Running Ping
Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux provide command line ping programs that can be run from the operating system shell. Computers can be pinged by either IP address or by name.
To ping a computer by IP address,
- open a shell prompt (in Microsoft Windows, the Command Prompt or MS-DOS Prompt on Start Menu)
- type "ping" followed by a space and the IP address
Interpreting the Results of Ping
The graphic below illustrates a typical ping session when a device at the target IP address responds with no network errors:- Reply from: By default, Microsoft Windows ping sends a series of four messages to the address. The program outputs a confirmation line for each response message received from the target computer.
- Bytes: Each ping request is 32 bytes in size by default
- Time: Ping reports the amount of time (in milliseconds) between the sending of requests and receipt of responses
- TTL (Time-to-Live): A value between 1 and 128, TTL can be used to count how many different networks the ping messages passed through before reaching the target computer. A value of 128 indicates the device is on the local network, with 0 other networks in between.
