How to Ping a Computer

Are you aware of the term ping? Ping is a command which is used to determine any problems with your network or your computer. It is a signal that is sent to a computer or a network in order to elicit a response that aids in determining whether it is connected or not. You can easily determine whether a single computer in a network is down or the entire network itself is down, by observing the responses. If there is no response at all from any of the computers on the network, that means that the entire network is down, or if only few computers do not respond to the ping command, they are down whereas the network is up. It is very easy to ping your computer. Here are a few steps that you need to follow in order to ping a computer.

The first step in pinging your computer is to find the IP address of your system. Click on the Start icon and select the 'run' option and click on it. Type the word 'cmd' in the window that pops up and press enter. Once the DOS prompt window opens up, type the word 'ipconfig' to find the IP address of your system. Jot down the IP address of your system.

Now open other DOS prompt window by following the above mentioned steps. Then type the word 'ping', without the quotes and press the space bar once to ensure that there is a single space between the command 'ping' and the IP address you wish to ping. Then enter the IP address after the space. For instance, ping 127.11.22.3. After you have provided the necessary information, press the enter key. Verify the output from the system in response to the ping command. If the output has a 'request timed out' phrase, then there is a problem either with the computer or with the network. If the output has a phrase 'reply from' in the output, then there is no problem in the network or your system.

The ping command can also be used to verify whether the websites are actively responding or not. For instance you can use the command - ping <website name> to ping a website. If the website is actively running, then you get a response from there. The information you receive from the ping command contains the data related to the IP address, the exact number of bytes sent, the time took for sending the information packets. The lower is the number of the milliseconds that are taken for the round trip from your computer to the server, the better is the performance of the network. A higher value indicates a problem in the network between the server you have pinged and your computer.

Thus a ping command is a simple way of diagnosing problems with a network and computer connected to it. This is how you can ping a computer and use these steps the next time you have a problem with your network or your computer.

Photo Credits: Flyinace2000

Originally posted 2010-04-18 03:55:48.

This post involves:

computer networks, ip address, network, ping, ping command, ping computer

... and focuses on:

Computer Performance and Tech Support, Computer Tips, Networks

Posted by How To Computer on January 11, 2012 in Computer Performance and Tech Support, Computer Tips, Networks. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.