UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

How can i send a packet, and what is an empty packet?

You can try to use Send packet
Send Packet is a small but powerful program to test how your network responds to specific packet content. Via a config file and/or command line parameters, you can forge (modify the headers of) your own TCP/UDP/ICMP/IP packets and send them through your network. Also, following the Easy Sniffer modular philosophy, you can specify wich modules you'd like to build.

Congrats! You're sending (and receiving) them now!
If you just want to send a packet, you could use "ping".
ping www.att.net
Ping will time how long the round trip is from you to the destination.

This command will work in Windows and DOS.

If you want to construct your own packets, there are several programs that will do this for you.

I'm guessing that an empty packet is just like it sounds - a packet with no data... I suppose it should be clarified further, because by definition, no packet can truly be "empty"... But maybe you should find out what a packet is and how it worls before trying to construct them.

Please post back if you have any more questions.

Whould i be able to send packets, such as ping, to a specific port, without constructing them on my own?

Not with ping...
You can use dozens of tools, such as rain (packet generator), nc (NetCat - wonderful tool), or even a scanner like nmap.

I think I see where this is going,though, and I hope it stays clean...

I am only studying DoS, I give you my word that i would not commit an attack. Im dont want to piss people off. Some think that is fun, i dont.

I'm currently trying to learn networking and that ,of course, involves packets.

I may be wrong but aren't e.g ICMP packets transported in an IP packet? And are TCP/UDP packets as well transported in an IP packet?