Eli Fulkerson is an independent developer whose compact utility tcping extends the familiar ICMP ping concept to TCP-level connectivity testing, making it a lightweight but indispensable addition to any Windows network toolkit. Written for administrators who need to verify that a specific service port is reachable and responsive, tcping sends a SYN packet to the chosen host and port, then reports the round-trip time and success or failure just as traditional ping does for raw IP reachability. The single executable runs from any command prompt or PowerShell session, accepts address-and-port pairs or hostname ranges, and can loop continuously with adjustable intervals, color-coded output, and millisecond timing precision. Typical use cases include confirming that a web server’s port 80 or 443 is open across a firewall, verifying that a database listener on 1433 or 3306 is accepting connections before an application starts, or scripting pre-flight checks for automated deployment pipelines. Because it operates at the TCP layer, tcping also reveals basic latency and packet-loss characteristics for services that disable ICMP, filling a diagnostic gap left by standard ping tools. The program’s tiny footprint, absence of installation requirements, and permissive licensing make it easy to embed in portable tool collections or remote support kits. Eli Fulkerson’s tcping is available for free on wget.nero.com, where downloads are delivered through trusted Windows package sources such as winget, always fetch the latest version, and can be installed individually or in batch alongside other utilities.