Ping

Please enter Host or IP to Ping
	Example: google.com or 74.125.226.82

What is Ping

Ping is a tool often used for network diagnostics, as well as for keeping connections from timing out. In its simplest terms, ping reports back how much time it takes for a message to reach one host and then come back again. This is referred to as roundtrip time. Ping also records packet loss. Packet loss occurs when a packet is lost or rejected due to signal degradation, channel congestion or corruption. High packet loss and high round trip time result in a slower Internet speeds, which is most noticeable in gaming or multimedia streaming as choppiness, lag or dropped connections. Pings are sent in the form of several Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packets. The roundtrip time will be recorded for each packet denominated in milliseconds (MS). The average roundtrip time is then factored and reported back to the user. This average roundtrip time is sometimes referred to as your latency.

You can also ping local hosts and devices on your own network. This is helpful for establishing whether a device, such as a network printer, router or other network drive is reachable. This is an important step for troubleshooting, since it helps you determine whether your problem stems from a network connectivity issue or a local or remote configuration issue.

For measuring the latency for remote hosts, ping has become less useful in recent years. This is because many web hosts now block ICMP requests for security reasons. ICMP requests are sometimes used by hackers for network reconnaissance, as well as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

What to do if you have a high ping rate?

Causes of high ping rates or latency are unfortunately difficult to identify. Because there are so many components of an IP connection, your overall speed will usually be determined by the “weakest link” along the chain. One way to identify where your network speeds are being slowed down is by running a traceroute. Check out our page on traceroute for more information.