Portable Simple Ping

This is the portable edition of Simple Ping, an easy-to-use software program that enables you to keep track of your Internet connection speed via the Ping command. It comes packed with a few standard options that can be configured by all types of users, even the ones with little or no previous experience with networking software.

Since there is not setup pack involved, you can drop the program files to any part of the hard disk and just click the executable to run. Otherwise, it is possible to save Simple Ping to a USB flash disk or similar storage unit, in order to run it on any PC with minimum effort and no previous installers. More importantly, the tool does not create additional files on your system, so it does not leave traces behind after its removal.

The interface is represented by a very small window in the shape of a rounded rectangular with a black bachground, which displays the current Ping time in white text.

As far as ping options are concerned, it is possible to pick the IP to execute the Ping command for, as well as to specify the checkup frequency, bytes, TTL and timeout.

The whole frame's and rounded corner's size is adjustable, together with the background color, text color and font. You can blend the window with the desktop (hide the frame and leave the text displayed), make the frame stay on top of other windows, and so on.

At startup, Simple Ping creates an icon in the system tray area. Apart from the fact that it can be used for bringing up the aforementioned configuration panel, the icon is also notable for its color, since it changes in accordance with the Ping time. Unfortunately, it is not possible to modify the default Ping ranges that define each color.

As expected, the app has minimal impact on PC performance, since it runs on low CPU and RAM. There were no kind of issues throughout our evaluation, as it did not freeze, crash or pop up error messages. Simple Ping gets the job done and comes packed with a surprisingly rich set of features. The interface looks outdated, though. We must also take into account that no recent updates have been made.