How To: Ping a network connection
This information will be needed when you need to check if a network connection is operational.
The Ping command is a useful way of knowing if a connection between two computers exists.
Step-by-step guide
At the Start menu or Start screen (for Windows 8 users only); type cmd and press enter or click OK.
At the Command Prompt window, enter the word Ping followed by a space and then the domain name or host name to which the connection is being tested, e.g. Ping xxx.xxx.xxx
Important information
Note: A host name is usually a website address
If the connection is successful, ping will return a series of replies.
It will return lines that display how long it took the address to respond.
Important information
Note:
- TTL represents the number of hops that occurred during the packet transfer process.
- The lower the number, the more routers the packet passed through.
- Time is how long it took to make the connection (in milliseconds) .
- CTRL+C may be needed to stop Ping.
The returned lines would look like this
Reply from 173.203.142.5: bytes=32 time=102ms TTL=48
Reply from 173.203.142.5: bytes=32 time=105ms TTL=48
Reply from 173.203.142.5: bytes=32 time=105ms TTL=48
Reply from 173.203.142.5: bytes=32 time=108ms TTL=48
After the operation is completed a summary of the results will be displayed.
Important information
Note:
- Lost packets mean the connection to the address is unreliable, and data is being lost in the transfer.
- The summary will also display the average time the connection took.
The summarized result of the ping would look like this
Ping statistics for 173.203.142.5:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 102ms, Maximum = 108ms, Average = 105ms
If the connection fails:
Check if you have correctly given the hostname.
Then try to ping with the IP address instead of the host name.
IMPORTANT
To have the PC ping itself, type ping 127.0.0.1