ping uses icmp. icmp does not have port numbers. icmp is a host-to- host protocol for managing the flow of packets and reporting errors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICMP_Echo_Request describes the outgoing "ping packet", but is probably too low-level to be useful.
Port numbers are used in UDP and TCP. The port scanning program will not help you with ping. UDP and TCP have port numbers because they are application-to-application protocols and use the port number to identify the target application. I checked the index of "Foundations of Python Network Programming" and did not see entries for icmp or ping. I have not noticed icmp support in the Python libraries. -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor