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What is the use of ping command ?
Date: 24 Jun 2009 Posted By: Anand
Group: Computers Category: Security
I know little about ping command but i don't know. what is the use of it?
pls tell about that
|Author: Rakesh Kumar Srivastava 24 Jun 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 0 Voting Score: 0|
>Ping is a simple command line network tool that is used to verify connectivity of computer to a network.
>Ping is also used to self test the network interface card of the computer.
>Ping works by sending ICMP “ECHO REQUEST” packets to the target host and listening for ICMP “ECHO RESPONSE” replies.
>Ping measures the round-trip time and records any packet loss, and prints when finished a statistical summary of the echo response packets received, the minimum, mean, max and in some versions the standard deviation of the round trip time.
|Author: Moksha 24 Jun 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 5 (Rs 3) Voting Score: 0|
Ping is the internet program or command that is used to test connectivity, gauge response time, and report a variety of errors.
The use of ping of command is troubleshooting the accessibility of network devices; to find out whether a remote host is active/alive or inactive, what is the round trip delay and packet loss.
Format of the command: ping
For example, to test connectivity to www.yahoo.com, you can type the following command at the command prompt (I am copy, pasting the results to explain the output further):
Pinging www-real.wa1.b.yahoo.com [220.127.116.11] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 18.104.22.168: bytes=32 time=314ms TTL=49
Reply from 22.214.171.124: bytes=32 time=320ms TTL=49
Reply from 126.96.36.199: bytes=32 time=318ms TTL=49
Reply from 188.8.131.52: bytes=32 time=325ms TTL=49
Ping statistics for 184.108.40.206:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 314ms, Maximum = 325ms, Average = 319ms
If you see that above output, www.yahoo.com DNS name resolves to IP address: 220.127.116.11
Reply from 18.104.22.168: says that the host is alive or active. bytes=32 shows the number bytes in reply, time=314ms shows the time in milliseconds it took to get a reply, and TTL is Time to live.
And at the end of the ping result are the statistics and Round trip time information summary:
Ping statistics provide information on how many packets sent, received and lost. And Round trip time gives information in milliseconds of minimum, maximum and average round trip times.
Assuming that you are familiar with the TCP/IP Protocol suite, Ping is an application layer program and when executed, it sends an ICMP echo packet with TTL 128 (this is set to the host by default; you can check your machines TTL value by typing : ping localhost at the command prompt) and expects an 'echo reply' packet.
Note: TTL stands for Time to Live. On new Windows machines, it will be 128
As a summary to put it simple, ping is useful to test the condition of your network.
Hope, this information helps.
|Author: UltimateRengan 13 Jul 2009 Member Level: Gold Points : 1 Voting Score: 0|
ping command is used to check whether internet connection is active or not.
|Author: Anup 25 Aug 2009 Member Level: Bronze Points : 2 Voting Score: 0|
PING is Packet Inter-Network Groper..used 2 detect if some address or domain/server is alive or not.
It sends 32 bit packets by default and receive d same if n/w is alive.
Hackers use this command 2 detect any firewall presence.
When one or more packets r lost then firewall is not present or it's present in d target system.
Also used 2 determine the OS target system has like MSwindows or Linux.
Ping returns a TTL value...If 128 is returned it's Windows if 64 it's Linux.
Sometimes for security concerned company hides d original TTL values and use a hoax for dat but it still can b determines by using TRACERT command.
Try pinging ur own system...
|Author: Raja 26 Aug 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 4 (Rs 2) Voting Score: 0|
Ping command is nothing but a dos command which will help you to check the status of your network connectivity.
Normally when you have a LAN internet connection (Broad Band internet connection), we can check whether internet is connected or not.for example ( ping www.google.com ) if there is a connectivity then you can see 0% loss. that means it passes to all the ip address which google has.
not only to check internet connection we can also check the local area network connection. that means your computer is connected with a network server.
|Author: animesh 26 Aug 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 2 Voting Score: 0|
Ping is the command which is used by network people to check the network whether the network is available or the computer connected to it are available and are working.PING stands for packet inter network groper,it checks whether the connected domain server is alive or not.It is also used to self test the network interface card of the computer.
|Author: Dipika Joshi 26 Aug 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 2 Voting Score: 0|
ping is a command used to check the connectivity and verify that at the other end is the connection alive.
ping command is always followed by the ip address of another host,with which you wish to connect.
using this command you are trying to set up a connection with host whose ip address is 22.214.171.124
if there is a host available of this ip address,then connection can be made.Otherwise,a list of errors is shown giving details regarding connection failure.
|Author: Sudipto Sarkar 26 Aug 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 6 (Rs 2) Voting Score: 0|
ping is a simple utility, which uses ICMP (Internet Control Messaging Protocol), which is a network layer protocol, and is used to detect and report errors on any computer network, using the TCP/IP or OSI protocol. This protocol ICMP has a mode which enables sending echo messages to a host, primarily in order to determine if a host is up or down. Note that when I say up, I mean it is put on and when I say down, it is turned off.
