node-red-node-ping ================== A Node-RED node to ping a remote server, for use as a keep-alive check. Install ------- Either use the Editor - Menu - Manage Palette - Import option or run the following command in your Node-RED user directory - typically `~/.node-red` npm install node-red-node-ping **Gotchas** 1 Ubuntu Snap containers are strict and do not like giving external commands (like ping) external access. To allow ping to work you must manually add the network-observe interface sudo snap connect node-red:network-observe 2 On some versions on Raspbian (Raspberry Pi) `ping` seems to be a root only command. The fix is to allow it as follows sudo setcap cap_net_raw=ep /bin/ping sudo setcap cap_net_raw=ep /bin/ping6 Usage ----- Pings 1 or more devices and returns the trip time in mS as `msg.payload`. Returns boolean `false` if no response received, or if the host is unresolveable. `msg.error` will contain any error message if necessary. `msg.topic` contains the ip address of the target host. There are 2 modes - `Timed` and `Triggered`. * Timed mode - this is the default mode that pings your devices on a timed basis. Default ping is every 20 seconds but can be configured. * Triggered mode - this mode permits you to trigger the ping by an input message. If the `Target` is left blank and `msg.payload` is a string or array, you can ping 1 or more devices on demand. Refer to the built in help on the side-bar info panel for more details.