What's a ping?

[Jayne]

Hi,

What does Ping mean, people keep saying ping the domain or something like that? What is it?

Thanks

Jayne

[mumper]

It's the other half of a pong ball Jayne :wink:

[Jayne]

Very funny, we have a comic in the house :lol:

Jayne

[confused]

ok without going into great detail, when you ping a host (name or IP) you basically send out a signal to that IP and may get a response. If you ping a name i.e. ping calvsplace.co.uk it will first do a dns lookup (find the name) then ping the IP.
have a go lol, hit start/run type cmd, on the black screen type ping calvsplace.co.uk and hit enter, you will get a response.
Ping is often used in troubleshooting on a network, for eg if a pc cant get internet access, you might ping the server or router or ping a known host such as ping www.google.com in order to try and see where the problem is.

Hope that helps without going all techy on you lol

CALV

[Urban Space]

You send out a ping, they send back a pong. It tests the speed. People on msn do it too. Tests the connection speed! :D

Liam

[Merlan]

Its a way of communicating with a machine on a local network or on the internet. It effectively ensures that a machine can be reached (eg, traffic can be sent and received)..

To do this, (assuming you are on Windows)... Click Start, then Run, then type command and hit return.. This will launch a Dos box (black and white box with text)... then type ping followed by the address.. eg:

ping www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk <RETURN>

and this will return the IP address for that domain on the internet!

Hope this makes... erm.. some sense!

[confused]

It doesnt really test the speed as such, can be used to assist in finding connectivity problems though. Can slow down a network as well though, and indeed has caused web wide problems in the past - the well known D.O.S for eg.

[Jayne]

Thanks, i'm off for a go now :D

Back soon

Jayne :D

[Urban Space]

Lol my bad then, that's what I use it for anyway :lol:!

Liam

[confused]

AHHH my firewalls going mad, someones trying to ping me to death !!

[Jayne]

Well that was boring :roll:

I'll not be pinging again, loads of techy stuff came up, but my ping was successful :lol:

Jayne

[kartel]

it also means sending a message by asking someone to ping you on msn. in basic terms hehe

[confused]

it does ?

[c4l]

I'd rather be playing ping pong i think!!

I remember good ol MS DOS now - was that what it was called?? Love a good DOS!!

[kartel]

yes it does hehe.. you never heard the phrase on msn .. ping me! lol

[confused]

nope :oops:

[Urban Space]

Aha! I knew I wasn't mad :lol:!

Liam

[DuaneJackson]

No one has mentioned yet whare the name comes from? That's the best part about a ping.

Packet INternet Groper

So you're not doing any more groping Jayne? :wink:

[confused]

I was going to but thought better of it, didnt want a bad rep lol

CALV

[DuaneJackson]

I grope on a daily basis.

To check the IP of a site, to check I am connected to the 'net, to check that a host is reachable, to check for connectivity issues.

When you're bored of groping, you're bored of life - Samuel Johnson.

Once you're done with pinging, Jayne, try tracert, ie:

tracert www.bowbiz.co.uk

This will show you the number (and name if avaiable) of all the computers and other devices your signal has to go through to get from your computer to your website.

[Jayne]

Think i'll have to do some more groping then :lol:

When i've groped though, I haven't a clue what the info is I see on the screen.

Jayne :lol:

[webit]

<whistful look>DOS...</whistful look>


Best name for an Operating System ever. QDOS

(Quick and Dirty Operating System)

[Jayne]

This computer stuff should come with an 18 rating, very rude :lol:

Jayne

[easyasit]

in laymans terms jayne pinging something is like dropping a stone down a very deep, dark hole. you do it to assertain how deep it is, and what the buttoms is like.

A ping is similar, a way of seeing if a computer can see the destination. and how long it takes for the single to get there and back

Al

[DarrenC]

All this groping is making me tired :)

[Claire B]

since reading this thread, i have spent almost the entire day 'pinging' my competitors (great fun) :D :D :D

but, the I.P addresses that show up, dont correspond with the I.P addresses on my web stats (and I know that competitors view my site regularly)

am I doing something wrong?

will they be able to tell if someone is pinging them, or even work out who?

[Jayne]

They lost me after the grope Claire :lol:

Jayne

[DuaneJackson]

but, the I.P addresses that show up, dont correspond with the I.P addresses on my web stats (and I know that competitors view my site regularly)

am I doing something wrong?


You wouldn't expect the IP addresses to match. The ip address you see when you ping www.yourcompetitior.com is the IP address of the server that hosts their website.

The IP's that would appear on your website stats if your competitior visited your site would be the IP address of the ISP they are using.

For instance, if I pinged your website I'd get one address, but that ddress would never show up in the stats for UKBF unless you actually visited the site from the actual server that hosts your site.


will they be able to tell if someone is pinging them
In theory, yes. But it's unlikely to be monitored.


or even work out who?

again, in theory yes, but this is quite dificult to do, especially if you use an ISP that allocatrd you a differnet IP every time you connect to the internet. If they were aware they were being pinged and they were to look at the IP that is pinging them - the best they'd be likely to be able to do is to know which ISP the pinger is using. Unless you use Demon or Plus Net, which is a whole different story.

[duenna]

www.dnsstuff.com more gropeing and ping poning than you can shake a stick at!