As described earlier, this ping can be used for any IP or host address. If you see a response
Destination Network Unreachable.
That means you are not connected to any network.
If you see something like
Destination Host Unreachable.
That means, either the host is down, or there is a firewall running on the computer, which is preventing it from responding to your ping request.
If you see something which talks about ttl=something, that means the host is up and is responding to your messages.
The bytes field specifies how many bytes of data was received. The ttl, which happens to be the most cryptic field for newbies is a Time To Live field. Every packet has a ttl field. After passing through that many computers while reaching the destination host, it becomes 0. After it becomes 0, it can no longer propagate. Also note that after it passes through a computer, it is decremented by 1.
Windows OS normally has a ttl 128. Firewalls can however change this. ttl 64 is what we see for most Linux or Unices. However, a ttl of 255 has also been seen in case of Unices.
So, when you see a ttl, you can determine how far the computer is, that is how many hops it travels through. For example, if we have a ttl 49, as in the example given by Girija, we see that adding 15 to the number gives 64, which is a common ttl. So, the packets have probably passes through 15 hops while coming to you.
Note however, that this is the working of the program ping, and what it outputs. It is not the usage of the program ping. However, if you need to know how to use the program, nowhere can be a better place than your computer. Just go to the command line and type
That should display help information. Enough information to tell you how to use the program.
|Author: Maganti Vinay Madhav 26 Aug 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 2 Voting Score: 0|
This command is used to check whether internet connection is active or not.If u want to check this go to "comand prompt" and type "ping (space) your ip address."and press enter.you will receive 4 replys about the data send and data received.if the data sent and received are same your internet connection is active.
(to get your ip address type "ipconfig" in comand prompt and press enter.)
|Author: priyadharshini 26 Aug 2009 Member Level: Bronze Points : 0 Voting Score: 0|
ping command is used to find connectivity problems.It is used to check the destination IP address you want to reach and record the results. The ping command displays whether the destination responded and how long it took to receive a reply. If there is an error in the delivery to the destination, the ping command displays an error message.
You can use the ping command to:
Ping your computer (by address, not host name) to determine that TCP/IP is functioning. (Pinging your computer does not verify that your network adapter is functioning.)
Ping the local router to determine whether the router is running.
Ping beyond your local router.
How to use the ping command to check your network connection:
* Click on Start then Run
* Type cmd and press Enter or click OK
* Type ping www.mozilla.org and press Enter
* Right click on the command prompt window title bar, select Edit then Mark
* Use the mouse to select all the output from the ping command, them click the right mouse button. This will copy the data to the clipboard.
* Start a new post here and paste the data you copied into it.
The output of the ping command should look something like this:
Pinging www-mozilla-org.glb.mozilla.com [126.96.36.199] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 188.8.131.52: bytes=32 time=97ms TTL=236
Reply from 184.108.40.206: bytes=32 time=88ms TTL=236
Reply from 220.127.116.11: bytes=32 time=87ms TTL=236
Reply from 18.104.22.168: bytes=32 time=89ms TTL=236
Ping statistics for 22.214.171.124:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 87ms, Maximum = 97ms, Average = 90ms
If ping works (you get responses from mozilla.org) then you have a working internet connection and name resolutions (DNS or Domain Name Server) is also working correctly.
|Author: Ravi Kumar Bhuwal 27 Aug 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 1 Voting Score: 0|
Ping is used to know the given address/computer is responding to network or not. Through this we can identify the computer in network.
|Author: Navaneethakrishnan 27 Aug 2009 Member Level: Silver Points : 2 Voting Score: 0|
If it is a single system this command is used to check the connectivity of a single
system with other systems(i.e. working properly).
PING is the ip address of the DNS server or remote host.
Ping provides to check the Physical/IP Connectivity between
two or more devices in the network. Ping sends an ICMP
request from source computer to destination computer and
destination computer sends an ICMP reply
|Author: Rashina 28 Aug 2009 Member Level: Gold Points : 2 Voting Score: 0|
The ping command is useful for determining the network status and various foreign hosts.It is used in testing, measuring, and managing networks.
Some ping command options relevant to performance tuning are as follows:
Specifies the number of packets. This option is useful when you get an IP trace log. You can capture a minimum of ping packets.
Specifies the length of packets. You can use this option to check fragmentation and reassembly.
Sends the packets at 10 ms intervals or immediately after each response. Only the root user can use this option.
The ping command can be very hard on a network and should be used with caution. Flood-pinging can only be performed by the root user.
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