# Ping Sweeper In Python
Following an article, I wrote sometime back about [pinging with Python](https://blog.octachart.com/ping-with-python), I promised that I would also write about a script that can do a ping sweeper and you don't have to be a network engineer to perform this.
If you missed that article, you can [read it](https://blog.octachart.com/ping-with-python), especially if you don't know what exactly pinging is.
In this article, we shall basically use the ```subprocess``` module;
The [subprocess module](https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html) allows you to spawn new processes, connect to their input/output/error pipes, and obtain their return codes.
It basically lets you start new applications right from the Python program you are currently writing.
So let's start by importing it;
```
import subprocess
```
I am currently connected to public wifi and its default gateway is ``` 10.10.50.1 ```. So I will loop through the 254 maximum hosts we can have on that level.
Before we proceed further, let's create a variable to that default gateway and leave the last octet in the IP which is the host portion of the IP address.
```
network="10.10.50."
IPs = []
```
Also created a list that will hold all our IPs that will be live.
Let's create a main ```for loop``` that we shall use to append the host and ping that particular host to the default gateway.
```
for host in range(1,255):
IP = network + str(host)
```
Under the same ```for loop```, let's spawn a new process using the ``` subprocess``` module.
```
process = subprocess.run('ping -c 1 -w 1 '+ IP,stdout=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)
```
The first command helps us ```ping``` with ```-c 1``` which is a routing compartment identifier. The ```-w 1``` is for a timeout in milliseconds.
The ```stdout=subprocess.PIPE``` will hide the output of the ```ping``` command
Setting the ```shell``` argument to a ```True``` value causes the subprocess to spawn an intermediate ```shell``` process, and tell it to run the command.
Now under the same indentation (```for loop```), let's get the IPs that are actually live when we ```ping``` with return codes.
```
if process.returncode == 0:
IPs.append(IP)
print(f" {IP} IS ALIVE !! ")
```
We also append that live IP to the IPs list variable that will help us get the total number of hosts available in that range.
Out of the ```for loop```, we could add an information output if we're done and get the number of hosts.
I am also using a tool called [```Fing```](https://www.fing.com/) which helps me get all the network hosts.
```Fing``` is one of the top-ranking free network scanner apps for PC and Mobile. One of the best ways to run network and IP analysis, device recognition and security checks.
When I compared the results everything was perfect.
So our entire script looks like this;
```
import subprocess
network="10.10.50."
IPs = []
for host in range(1,255):
IP = network + str(host)
process = subprocess.run('ping -c 1 -w 1 '+ IP,stdout=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)
if process.returncode == 0:
IPs.append(IP)
print(f" {IP} IS ALIVE !! ")
print(f"Ping completed successfully & there are {len(IPs)} IPs hosts!")
```
Running the above script which will take some time;
Note: You will need admin privileges to be able to run that script successfully. Also doing this on a Private network may be dangerous and maybe you may want to test it on your own home network.
There is also an ```ipaddress``` module that can help us get all network hosts.
Python's ```ipaddress``` module is an underappreciated gem from the Python standard library.
The ```ipaddress``` provides the capabilities to create, manipulate and operate on IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and networks.
```
import ipaddress
mynet = ipaddress.ip_network('192.168.0.0/16')
for host in mynet.hosts():
host = str(host)
print(host
```
The above will print all the hosts in that range and the last one would be ```192.168.255.254```
Find all the code in this article [here](https://github.com/Ronlin1/ping-with-python/blob/main/ping_sweeper.py) 🚀🚀 .
### 🌟 Conclusion
Once again, hope you learned something today from my little closet.
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