What exactly is a ping?

[Shaun2007]

I often read about pings but I have no idea what it is Could someone please educate me a bit

Thanks

 

[bwana]

I often read about pings but I have no idea what it is Could someone please educate me a bit

Thanks

ping is a computer network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network. It works by sending ICMP “echo request” packets to the target host and listening for ICMP “echo response” replies. ping estimates the round-trip time, generally in milliseconds, and records any packet loss, and prints a statistical summary when finished.
The word ping is also frequently used as a verb or noun, where it can refer directly to the round-trip time, the act of running a ping program or measuring the round-trip time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping

 

[Shaun2007]

Thanks bwana!!!

 

[|tera|]

hehe, he wikipedia'd your behind!

 

[Moederloos]

its the ying of the pong.

 

[general_koffi]

In a nutshell, it's how long it takes a small nugget of data to get from one computer to another over a network (such as the internet). (Routers, servers and clients are all "computers".)

If your ping to www.google.com is 350, then it takes 350 milliseconds for you to start sending or receiving data from the server at www.google.com.

 

[wcoetzee]

In a nutshell, it's how long it takes a small nugget of data to get from one computer to another over a network (such as the internet). (Routers, servers and clients are all "computers".)

If your ping to www.google.com is 350, then it takes 350 milliseconds for you to start sending or receiving data from the server at www.google.com.

it depends how big the -l switch value is
ie. ping www.google.com where -l value is 32 bytes gives me
Minimum = 353ms, Maximum = 358ms, Average = 355ms

ping www.google.com -l 512 gives me
Minimum = 376ms, Maximum = 384ms, Average = 379ms

 

[Shaun2007]

In a nutshell, it's how long it takes a small nugget of data to get from one computer to another over a network (such as the internet). (Routers, servers and clients are all "computers".)

If your ping to www.google.com is 350, then it takes 350 milliseconds for you to start sending or receiving data from the server at www.google.com.

Thanks for your explanation. I now know what a ping is

 

[chiskop]

its the ying of the pong.

That's poetry, Moederloos.

 

[kiepie]

it depends how big the -l switch value is
ie. ping www.google.com where -l value is 32 bytes gives me
Minimum = 353ms, Maximum = 358ms, Average = 355ms

ping www.google.com -l 512 gives me
Minimum = 376ms, Maximum = 384ms, Average = 379ms

I thought you only get the 32 bytes I value

 

[JohnnyQ]

It is what one calls the act of being busy making a pee.

 

[Conspirator]

Can somebody pls explain to me the difference between latency, ping and roundtrip time?

Is the time both upstream and downstream or just the one.

(Already checked for a latency wiki article. Still don't know)

 

[bwana]

Can somebody pls explain to me the difference between latency, ping and roundtrip time?

Is the time both upstream and downstream or just the one.

(Already checked for a latency wiki article. Still don't know)

WRT latency have a look at tracert - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traceroute

 

[Conspirator]

Thx bwana. Understood tracert for the first time now. I did some googling because the timing part is a bit vague in the wiki:

Ping: A way of measuring latency. Timing is both directions added together, i.e. roundtrip.