What does it mean by the term "PING"?

anindyanuri · 02-10-2005, 10:31 AM

It is a question for real newbies. I saw several times in case of an internet connection.......someone used a term Ping. What does it mean by the term Ping?

hamish · 02-10-2005, 10:33 AM

Basically, you send a packet to an IP address to see if it responds. If it responds, then you know that IP is connected to the internet.

try
$ ping www.google.co.uk

You will see that is resolves the IP address of google.co.uk and then sends back your ping request. Thus, you know that the link to www.google.co.uk is active.

hamish

jollyjoice · 02-10-2005, 11:01 AM

this is not always a guarantee though, many servers and computers are setup not to respond to pings as this is an obvious way to see if they are there before trying to crack them.

bumjubeo · 02-10-2005, 11:16 AM

Packet Internetwork Groping is what it stands for.

It sends a little packet of information to the destination, and the destination returns a response, it is usually used to ensure network connectivity.

perfect_circle · 02-10-2005, 11:27 AM

read this:
http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/ping.html
And try out the command.
Another "funny" network command is traceroute (tracert in windows). It was actually the second network command i learned after ping. This command gives you the ability to see the "path" in which your package will travel across the net to reach a destination.
Try

Code:

traceroute www.ntua.gr

to see the hole path a package follows to reach greece from india. For security reasons those icmp packages are sometimes also blocked because this command may be used to discover the topology of a network.

perfect_circle · 02-10-2005, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bumjubeo
Packet Internetwork Groping is what it stands for.

It sends a little packet of information to the destination, and the destination returns a response, it is usually used to ensure network connectivity.

Well not exactly:

Quote:

From my point of view PING is not an acronym standing for Packet InterNet Grouper, it's a sonar analogy. However, I've heard second-hand that Dave Mills offered this expansion of the name, so perhaps we're both right. Sheesh, and I thought the government was bad about expanding acronyms! :-)

This is from the author of ping, it's the link i posted above

masand · 02-10-2005, 12:36 PM

the best knowledgebase,run this

man ping

regards