Ethernet Options

In most cases Nping sends packets at the raw IP level. This means that Nping creates its own IP packets and transmits them through a raw socket. However, in some cases it may be necessary to send packets at the raw Ethernet level. This happens, for example, when Nping is run under Windows (as Microsoft has disabled raw socket support since Windows XP SP2), or when Nping is asked to send ARP packets. Since in some cases it is necessary to construct ethernet frames, Nping offers some options to manipulate the different fields.

--dest-mac <mac> (Ethernet Destination MAC Address): This option sets the destination MAC address that should be set in outgoing Ethernet frames. This is useful in case Nping can't determine the next hop's MAC address or when you want to route probes through a router other than the configured default gateway. The MAC address should have the usual format of six colon-separated bytes, e.g. 00:50:56:d4:01:98. Alternatively, hyphens may be used instead of colons. Use the word random or rand to generate a random address, and broadcast or bcast to use ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff. If you set up a bogus destination MAC address your probes may not reach the intended targets.
--source-mac <mac> (Ethernet Source MAC Address): This option sets the source MAC address that should be set in outgoing Ethernet frames. This is useful in case Nping can't determine your network interface MAC address or when you want to inject traffic into the network while hiding your network card's real address. The syntax is the same as for --dest-mac. If you set up a bogus source MAC address you may not receive probe replies.
--ether-type <type> (Ethertype): This option sets the Ethertype field of the ethernet frame. The Ethertype is used to indicate which protocol is encapsulated in the payload. <type> can be supplied in two different ways. You can use the official numbers listed by the IEEE (e.g. --ether-type 0x0800 for IP version 4), or one of the mnemonics from the section called “Ethernet Types”.

Ethernet Types

These identifiers may be used as mnemonics for the Ethertype numbers given to the --arp-type option.

ipv4, ip, 4: Internet Protocol version 4 (type 0x0800).
ipv6, 6: Internet Protocol version 6 (type 0x86DD).
arp: Address Resolution Protocol (type 0x0806).
rarp: Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (type 0x8035).
frame-relay, frelay, fr: Frame Relay (type 0x0808).
ppp: Point-to-Point Protocol (type 0x880B).
gsmp: General Switch Management Protocol (type 0x880C).
mpls: Multiprotocol Label Switching (type 0x8847).
mps-ual, mps: Multiprotocol Label Switching with Upstream-assigned Label (type 0x8848).
mcap: Multicast Channel Allocation Protocol (type 0x8861).
pppoe-discovery, pppoe-d: PPP over Ethernet Discovery Stage (type 0x8863).
pppoe-session, pppoe-s: PPP over Ethernet Session Stage (type 0x8864).
ctag: Customer VLAN Tag Type (type 0x8100).
epon: Ethernet Passive Optical Network (type 0x8808).
pbnac: Port-based network access control (type 0x888E).
stag: Service VLAN tag identifier (type 0x88A8).
ethexp1: Local Experimental Ethertype 1 (type 0x88B5).
ethexp2: Local Experimental Ethertype 2 (type 0x88B6).
ethoui: OUI Extended Ethertype (type 0x88B7).
preauth: Pre-Authentication (type 0x88C7).
lldp: Link Layer Discovery Protocol (type 0x88CC).
mac-security, mac-sec, macsec: Media Access Control Security (type 0x88E5).
mvrp: Multiple VLAN Registration Protocol (type 0x88F5).
mmrp: Multiple Multicast Registration Protocol (type 0x88F6).
frrr: Fast Roaming Remote Request (type 0x890D).

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Ethernet Options

Ethernet Types