What Is Ping and Why Use The Ping Command?

Network administrators use a variety of IP (Internet Protocol) commands on a daily basis. Ping is one of these commands. I’m sure we’ve all heard of this command at some point. So, what is ping?

In this article, we will be discussing the ping command in great depth. But, before moving further, let’s go through the topics that we will be covering in this blog.

Table of Content (TOC)

• What is Ping?
• How Does Ping Work?
• Why Use the Ping Command?
• What is a Good Ping?
• How to Run a Ping Network Test?
• Difference Between Traceroute and Ping Command

What is Ping? 

Before we get into the definition, let’s first define the word “ping.” The word ping comes from sonar technology. In this, a sonar sends a sound wave and listens for a ping (echo) in response—the larger the duration, the further away an object is. The same principle applies to networks as data requests travel around the world.

Definition- Ping (Packet InterNet or Inter-Network Groper) is a utility that sends a signal to another computer over a network and then receives a reply from the computer that was pinged and sends it back to the first computer.

With the ping command, you can quickly determine whether a machine has internet access and can communicate with other computers or network devices. Ping also has additional features such as:

• Network connectivity testing
• Network interface card troubleshooting
• Putting DNS name resolution issues to the test

In lay terms, a ping is a basic Internet command that lets a user test and verify whether a specific destination IP address exists and can accept or respond to requests in computer network administration.

You can also explore – What is a Wireless Networking?

Let’s look at some examples of ping commands:

To verify whether your internet is down or not:

Ping a reliable target host, such as naukri.com, to ensure you have internet access. If you don’t get a response, your Internet connection is most likely down. To do this, you can use the ping naukri.com cmd.

To do the specific number of pings:

Suppose you want to ping naukri.com precisely four times; you will use the ping -c 4 naukri.com cmd. You can specify the number of pings using the -c (count) flag.

How Does the Ping Command Work? 

Ping uses the computer’s echo request and operates within the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), which is a fundamental component of any IP network. When the ping command is issued, an echo request packet is sent to the specified address. Once the remote host gets the echo request, it responds with an echo reply packet. Each echo request’s outcome is displayed.

The outcome tells you many things, including whether or not the request was successful. How much time will it take to receive a response? Remember that if you don’t change the settings, the ping command will send several echo requests, usually four or five. You can restrict the number by using the -c flag.

Why Use the Ping Command/What is the Use of Ping Command?

You can use the ping command for various purposes, such as:

• Troubleshooting: You can use the ping cmd to confirm whether or not your computers have an active connection or whether the connection is broken. You can also use a series of pings to locate and resolve issues.
• Exploration: You can quickly use the ping cmd to discover all network-connected devices. Because all devices on a network will answer this cmd, an administrator can find all actively connected devices.
• Observing: You can also routinely verify the availability of devices on a network. It is a primary polling method for all network devices without additional software.
• Security: Nowadays, many hackers are using the ping cmd to collect crucial information, such as determining which systems are connected to a network. Where are they? Is the system running? Etc. To prevent this, you can set firewalls to block pings from untrusted networks. 

You can also explore – What are the Different Types of Firewalls?

What is a Good Ping? 

You can separate pings on the basis of the ping response time, and you can measure the response time to ping in milliseconds (ms). The ping response time indicates how long it takes for a data packet to travel from a computer to an Internet server and back. So, based on this, what constitutes a good, bad, or average ping? Here are the various types of pings that you must have encountered at least once in your life:

• Excellent ping (less than 30ms): It is nearly invisible and ideal for online gaming.
• Average ping (30-50ms): This is still adequate for online gaming.
• A little slow ping (50 to 100ms): This is not noticeable when browsing the web but may affect gaming.
• Slow ping (100-500ms): This ping has little effect on web browsing but causes noticeable lag in online gaming.
• Pings that are too slow ( greater than 500ms): These types of pings will cause a noticeable delay in all requests.

How to Run a Ping Network Test? 

The steps for running a ping network test differ depending on the operating system.

Windows:

• In the search bar, type cmd to and press Enter.
• In the command prompt, type ping and press the space bar.
• Enter the IP address you want to ping (For example, Naukri.com IP- 72.247.81.131) and press Enter.
• You should get something like this as a result:

Mac:

• Navigate to Applications > Utilities to open Terminal.
• In the Terminal window, type ping in the black box and hit the space bar.
• Type the IP address you want like to ping (Naukri.com IP- 72.247.81.131) and press Enter.

Difference Between Traceroute and Ping Command

For a better understanding, let's explore the differences between Traceroute and Ping command in a tabular format.

Feature	Traceroute	Ping
Purpose	Maps the route packets take to a destination.	Checks connectivity and measures round-trip time.
Primary Function	Identifies the intermediate hops in the route.	Verifies if a host is reachable.
Output	Shows each hop's IP address and delay.	Displays response time for the destination.
Network Path Analysis	Provides detailed hop-by-hop path information.	Provides overall network latency.
Use Case	Troubleshooting network routing issues.	Diagnosing basic connectivity issues.
Protocol Used	Typically uses ICMP, UDP, or TCP.	Uses ICMP protocol.
Time to Execute	Takes longer as it checks every hop.	Quick, as it directly sends packets to the destination.
Error Detection	Identifies where packet loss or delays occur.	Identifies only packet loss or delay at the destination.
Complexity	More detailed and complex output.	Simple and easy to understand.
Platform Availability	Available in most operating systems.	Available in most operating systems.
Visualization	Provides a step-by-step path analysis.	Provides a single response result.
Port Customization	Can specify ports for tracing in some tools.	No port customization is possible.

Conclusion

Pings are a simple command-line utility used to locate all devices within a network. Pings can disclose details about the network’s computers, such as their location, operating system, etc.

If you are interested in learning more about commands used in networking or by network administrators, take on certifications like Certificate in Network Administration, Learn CCNA 200-301 Network Fundamentals, and Network Security Associate. For more in-depth knowledge, you can also pursue diploma programs such as Diploma in Computer Application and Network Administration offered by prestigious universities like NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, Agartala - Tripura University Study Centre).