What is the Ping Command?

09.09.2020 2,099 1

Martin Pramatarov

Ping is a very simple and universal software with a command-line interface. Network administrators can use it for checking various aspects of the network. The ping command uses a protocol called ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol). You need a target. Then you send a package and wait for the echo reply. With this command you get statistics about the packages – time for response, errors, missing replies, etc.

What can you check with Ping?

• See if a device is connected. If you have its IP address, you can ping it and see if it responds on time.
• Time for response. You can see if the device responds too slowly. This can show a problem with its performance or network.
• Check a specific part of the network – router, server, etc.
• Verify if you have Internet. Just ping the IP address of a website you know.
• Keep a constant eye on your server. You can keep the ping constant and see if your server is experiencing downtime.

How can I use Ping?

You can use Ping by accessing the command prompt on Windows or the Terminal on macOS and Linux. For basic ping use, you can just write “ping www.EXAMPLE.com” or change the domain name with the IP address that you want to check.

Ping Syntax

Ping Syntax can be seen when you write “ping -?” for Windows or “ping –h” for macOS and Linux.
Then you can see all the available options that can modify your request.
This is the ping syntax for Windows 10. We have chosen to show the most common commands:

-t This option will ping the target without stopping. You can stop it with Control-C or Control-Break for a pause and statistic
-a Resolving addresses to hostnames
-n count Defining the number of echo request. The default is 4.
-1 size Sending buffer size.
-f For IPv4 only, it doesn’t allow flag fragmentation in the packets.
-i TTL Defining the Time to live
-r count Record route and you can see the number of hops (IPv4-only)
-s count Time for each hop (IPv4-only)
-w timeout Time in milliseconds that your computer can wait for the replies.
-R Testing reverse route
-4 Force only IPv4
-6 Force only IPv6

Ping examples:

We have used google.com and random IP addresses for the examples below:
“ping –n 7 www.google.com” – this will send 7 requests to google.com.
“ping 8.8.8.8” – use it with an IP address to see if it responds on time.
“ping –a 172.217.12.174” It will show you the hostname related to this IP address – lga25s62-in-f14.1e100.net

Conclusion:

Ping is a tiny tool that is easily accessible on various OSes. It has limited functionality, yet it has quite the usability in certain cases.

Source:
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_(networking_utility))