What is PING and How Does Work PING? – 20 PING Checker Tools

What is PING?

PING (Packet Internet Groper) is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer. The name comes from active sensors that emit electromagnetic or acoustic pulses and measure their return to determine the object’s location.

How does PING work?

Here are the steps that occur when you execute a PING command:

1. The PING command-line tool sends an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo Request message to a remote computer.

2. The remote computer receiving the ICMP Echo Request message responds with an ICMP Echo Reply message.

3. The PING command-line tool calculates and displays the round-trip time for each message sent.

What are the Benefits of PING?

PING can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

• Troubleshooting network connectivity issues
• Measuring the round-trip time for messages sent between two computers
• Identifying the source of network latency issues
• Viewing the path taken by messages between two computers
• Determining whether a specific computer or network appliance is accessible on the network

How can check any URL reachability via PING Command?

Here is an example of a PING command:

• C:\Users\Xtreme>ping www.google.com
• Pinging www.google.com [142.250.194.100] with 32 bytes of data:
• Reply from 142.250.194.100: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=57
• Reply from 142.250.194.100: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=57
• Reply from 142.250.194.100: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=57
• Reply from 142.250.194.100: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=57
• Ping statistics for 142.250.194.100:
• Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
• Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
• Minimum = 16ms, Maximum = 17ms, Average = 16ms

As you can see from the output of the PING command, the www.google.com server responded to the ICMP Echo Request message with an ICMP Echo Reply message. The PING command-line tool calculated the round-trip time for each message and displayed the results.

What are the tools to check PING?

There are many PING tools available, both commercial and open source. Some of the more popular ones include:

1. SolarWinds Pingdom

2. Nagios

3. SmokePing

4. MTR

5. WinMTR

6. Path Analyzer Pro

7. Wireshark

8. TCPdump

9. Fping

10. PathPing

11. Traceroute

12. Supertracert

13. My traceroute

14. VisualRoute

15. Advanced IP Scanner

16. Angry IP Scanner

17. Nmap

18. Advanced Port Scanner

19. Superscan

20. Netstat

These are just a few of the many PING tools available. Each has its own features and capabilities, so be sure to research each one to find the best fit for your needs.