attempts quantity - quantity of ping packets Attempt delay - delay in seconds between sending pings Packet size - size of data in one ping packet Wait reply - how long to wait reply from each ping packet

4.2 Whois (Who is)

Whois is the aptly named Internet function that allows one to query remote Whois databases for domain registration information. By performing a simple Whois search you can discover when and by whom a domain was registered, contact information, and more.

Using this tool you can access to Whois database of almost any top-level domain and receive public information about the domain owners (names, addresses, phones, emails), domain technicians, registration/expiring dates, Registrar info domain, domain DNS servers and so on.

It is generally known that the Whois servers is not worldwide distributed, e.g. like Domain Name Servers. In other words domain name ABCD.ORG can be ”WHOISed” by zone's *.COM whois server only (however, new RWHOIS service can solve this problem). Therefore, the user MUST send ABCD.ORG request to the zone's *.ORG whois server. There are hundreds of different whois servers around the world. CheckWWW have a local database of all existing whois servers from the whole world and can retrieve whois information from any domain zone.

In the Whois preferences you can write your own custom Whois server which will resolve your requests. In the Whois preferences you can also set request PREFIX and request POSTFIX. These symbols will be added to the beginning and to the end of your request correspondingly. These can be special options which you want to send to the Whois server. Usually the Whois server displays these command options which it supports after every request. For example, CheckWWW option Ignore Japan hieroglyphs just adding /e POSTFIX for every request to Japan Whois servers.

You can use domain name (without WWW prefix) or IP address as target which you want to Whois .

4.2.1 Whois preferences

Ignore japan hierogliphs - just add "/e" suffix when accessing to Japan WHOIS servers Use custom WHOIS server - type here your own WHOIS server name Request prefix - prefix (command) which will be added to start of request Request suffix - suffix (command) which will be added to end of request Update Servers List button - Update database of WHOIS servers

4.3 Trace

Traceroute or just Trace is often used for network troubleshooting. By showing a list of routers traversed, it allows the user to identify the path taken to reach a particular destination on the network. This can help identify routing problems or firewalls that may be blocking access to a site. Traceroute is also used by penetration testers to gather information about network infrastructure and IP ranges around a given host. It can also be used when downloading data, as if there are multiple mirrors available for the same piece of data, one can trace each mirror to get a good idea of which mirror would be the fastest to use.

With the help of this utility you can trace route to any host in the internet. CheckWWW have implemented three different Traceroute methods because some hosts and routers support one trace method but do not support another.

1. ICMP echo trace. If you choosed this method then to target host sending out an echo packet with a TTL (Time To Live) of 1, the first hop sends back an ICMP error message indicating that the packet could not be forwarded because the TTL expired. Then the packet is resent with a TTL of 2, and the second hop returns the TTL expired again and so on.
2. IP protocol Record route option. This is very old Internet option. The record route option simply causes intermediate routers to record their address as the datagram passes through. Only 9 IP addresses can be written to the datagram. Not all routers support this option. Dont forget that as a result you will see a packet way there and back. And this way can be differrent because routers have two different IP addresses, one for incoming packets and another one for the outgoing packets.
3. Using UDP protocol. Same as 1) but attempting to trace the route by UDP packets with non-existent port (By default - 33434, but may be changed in Traceroute preferences).

Starting send probes with a TTL of one and increase by one until received ICMP error Port unreachable (which means host is reached) or hit a max (which defaults to 24 hops and can be changed with the Traceroute preferences). Three probes (this can be changed in Traceroute preferences) are sent at each TTL setting and a line is printed showing the TTL, address of the intermediate router and round trip time of probe. If there is no response within a 5 sec timeout interval (can be changed in Traceroute preferences), a * is printed for that probe.

The host can be reached by one method but can be unreachable by another one. It is depend on host security policy. For example, server MIT.EDU can be reached by any methods. Another host MICROSOFT.COM unreachable by any method.

You can use the domain name or IP address as target which you want to trace.

See RFC 1393 for detailed info.

4.3.1 Trace preferences

Maximum hops - maximum TTL parameter in sending packets Router answer timeout, sec - maximum wait time for router answer Max attempts for router - if router is not answer it is a maximum number of resending attempts Resolve IP address - Provide DNS resolving based on router IP address (this option slowing-down Traceroute process) Use ICMP echo - use ICMP echo packets Use IP protocol RR option - use IP protocol Record Route option (archaic) Use UDP packets - use UDP protocol. In this case you may change default (33434) destination port to your own port (Not recommended)

4.4 LookUp

Looking host IP address according to domain name and vice versa. You can use the domain name or IP address as target which you want to Look Up.

4.4.1 LookUp preferences

Get domain mail servers - Extract from the net information about mail servers which current host using.

4.5 Finger

The information provided by the finger server depends on the server's configuration. This information can include user IDs and user names, home directory, login time, last time they received mail, and last time they read mail, user's address and phone etc. Just write in the request field the name and server in the following format: ”smith@mit.edu”. Where ”smith” is the name of the person you wish to find, ”mit.edu” is the server you think this person is registered.

