The ping command is one of the most often used networking utilities for troubleshooting network problems. It sends packets of data to a specific IP address on a network and then lets you know how long it took to transmit that data and get a response. It’s a handy tool that you can use to quickly test various points of your network. Here’s how to use it.
How to Use the Ping Command to Test Your Network
We’re going to use the Windows Command Prompt in our example here. But you can also use the ping command in Windows or in the Terminal app on macOS or any Linux distro.
To launch Windows Command Prompt, all you need is to click the Start Menu and search Command Prompt or “cmd” shortly, and open the results. Or use the keyboard shortcuts Windows+R to launch the Command Prompt directly.
At the prompt, type “ping” along with the URL or IP address, you want to ping, and then press Enter. In the image below, we’re pinging www.techhowtodo.com and getting a normal response.
The response shows the URL you’re pinging, the IP address associated with that URL, and the size of the packets being sent to the first line. The next four lines show the replies from each individual packet. That includes the time (in milliseconds) it took for the response and the time-to-live (TTL) of the packet. Which is also known as the amount of time that must pass before the packet is discarded. At the bottom, you’ll see a summary that shows how many packets were sent and received. Also, you will see the minimum, maximum, and average response time.
Now we’re pinging the router on our local network using its IP address. We’re also getting a normal response from it. The screenshot below shows how to use the command with an IP address.
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