Question: What Is a Computer Ping Test?

In computer networking, ping is a specific method for sending messages from one computer to another. But what exactly is a ping test? Answer: A ping test determines whether your computer can communicate with another computer over the network. Then, if network communication is established, ping tests also determine the connection latency (technical term for delay) between the two computers. You can use a ping test to troubleshoot connectivity problems with your home network. Ping tests are also commonly used to measure the delay ("lag") with online gaming services or other Internet servers. Microsoft Windows contains a built-in ping utility for running ping tests. Alternative utilities are also freely available as Web downloads. To execute a ping test, you simply identify the Web site or other remote server / computer by its name or IP address. The result of a ping test includes confirmation that connection was successful, along with a series of numbers that represent the communication delay in milliseconds (ms). The results of a ping test vary depending on the quality of the Internet / network connection. A good broadband Internet connection (wired or wireless) typically results in ping test latency of less than 100 ms, often less than 30 ms. A satellite Internet connection normally suffers from latency above 500 ms. Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer. The name comes from active sonar terminology. Ping operates by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packets to the target host and waiting for an ICMP response. In the process it measures the time from transmission to reception (round-trip time)[1] and records any packet loss. The results of the test are printed in form of a statistical summary of the response packets received, including the minimum, maximum, and the mean round-trip times, and sometimes the standard deviation of the mean. Ping may be run using various options (command line switches) depending on the implementation that enable special operational modes, such as to specify the packet size used as the probe, automatic repeated operation for sending a specified count of probes, time stamping options, or to perform a ping flood. Flood pinging may be abused as a simple form of denial-ofservice attack, in which the attacker overwhelms the victim with ICMP echo request packets. How to Use the Traceroute Command Traceroute is a command which can show you the path a packet of information takes from your computer to one you specify. It will list all the routers it passes through until it reaches its destination, or fails to and is discarded. In addition to this, it will tell you how long each 'hop' from router to router takes. In Windows, select Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. This will give you a window like the one below.

Enter the word tracert, followed by a space, then the domain name. The following is a successful traceroute from a home computer in New Zealand to mediacollege.com:

Firstly it tells you that it's tracing the route to mediacollege.com, tells you the IP address of that domain, and what the maximum number of hops will be before it times out. Next it gives information about each router it passes through on the way to its destination. 1 is the internet gateway on the network this traceroute was done from (an ADSL modem in this case) 2 is the ISP the origin computer is connected to (xtra.co.nz) 3 is also in the xtra network 4 timed out 5 - 9 are all routers on the global-gateway.net.nz network (the domain that is the internet gateway out of New Zealand) 10 - 14 are all gnaps.net in the USA (a telecom supplier in the USA) 15 - 17 are on the nac network (Net Access Corporation, an ISP in the New York area) 18 is a router on the network mediacollege.com is hosted on and finally, line 19 is the computer mediacollege.com is hosted on (sol.yourhost.co.nz) Each of the 3 columns are a response from that router, and how long it took (each hop is tested 3 times). For example, in line 2, the first try took 240ms (240 milliseconds), the second took 421 ms, and the third took 70ms. You will notice that line 4 'timed out', that is, there was no response from the router, so another

one was tried (202.50.245.197) which was successful. You will also notice that the time it took quadrupled while passing through the global-gateway network. This is extremely useful when trying to find out why a website is unreachable, as you will be able to see where the connection fails. If you have a website hosted somewhere, it would be a good idea to do a traceroute to it when it is working, so that when it fails, you can do another traceroute to it (which will probably time out if the website is unreachable) and compare them. Be aware though, that it will probably take a different route each time, but the networks it passes through will generally be very similar. If the example above had continued to time out after line 9, you could suspect that globalgateway.co.nz was the problem, and not mediacollege.com. If it timed out after line 1, you would know there was a problem connecting to your ISP (in this case you would not be able to access anything on the internet). It is generally recommended that if you have a website that is unreachable, you should use both the traceroute and ping commands before you contact your ISP to complain. More often that not, there will be nothing to your ISP or hosting company can do about it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I got a question from a Web Hosting Show listener last week about how to do a traceroute. Now this might be hosting help 101 for some of us out there, but it never hurts to get a bit of a refresher course. Here is how you can do a trace route from your PC (Windows XP, Vista): 1. From the Start menu, select Run

2. When the run box comes up, then type in cmd

3. When you get the command prompt, enter tracert yourdomain.com 4. Hit the enter key on your keyboard and wait. For the Apple people in the crowd, you can follow these steps: 1. Double-click the Hard Drive icon > Applications folder > Utilities folder > Network Utility program. 2. Select the trace route tab and enter the domain name 3. Press the enter key and wait.

