Run Common Networking Tests with a Single Command
Ever needed to quickly check if a website is responding to pings, test its DNS resolution, or see if a specific TCP port is open? You probably reached for a combination of ping, dig, curl, and nmap. What if you could run all those common networking tests against any site with just one tool?
Enter dstp (don't stop). It's a simple but powerful command-line tool that bundles a suite of essential network checks into a single, easy-to-use binary. Stop juggling multiple terminal windows and start getting a consolidated view of a host's network health.
What It Does
In short, dstp runs a battery of common networking tests against a given URL or IP address. It checks:
- Ping (ICMP): Can we even reach the host?
- DNS: Are the DNS records resolving correctly?
- TCP: Is a specific port (like 80 for HTTP or 443 for HTTPS) open?
- TLS: Is the SSL/TLS certificate valid and current?
- HTTP(S): Does the web server return a successful response?
- Traceroute: What path does the traffic take to get there?
It executes these tests sequentially and presents the results in a clear, easy-to-read format right in your terminal.
Why It's Cool
The brilliance of dstp is in its simplicity and consolidation. Instead of remembering the various flags for five different tools, you just need one command: dstp run <url>. It's the perfect first step for debugging "is it down, or is it just me?" scenarios.
It's also written in Go, which means it compiles into a single, dependency-free binary. You can download it and run it anywhere without needing a package manager or a runtime environment. The output is clean, colorized, and gives you the answers you need at a glance.
How to Try It
Getting started with dstp is straightforward. The quickest way is to use go install:
go install github.com/ycd/dstp@latest
You can also grab a pre-compiled binary for your OS from the GitHub Releases page. Once installed, fire it against any website:
dstp run https://github.com
You'll instantly see a neatly organized report of all the tests as they complete.
Final Thoughts
dstp isn't trying to replace advanced tools like nmap or wireshark for deep analysis. Instead, it perfectly fills the gap for those quick, routine checks. It's the kind of tool you'll instinctively reach for to do a quick health check on a deployment or to sanity-check a domain configuration. It does one job, and it does it exceptionally well.
Give it a shot next time you're troubleshooting a network issue. It might just save you a few terminal tabs.
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