The ping utility can be useful to test that TCP/IP is installed and configured properly.

Using ping to test the IP layer

Each IP layer has an associated address—for IPv4, this address is a four-integer, dot-separated number (such as 191.72.109.12). Ping takes an IP address as an argument and attempts to send a single packet to the address.

First, determine if your own computer is configured correctly by using the ping utility to detect your computer. If your IP address is 191.72.109.12, you would run the following command and wait to see if the packets are routed at all:

ping 191.72.109.12

If the packets are routed, output similar to the following appears:

Pinging 191.72.109.12 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 191.72.109.12: bytes=32 time<.10ms TTL=32
Reply from 191.72.109.12: bytes=32 time<.10ms TTL=32
Reply from 191.72.109.12: bytes=32 time<.10ms TTL=32
...

This means that the computer is able to route packets to itself. This is reasonable assurance that the IP layer is set up correctly. You could also ask someone else running TCP/IP for their IP address and try using the ping utility to detect their computer.

You should ensure that you can ping the computer running the database server from the client computer before proceeding.

If you are attempting to connect to a host on an IPv6 network, you must first ensure that IPv6 is installed on the client computer. On Windows XP, run the command ipv6 install to install IPv6. IPv6 is installed by default on Windows Vista. Installing IPv6 is different on each Unix operating system; consult the operating system documentation for instructions on enabling IPv6.

Once IPv6 is installed and enabled, you can use the ping6 command to do the same thing as the ping command described above. For example:

ping6 fe80::213:ceff:fe24:ca6

Pinging fe80::213:ceff:fe24:ca6
from fe80::213:ceff:fe24:ca6%6 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from fe80::213:ceff:fe24:ca6%6: bytes=32 time<1ms
Reply from fe80::213:ceff:fe24:ca6%6: bytes=32 time<1ms
Reply from fe80::213:ceff:fe24:ca6%6: bytes=32 time<1ms
...