As a result you can view all ”Smiths” which are registered at the server. Search ”Smith” as you need, and search for string ”Alias - Z_Smith2” and query finger server again with string ”Z_Smith2@mit.edu”. After that you will receive detailed information about this person with full address and phone numbers. There are some few servers support this useful service. Mainly it is a university servers (e.g. MIT.EDU, UDEL.EDU and other)

See RFC 742, 1288 for detailed info.

4.6 Time synchronization

Using TimeSync tool you can easily synchronize your PDA clock with time net servers around the world.

Just type time server name or IP address and press <GO>. Also you can use blank address as address of net time server. In this case time server will be picked from Time preferences. For time requests is Network Time Protocol used (NTP). If you set Adjust time after server response checkbox in Time preferences then after the request, your PDA time will be synchronized with the server time.

The response from server contain server IP address and difference in seconds between PDA time and server time. Also the response contain a server STRATUM. The stratum is a measure for synchronization distance. Basically (and from the perspective from a client) it is the number of servers to a reference clock. So a reference clock itself appears at stratum 0, while the closest to reference clock servers are at stratum 1. Closest to stratum 1 servers are stratum 2 servers and so on.

A stratum 1 servers belongs to the class of best NTP servers available, because it has a reference clock attached to it. As accurate reference clocks are expensive, only rather few of these servers are publically available. A stratum 1 server should not only have a precise and well-maintained and calibrated reference clock, but also should be highly available as other systems may rely on its time service. Maybe that's the reason why not every NTP server with a reference clock is publically available. The list of all well-known stratum 1 servers you can see here

All stratum 1 servers marked by reference identifier, e.g. GPS, ATOM and so on. This identifier unambiguously points to source of time. See the table bellow for possible reference identifiers.

CODE	What this code mean
ACTS	Automated Computer Time Service. Dialup modem service from NIST.GOV domain
ATOM	Atomic clock calibrated to national standards
CHU	Ottawa (Canada) Radio 3330, 7335, 14670 kHz
DCF	Mainflingen (Germany) Radio 77.5 kHz
DTSS	Digital Time Synchronization Service
GOES	Geostationary Orbit Environment Satellite
GPS	Global Positioning Service
LOCL	Uncalibrated local clock used as a primary reference for a subnet without external means of synchronization
LORC	LORAN-C radionavigation system
MSF	Rugby (UK) Radio 60 kHz
OMEG	OMEGA radionavigation system
PPS	Pulse-per-second source individually calibrated to national standards
PTB	PTB (Germany) modem service
TDF	Allouis (France) Radio 164 kHz
TIME	UDP/Time protocol
TSP	Unix Time Service Protocol
USNO	USNO modem service
WWV	Ft. Collins (US) Radio 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 MHz
WWVB	Boulder (US) Radio 60 kHz
WWVH	Kaui Hawaii (US) Radio 2.5, 5, 10, 15 MHz

4.6.1 Time preferences

Adjust time after server response - Adjust PDA time after receiving online clock response Show server info - Show detailed server information (e.g. server name, server clock precision, last server clock correction and so on) Time server - Default time server to synchronize Protocol version - version of the net time protocol. It is not recommended to use v.1.0 and v.2.0. Most Internet time servers support v.3.0 and v.4.0.

4.7 IP to Location Translation

Using this tool you can determine geographical coordinates, city, region, and country of the any server or the any user of the Internet. Do you want to know where your business partner's servers stay ? It's simple! Just enter IP address or domain name and push <GO>.

You can use the domain name or IP address of the host for extracting all geographic info about server.

Accuracy of this tool - approximately 97% on a country level and 60% on a city level.

This product includes GeoData created by MaxMind, this data available from http://www.maxmind.com.

4.7.1 IP2Location preferences

Apply router location for TRACE - get router physical Location info about each router for TRACE service (this option slowing-down trace process) Apply server location for WHOIS - get domain geographical location info after each WHOIS request Find server location country - get host Location country (uncheck if you dont need to know host country) Find server location region - get host Location region (uncheck if you dont need to know host region) Find server location city - get host Location city (uncheck if you dont need to know host city) Find server location coordinates - get host Location coordinates (uncheck if you dont need to know host coordinates) Find server location timezone - get host Location timezone (uncheck if you dont need to know host timezone)

4.8 General preferences

Enable parsing engine - apply parsing and coloring engine for output. Can be used with all Treo devices, Tungsten X, and LifeDrive devices only. After the parsing process, phones, e-mails, HTTP addresses, and error messages will have different colors and default application will run after stylus tapping (Phone app for phone number, E-mail app for e-mail and Internet browser for Internet address). Disable auto-off during TRACE - disable auto-off timer when the TRACE process is running. Global net timeout - If you frequently get ”Net timeout” error try to increase this value.