Ping

From TSG Library of Knowledge

PING (Packet InterNet Groper) is a basic networking tool that allows a network adminstrator to test connectivity with other devices within the Local Area Network, or Wide Area Network.

How it works

When you issue a PING command, your device will send out an echo request packets to the intended device then listens to the echo reply packets. If you recieve all of the packets, then you have good connectivity with the intended device. If some of them show as 'request timed out', but did receive some responses, then chances are your network, or any networks inbetween you and your intended target could have congestion. If none of the packets come back (all are 'request timed out') then the device cannot locate the intended device, or if you are trying to get to an external device (ie website), then it could be that the website is blocking the echo packets. If the message is 'Unreachable Host' message, then that means the problem is at the Network level (your 'default gateway' does not know how to get to the intended network).

Test it out

Open up Command Prompt (Start, Run, type cmd) then type ping www.google.com. See what result you get. You should see 'Ping www.google.com [64.233.169.147] ... ' and some replies back. This means you should be able to get to www.google.com without any issues. Note that you can also ping by the IP address, which is 64.233.169.147

Other commands

There are a couple of useful switches with the ping command:

ping www.google.com -n x: The -n switch allows you to change the amount of requests from the standard of 4 to whatever you want. x is the denoter. For example: ping www.google.com -n 10 means to send 10 echo requests.