Python Parallel Ping Request Using httpbin and ICMP Ping (Quick Example)   

A simple way to “ping” a server in Python is by sending an HTTP request and checking the response. While this is not an ICMP ping, it’s often more practical for verifying that a web service is reachable.

For ICMP ping in Python we are going to use package: Python package ping3 available in Github

The httpbin service is ideal for testing HTTP requests.

Basic HTTP Request Example

import requests

url = "https://httpbin.org/get"

try:
    response = requests.get(url, timeout=3)
    if response.status_code == 200:
        print("Server is reachable")
    else:
        print("Server responded with status:", response.status_code)
except requests.RequestException:
    print("Server is not reachable")

Parallel Ping and Requests in Python

The code below will run multiple requests in parallel. The input is simple dataframe:

The code:

import pandas as pd
import multiprocessing as mp
from ping3 import ping
import requests
import json

df = pd.DataFrame({'rank': [1,2], 'site': ['https://google.com', 'https://yahoo.com'], 'netloc': ['google.com', 'yahoo.com'] })

pool = mp.Pool(processes=mp.cpu_count())

def func( arg ):
    idx,row = arg
    site = row['site']
    netloc = row['netloc']
    out1 = ping(netloc)
    out2 = json.loads(requests.get('https://httpbin.org/anything').text)
    ip_resolved = out2.get('origin')
    output = {'light': out1, 'full': out2, 'ip_resolved': ip_resolved, 'netloc': netloc}
    return output

with mp.Pool(mp.cpu_count()) as pool:
    langs = pool.map( func, [(idx,row) for idx,row in df[['site', 'netloc']].iterrows()])
    df_out = pd.DataFrame(langs)
    df_out
    print(df_out.to_markdown())
    df_out.to_csv('output.csv', index=False)

the ouput file will be something like:

Run Ping command on Linux

You may get error:

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied

if you run command Python package ping3 in Linux.

Solution 1

Follow the instruction in this page: TROUBLESHOOTING.md

Solution 2

Run the script as sudo:

sudo /home/user/anaconda3/bin/python test.py

You may need to locate your python installation by:

$ which python

result

/home/user/anaconda3/bin/python

Check this article: How to Run a Python Script as Root - Linux + Windows

Ping with os.system

We can also do ping by using the os.system:

import os
hostname = "google.com"
response = os.system(f"ping {hostname}")
response

Result is:

PING google.com (142.251.142.110) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from lcsofa-an-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.142.110): icmp_seq=1 ttl=119 time=2.05 ms
64 bytes from lcsofa-an-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.142.110): icmp_seq=2 ttl=119 time=1.88 ms
64 bytes from lcsofa-an-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.142.110): icmp_seq=3 ttl=119 time=2.33 ms
64 bytes from lcsofa-an-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.142.110): icmp_seq=4 ttl=119 time=1.99 ms
64 bytes from lcsofa-an-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.142.110): icmp_seq=5 ttl=119 time=1.88 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4005ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.879/2.025/2.326/0.163 ms
2

How to ICMP ping in Python?

ICMP ping is a network diagnostic tool that uses the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) to test the reachability of a host on a network. It sends an ICMP Echo Request to the target device and waits for an ICMP Echo Reply, helping to determine if the device is reachable and measure the round-trip time for the packets.

Why Use HTTP Ping?

• Works even when ICMP ping is blocked
• Confirms both network and service availability
• Useful for monitoring APIs and web services

This approach is commonly used in health checks, monitoring scripts, and automation workflows where HTTP availability matters more than raw network reachability.