Ping Tutorial

What Is the Ping Command and Why Should I Use It?

I'd like to offer some advice regarding network and GeoCities outages. The big question I'm going to attempt to answer is this: Is GeoCities having problems, or is it the network between it and my PC? Microsoft has provided the tools for us to use, but they hid them. For those of you who are not on Win9x PCs, sorry, but I only know how to do this on PCs and UN*X boxes.

Both programs are in the C:\Windows folder, but you really don't need to know that. They are both DOS programs, so you have to open a DOS window to run them. Go to the Start menu/Programs and click on MS-DOS Prompt. A new window will open with an MS copyright notice and the C:\WINDOWS> prompt. (Note: if you are like me, you moved the shortcut to the MS-DOS Prompt. Just hunt around in the Start menu until you find it.)

The program you will most likely use is named ping. It got that name because it works just like sonar. You ping a remote machine, and you are told how long it took your packet (message) to go to that machine and back. Big numbers are Bad, although there isn't much you can do about that. Here are a couple of examples that I tried from scutter.arl.mil: 

C:\WINDOWS>ping blaze.arl.mil

Pinging blaze.arl.mil [128.63.58.5] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 128.63.58.5: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=252
Reply from 128.63.58.5: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=252
Reply from 128.63.58.5: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=252
Reply from 128.63.58.5: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=252

Ping statistics for 128.63.58.5:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum =  1ms, Average =  1ms
blaze.arl.mil is a local machine, so naturally the round trip times are very, very small. MS's ping always sends 4 packets, or you can press Control-C to tell ping to quit. (The ugly 4-part number is blaze's Internet or IP address, known in GeekSpeak as a dotted quad.) Next I will ping good old GeoCities: 
C:\WINDOWS>ping www.geocities.com

Pinging www.geocities.com [209.1.224.17] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.1.224.17: bytes=32 time=115ms TTL=245
Request timed out.
Reply from 209.1.224.17: bytes=32 time=114ms TTL=245
Reply from 209.1.224.17: bytes=32 time=116ms TTL=245

Ping statistics for 209.1.224.17:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 114ms, Maximum =  116ms, Average =  86ms
The timeout tells me there are some problems, but the fact that 3 of the packets got through means that GeoCities is up and running. I won't show it here, but I also pinged a machine that I knew was turned off. I got 4 timeout messages and 100% loss. The same thing should happen if the machine were up but there was a major problem with the network.

The main point is this: when in doubt, ping www.geocities.com You won't be able rectify the problem, but at least you'll have an idea where it is. Slow pings indicate network problems, 4 timeouts mean either the network or GeoCities is down, and good pings but no web pages mean they are working on GeoCities again.

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