Trading Partner Connection Test

Hi All,
I am supposed to do a connectivity test with our Trading Partner sometime this week. I have to check whether the XML doc is transferred both ways. Can anyone help me by listing out (in an elaborate manner) what all should I do in procedural way? What all details I should ask my TP and how do I monitor them in our TN console. For example, first pinging their server from the command prompt etc., etc.,
I am using IS 6.0.1
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Liza