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Computer Networking
Cisco Packet Tracer

Ping (networking utility)

What is a ping command or utility?

Madan Adhikari

2 min readFeb 7, 2024

I would like to share a human analogy that will help us to understand the ping command. In human conversation when we meet with somebody we start with a greeting like “Hello how are you?” And we are greeted with the reply “Hello fine thank you”. We are asking questions and getting replies so that we know that we can communicate with each other. In computer networks, ping does the same thing. Let us dive into the details of the ping command.

A ping (Packet Internet or Inter-Network Groper) is a basic Internet program that allows testing the reachability of a host [end device — client or server ] on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. It measures the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer.

The ping command is the cornerstone of networking. It helps us to

verify the network connectivity
and troubleshoot network issues.

How does the ping command work?

Ping sends an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo request to a specified destination or interface on the network and waits for a reply. When a ping command is issued, a ping signal is sent to a specified address. When the target host receives the echo request, it sends an echo reply packet.

This approach serves two specific purposes: verifying the target host is available and determining the round-trip time (RTT) or latency.

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RTT is a measure of how long it took to receive a response. Measured in milliseconds (ms), the process starts when a client sends a request to a server and is completed when a response from the server is received. RTT is a key performance metric of web applications.