Install arping on Ubuntu 20.04

ICMP requests can be send to another host to test if host is reachable. However, firewalls can block ICMP requests. The arping is a command line tool for sending ARP requests to another host on the same network to test reachability of the host.

This tutorial explains how to install arping on Ubuntu 20.04.

Install arping

Execute the following command to update the package lists:

sudo apt update

Install arping:

sudo apt install -y arping

Once installation is completed, we can check arping version:

arping -v

Testing arping

Run the arping command and give an IP address of the host as argument to ping host:

sudo arping -c 3 192.168.0.150

You will get output similar to the following:

ARPING 192.168.0.150
60 bytes from df:bf:a7:05:66:dc (192.168.0.150): index=0 time=1.854 msec
60 bytes from df:bf:a7:05:66:dc (192.168.0.150): index=1 time=1.654 msec
60 bytes from df:bf:a7:05:66:dc (192.168.0.150): index=2 time=1.561 msec

--- 192.168.0.150 statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received,   0% unanswered (0 extra)
rtt min/avg/max/std-dev = 1.561/1.690/1.854/0.122 ms

The -c option allows to specify the number of packets to be sent.

Uninstall arping

If you wish to completely remove arping and related dependencies, use the following command:

sudo apt purge --autoremove -y arping