Ping via VBA

[Garry Douglas]

Hi

Is it possible to ping a range of local IP addresses in VBA code by looping
through the range using variables to produce a text file which includes the
results?

The range I want to ping is 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

I can create the nested loop command structure to increment the variables
but can't pass them to the ping command.

Extract of the code:

Option Explicit
Dim a,b,c,d,y,z
For y = 0 To 255
For z = 0 To 255
Let a = 192
Let b = 0
Let c = y
Let d = z
Shell ("cmd /c ping a.b.c.d > c:\ping.txt")
Next z
Next y

This results in the following message being pasted to ping.txt:

"Ping request could not find host a.b.c.d. Please check the name and try
again" from which I assume the contents of the variables are not being
passed into the shell command.

Assuming the variables can be passed to the ping command, is it then
possible to append the results of each loop to the text file instead of over
writing it's contents?

The reason I want to do this is that I have a printer with a NIC that I want
to connect to my router and I think the printer has a fixed IP address but I
can't communicate with it and don't want to spend eternity manually pinging
all the addresses in the range until I hit the right one! Unfortunately I
don't have the manual for the NIC and the Kyocera website isn't much help
(not even sure the NIC card is a Kyocera).

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

Garry Douglas

 

[Smallweed]

You've put the variables between the quotes so they're being read literally.
Best to declare a string variable and concatenate:

strPing="cmd /c ping" & a & "." & b & "." etc
Shell (strPing)

Re appending to a text file, I'm a bit rusty on that but VBA help is OK -
try looking up "Write #"

 

[Bob Phillips]

This may help

Dim a As Long, b As Long, c As String
Dim y As Long, z As Long
For y = 0 To 255
For z = 0 To 255
Let a = 192
Let b = 0
c = a & "." & b & "." & y & "." & z
Shell ("cmd /c ping " & c & "> c:\ping.txt")
Next z
Next y


--
---
HTH

Bob


(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

 

[Garry Douglas]

Thanks.

I tried the following:

Str = "192.168." & c & "." & d
Open "TESTFILE" For Output As #1
Write #1, Shell("cmd /c ping " & Str & " > C:\ping2.txt")
Close #1 ' Close file.

Stepping through the code, on the first iteration the routine pasted 2544 in
Testfile, second time round it was 7368.

I'm not sure what these numbers represent but whatever the values are they
do not appear to be appended to the file. I assume that this is because I am
closing and then re-opening the file on each pass.

I looked at Help but it doesn't

Garry

 

[Bob Phillips]

I missed the bit about the text file.

You might consider this alternative approach
http://www.vbaexpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16606&highlight=ping

--
---
HTH

Bob


(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

 

[Helmut Weber]

Hi everybody,

I think, the OP will know by now about numbers and strings
and about how to build the command string for the shell.
Anyway, here is one more elaborate example.
Not the shortest or best way to do it, for sure,
it is just to make it all clear.

Sub MyPing()
Dim a As String
Dim b As String
Dim c As String
Dim d As String
Dim y As Long
Dim z As Long
Dim MyCmd As String

a = "192."
b = "0."
For y = 0 To 255
c = CStr(y)
c = c & "."
For z = 0 To 255
d = CStr(z)
MyCmd = "cmd /c ping " & a & b & c & d & " > c:\test\ping.txt"
' seems to work
MyCmd = "cmd /c ping 99.113.11.8 >> c:\test\ping.txt"
' for testing with an existing IP
' though I've changed the number for the posting ;-)
Shell (MyCmd)
Next z
Next y

End Sub

Like Vista Small Business it set up here,
it is not possible to write into the root directory c:\,
therefore I was writing to c:\test\...

Furthermore, the OP might have to wait until the
shell command has written the textfile.
Google for shellx, xshell, and others, like
http://vb.mvps.org/hardcore/html/usingshell.htm
http://vb.mvps.org/samples/project.asp?id=Shell32

For appending text to a textfile, use ">>".

--

Greetings from Bavaria, Germany

Helmut Weber, MVP WordVBA

Vista Small Business, Office XP

 

[Garry Douglas]

I missed the bit about the text file.

You might consider this alternative approach
http://www.vbaexpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16606&highlight=ping

Thanks. I love the way there is never one absolutely definitive way of
achieving the end result. For a non-programmer this is very reassuring

Garry

 

[Garry Douglas]

Hi everybody,

I think, the OP will know by now about numbers and strings
and about how to build the command string for the shell.
Anyway, here is one more elaborate example.
Not the shortest or best way to do it, for sure,
it is just to make it all clear.

I may have known about numbers and strings once upon a time but it's been
over a year since I wrote any code and my brain has atrophied in the
meantime! I couldn't even remember how to open the Immediate window this
morning.

Like every other muscle, you've got to use it or lose it.

Thanks for the suggestions and the code. I will post back here when I find
the version that works best for me.

Garry

 

[Helmut Weber]

Hi Garry,

from the help:
If the Shell function successfully executes the named file,
it returns the task ID of the started program.
Which doesn't help you much...

I'm not sure what these numbers represent but whatever the values are they
do not appear to be appended to the file.

No, for appending use ">>".
Then you don't have to worry at all,
about "open for", "close", "write", whatsoever.

 

[urkec]

http://www.rlmueller.net/PingComputers.htm

At this link you can find three routines that ping remote computers,
depending on your Windows version. The code is VBScript, but I think it would
be easy to convert it to VBA.