4Tools and Resources

Tip 33: Become Familiar with the ping Utility

One of the most fundamental and useful tools for debugging networks and the applications that run on them is the ping utility. Its primary function is to verify connectivity between two hosts. As such, it is an invaluable tool for debugging network problems.

Before we go on, we should clear up a couple of misunderstandings about ping. First, according to the author Mike Muuss, “ping” does not stand for packet internet groper, but was named for the sound that submarine sonar makes. The history of the ping program and its development is recounted on Muuss’ The Story of the Ping Program page at <http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/ping.html>, where there is also a copy of the source code. ...

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