Hope that helps. Doing a traceroute can be very helpful when figuring out if your web site is down or if there is some bottleneck between yourself and the server you are hosted on keeping you from pulling up your web site. TCP/IP utilities and services TCP/IP utilities offer network connections to other computers, such as UNIX workstations. You must have the TCP/IP network protocol installed to use the TCP/IP utilities. For information about starting TCP/IP services from the command prompt, see Net start For information about stopping TCP/IP services from the command prompt, see Net stop For more information, click a utility or service:

Arp Nslookup Finger Ping Ftp Rcp Hostname Rexec Ipconfig Route Lpq Rsh Lpr Tftp Nbtstat Tracert Netstat

Ipconfig

Displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values and refreshes Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) settings. Used without parameters, ipconfig displays the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway for all adapters. Syntax ipconfig [/all] [/renew [Adapter]] [/release [Adapter]] [/flushdns] [/displaydns] [/registerdns] [/showclassid Adapter] [/setclassid Adapter [ClassID]] Top of page Parameters /all : Displays the full TCP/IP configuration for all adapters. Without this parameter, ipconfig displays only the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway values for each adapter. Adapters can represent physical interfaces, such as installed network adapters, or logical interfaces, such as dial-up connections. /renew [ Adapter ] : Renews DHCP configuration for all adapters (if an adapter is not specified) or for a specific adapter if the Adapter parameter is included. This parameter is available only on computers with adapters that are configured to obtain an IP address automatically. To specify an adapter name, type the adapter name that appears when you use ipconfig without parameters. /release [ Adapter ] : Sends a DHCPRELEASE message to the DHCP server to release the current DHCP configuration and discard the IP address configuration for either all adapters (if an adapter is not specified) or for a specific adapter if the Adapter parameter is included. This parameter disables TCP/IP for adapters configured to obtain an IP address automatically. To specify an adapter name, type the adapter name that appears when you use ipconfig without parameters. /flushdns : Flushes and resets the contents of the DNS client resolver cache. During DNS troubleshooting, you can use this procedure to discard negative cache entries from the cache, as well as any other entries that have been added dynamically. /displaydns : Displays the contents of the DNS client resolver cache, which includes both entries preloaded from the local Hosts file and any recently obtained resource records for name queries resolved by the computer. The DNS Client service uses this information to resolve frequently queried names quickly, before querying its configured DNS servers. /registerdns : Initiates manual dynamic registration for the DNS names and IP addresses that are configured at a computer. You can use this parameter to troubleshoot a failed DNS name registration or resolve a dynamic update problem between a client and the DNS server without rebooting the client computer. The DNS settings in the advanced properties of the TCP/IP protocol determine which names are registered in DNS. /showclassid Adapter : Displays the DHCP class ID for a specified adapter. To see the DHCP class ID for all adapters, use the asterisk (*) wildcard character in place of Adapter. This parameter is available only on computers with adapters that are configured to obtain an IP address automatically.

/setclassid Adapter [ ClassID ] : Configures the DHCP class ID for a specified adapter. To set the DHCP class ID for all adapters, use the asterisk (*) wildcard character in place of Adapter. This parameter is available only on computers with adapters that are configured to obtain an IP address automatically. If a DHCP class ID is not specified, the current class ID is removed. /? : Displays help at the command prompt. Top of page Route Displays and modifies the entries in the local IP routing table. Used without parameters, route displays help. Syntax route [-f] [-p] [Command [Destination] [mask Netmask] [Gateway] [metric Metric]] [if Interface]] Top of page Parameters -f : Clears the routing table of all entries that are not host routes (routes with a netmask of 255.255.255.255), the loopback network route (routes with a destination of 127.0.0.0 and a netmask of 255.0.0.0), or a multicast route (routes with a destination of 224.0.0.0 and a netmask of 240.0.0.0). If this is used in conjunction with one of the commands (such as add, change, or delete), the table is cleared prior to running the command. -p : When used with the add command, the specified route is added to the registry and is used to initialize the IP routing table whenever the TCP/IP protocol is started. By default, added routes are not preserved when the TCP/IP protocol is started. When used with the print command, the list of persistent routes is displayed. This parameter is ignored for all other commands. Persistent routes are stored in the registry location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Pers istentRoutes. Command : Specifies the command you want to run. The following table lists valid commands. Command add change delete print Purpose Adds a route. Modifies an existing route. Deletes a route or routes. Prints a route or routes.

Destination : Specifies the network destination of the route. The destination can be an IP network address (where the host bits of the network address are set to 0), an IP address for a host route, or 0.0.0.0 for the default route. mask Netmask : Specifies the netmask (also known as a subnet mask) associated with the network destination. The subnet mask can be the appropriate subnet mask for an IP network address, 255.255.255.255 for a host route, or 0.0.0.0 for the default route. If omitted, the subnet mask 255.255.255.255 is used. Because of the relationship between the destination and the subnet mask in defining routes, the destination cannot be more specific than its corresponding subnet mask. In other words, there cannot be a bit set to 1 in the destination if the corresponding bit in the subnet mask is a 0. Gateway : Specifies the forwarding or next hop IP address over which the set of addresses defined by the network destination and subnet mask are reachable. For locally attached subnet routes, the gateway address is the IP address assigned to the interface that is attached to the subnet. For remote routes, available across one or more routers, the gateway address is a directly reachable IP address that is assigned to a neighboring router. metric Metric : Specifies an integer cost metric (ranging from 1 to 9999) for the route, which is used when choosing among multiple routes in the routing table that most closely match the destination address of a packet being forwarded. The route with the lowest metric is chosen. The metric can reflect the number of hops, the speed of the path, path reliability, path throughput, or administrative properties. if Interface : Specifies the interface index for the interface over which the destination is reachable. For a list of interfaces and their corresponding interface indexes, use the display of the route print command. You can use either decimal or hexadecimal values for the interface index. For hexadecimal values, precede the hexadecimal number with 0x. When the if parameter is omitted, the interface is determined from the gateway address. /? : Displays help at the command prompt.