#PSTip A hidden gem of the Test-Connection cmdlet

PowerShell equivalent of the ping.exe utility is the Test-Connection cmdlet. One of the hidden and less known capabilities of Test-Connection is the abitlity to ping a computer using another computer as the source. For example, when troubleshooting, you often need to verify connectivity between two computers using a quick ping test. The common practice is to make a remote desktop connection to ComputerA, open cmd, then ping ComputerB.

With the Test-Connection cmdlet you are no longer required to do so. You can use the cmdlet to initiate a ping check that uses ComputerA as the source computer and ComputerB as the destination.

PS> Test-Connection -Source ComputerA -ComputerName ComputerB

Note: WMI is the underlying mechanism that Test-Connection is built upon and this method requires the caller to have administrator’s rights on the source computer and the source computer’s OS version must be Windows XP and above.