How to access OS environment and TCP/IP environment

Question

I'm trying to find a way to access the operating systems commands (I've already figured out how to determine which Windows or which Unix or which Linux I'm in) and TCP/IP commands. In REXX, for example, it's ADDRESS CMD but I don't even have a clue as to what the class would be in Java. Can somebody help, please?
The two kinds of things I'd like to be able to do is issue commands written in whatever language for the environment where the Java program is executing and have the output from these commands come back as a string or series of strings which can then be parsed by the parser we've written for each of the environments we need to deal with (since the same command sometimes results in a different return, depending on the environment where it's running).
For the TCP/IP commands, I'd like to be able to do something like
tcp_ipCommands("ping","www.sun.com");
or
tcp_ipCommands("ping www.sun.com");
depending on how I write it, of course.
Thanks for any light anybody can shed on how to do this.
virginia

Answer 1

Have a Pinger. I can't remember where I stole it from and its from an older API with some deprecated methods. I recall making some 'cosmetic' changes to it at the time and I tested it, so it does work. I've also indicated 2 of the deprecations in the comments.
import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.lang.Thread;
// The Pinger object measures network latency by sending a packet
// to the UDP Echo Port (Port 7) and timing how long it takes.
// We use this port instead of ICMP because I would have to
// use native methods in order to produce ICMP packets.
class Pinger implements Runnable{
   static final int echoPort = 7;
   static final int maxPingTime = 3000; // Milliseconds
   static final int pingPollInterval = 100; // Milliseconds
   DatagramSocket socket;
   InetAddress fromIP;
   long sendTime;
   long timeMeasured;
   Thread timeOutMonitor;
   Thread pingListenThread;
   byte packetNumber = 0;
public Pinger(InetAddress pingee){
   fromIP = pingee;
// If needed, start a listener thread to notice the reply.
// then we send out a brief message to the echo port.
// Since the Java thread model does not allow one thread to break
// another one out of a wait, we sleep for brief intervals, waking
// up periodically to see if the reply has come in yet.
public long doPing() {
   byte[] msg = new byte[1];
   msg[0] = ++packetNumber;
   timeMeasured = -1;
      if(socket == null) try {
         socket = new DatagramSocket();
      catch (Exception e) {return(0);}
      if(pingListenThread == null) {
         pingListenThread = new Thread(this);
         pingListenThread.start();
   DatagramPacket packet = new DatagramPacket(msg,msg.length,fromIP,echoPort);
   sendTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
   long timeLimit = sendTime + maxPingTime;
      try {
         socket.send(packet);
            while (System.currentTimeMillis() < timeLimit) {
               Thread.sleep(pingPollInterval);
                  if(timeMeasured != -1) // reply has been noticed, so return result.
            return(timeMeasured);
      catch (Exception e) {};
      return(timeMeasured); // return what is probably -1.
// Run method for the listener thread
public void run() {
byte[] repBuf = new byte[1];
DatagramPacket reply = new DatagramPacket(repBuf,repBuf.length);
   try {
      while (true) {
      socket.receive(reply);
         if(repBuf[0] == packetNumber) {
             timeMeasured = System.currentTimeMillis() - sendTime;
             pingListenThread = null;
             return;
   catch (Exception e) {
      pingListenThread = null; return;
// Clean up any dangling listener thread and release the socket.
public void stop() {
    if(pingListenThread != null) {
        pingListenThread.stop();
        pingListenThread = null;
    socket.close();
    socket = null;
public class PingDisplay extends Applet {
   Pinger ping;
   TextField timeDisplay;
   String fromHost;
   Button refreshButton;
public void init(){
   try {
      fromHost = this.getCodeBase().getHost();
      // Alternative for testing on unrestricted browsers.
      // fromHost = "www.3dcom.com";
      ping = new Pinger(InetAddress.getByName(fromHost));
      timeDisplay = new TextField("Waiting");
      timeDisplay.setEditable(false);
      this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
      this.add("Center",timeDisplay);
      refreshButton = new Button("Ping");
      refreshButton.resize(40,20);
      this.add("East",refreshButton);
   catch (Exception e) {}
public void start(){
   super.start();
   displayPing();
public void stop(){
   super.stop();
   ping.stop(); // Thread.stop() is depricated but it still works
void displayPing() {
   timeDisplay.setText("Pinging: " + fromHost); // let user know test underway
   long echoTime = ping.doPing(); // conduct actual test
      if(echoTime == -1) // check timeout status
         timeDisplay.setText(fromHost + " timed out.");
      else // display time in button
         timeDisplay.setText("Latency to " + fromHost + ": " + Long.toString(echoTime) + " ms.");
// When "Ping" button pressed, rerun and redisplay.
// Method also depricated here
public boolean action(Event e, Object what) {
   if((e.target == refreshButton) && (e.id == Event.ACTION_EVENT)) {
      displayPing();
      return (true);
   return(false);
}