What is ping and what is it for?

Ping is a very important tool in any type of infrastructure to check the status of the network and also the activity of the computers connected to it.

If you've delved into the world of computers at least a little bit or even spend time in online gaming, the term "ping" will surely have caught your eye sometime.

But the fact is, although pinging is an old acquaintance for those who often have internet access, many people have no idea what it is or what it is for. Therefore, in Professional Review, we have prepared a short explanation on the subject.

Index of contents

What is ping?

Before it became known as ' ping ', this was an acronym for Packet Internet Groper, or “Network Packet Finder, ” in a simple translation.

Present in practically all networks and operating systems, it is a system that sends a small set of data to machines connected to a network and calculates the time it takes to receive and respond to it.

In addition to the existence of a device connected to the network, the result of a ping also allows obtaining information on the quality of data transmission, mainly on latency.

We recommend: Reasons not to buy a cheap Windows 10 License

The concept, here, refers to the time between sending the data packet and receiving the response. The larger it is, in milliseconds, the more difficult data synchronization becomes in real time.

An analogy could be made with ping pong. If the technical terms are too much for you, imagining this sport is the correct way to understand it. For example, the ping pong ball would be the data. While on one side is the sender, and on the other the recipient. As the ping pong ball goes from one side of the table to the other, everything is fine. And if the game is carried out very quickly, the better the health of the network.

Ping lets you know if a remote computer is accessible or not (bypassing firewalls).

The ping command uses the ICMP (Network Control Message Protocol) protocol by sending a specific packet to a certain machine and waiting for the response to record the delay. This delay is called ' latency '.

What is the ping

The Ping command is often used to test IP connectivity between computers. Its operation consists of sending ICMP packets to a destination computer and waiting for a response that allows checking whether the destination computer is active or not, if there are packet losses and the time it takes to receive the response.

First of all, it is good to make something clear that Michael Muuss , the creator of the system, stated on his website that his goal in giving this name was, in fact, to make an analogy with the sound of a sonar (sound navigation and ranging), in which the ping emits "echoes" to a server, and then waits for the response.

The reason for this analogy stems from the fact that the ping command acts similar to sonar; however, with a focus on the virtual world.

Simply put, the lower the value you get when you ping, the faster the connection is.

How to ping

Despite being a resource widely used by network administrators or experts, anyone can perform a ping test, for example to test the quality of the connection itself. The process is carried out from the Command Prompt in Windows, or from the Terminal, in OS X and Linux.

On machines running the Microsoft system, simply open the Start menu and, in the search field, type "cmd" or "Command Prompt" in the search window.

In Mac OS X, the way is to access the applications folder and then the Utilities folder, to select Terminal. In Linux, the resource is usually found in the Accessories folder or can be accessed by the Ctrl + Alt + T key shortcut.

To test, simply type the word ping followed by the URL of a website whose connection will be tested, or the IP address of a machine that is connected to your network.

Various information regarding the quality of the connection is displayed on the screen, and the system will normally carry out four data sends to measure the results. Consequently, the analysis and the numbers that indicate the quality of the network and the transmission speed appear.

32 bytes are always sent, and next to it, in time, we can see the exact period between sending the package and receiving the response. Then, in TTL, we have the “life time” of a packet, that is, the maximum time that the network will travel before being received. If this does not happen, in the case of a non-existent network device or connection problems, for example, it is discarded.

At the end are the general statistics about the ping test, with the number of packets that are sent to the server and how many of them were received or lost during the process.

In addition, the system facilitates the life of the user by indicating the shortest and the longest time between sending and receiving the response, in addition to giving an average that represents the latency of the equipment used for tests on the server or other device.

There are also websites dedicated exclusively to testing internet connections based on ping, without having to access command messages or manage codes and black screens full of information.

This is the case, for example, of ping-test.net, which with the well-known speedometers performs checks in sequence and delivers the results in a slightly more user-friendly way.

But ultimately, the higher the ping, the worse the quality of data transfer and the quality of your network. This can interfere with activities that require updating data in real time, such as online games, the use of voice over IP software or work through collaborative systems.

In Windows environments, to ping the host without interruption, type "ping -t (desired IP or website)".

To stop this test, just press Ctrl + C from Command Prompt.

For Unix environments, by default, just type "ping" and stop when necessary.

When there is no IP connectivity, the result would be 100% packet loss. This can also occur when the destination computer is protected with a firewall that blocks ICMP traffic. ARP or routing problems can also be at the origin of this type of response.

Ping in games

Surely you have already noticed that when connecting to a server from another country, as is the case with various online games, your ping tends to be absurdly high.

This happens because, no matter how fast your internet speed is, the distance between your computer and the place you are trying to access drastically affect the time of sending and responding to the data.

Oddly enough, being a few hundred milliseconds behind can make all the difference when it comes to betting; mainly because in some countries the distance is so much that the ping ends up leaving us several seconds apart.

WE RECOMMEND YOU Advanced PC / Gaming Settings

However, there are several methods to reduce ping, such as hiring a higher broadband plan (we recommend symmetric fiber optics), connecting to a closer server, or disabling all programs that consume bandwidth, just to name a few. What did you think of our article on pinging?