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ping ⚬ˢʰ｜Definition｜1st｜20260605164117-00-⌔
Ping (networking utility) - Wikipedia
Ping (networking utility)
Ping is a network management software utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. It is available in a wide range of operating systems.
Ping measures the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer that are echoed back to the source. The name comes from active sonar terminology that sends a pulse of sound and listens for the echo to detect objects under water.1
Ping operates by means of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets. Pinging involves sending an ICMP echo request to the target host and waiting for an ICMP echo reply. The program reports errors, packet loss, and a statistical summary of the results, typically including the minimum, maximum, the mean round-trip times, and standard deviation of the mean.
Command-line options and terminal output vary by implementation. Options may include the size of the payload, count of tests, limits for the number of network hops (TTL) that probes traverse, interval between the requests and time to wait for a response. Many systems provide a companion utility ping6, for testing on Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) networks, which uses ICMPv6.
Printed 2026-06-28.
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Mike Muuss. “The Story of the PING Program”. U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2010. My original impetus for writing PING for 4.2a BSD UNIX came from an offhand remark in July 1983 by Dr. Dave Mills… I named it after the sound that a sonar makes, inspired by the whole principle of echo-location… From my point of view PING is not an acronym standing for Packet InterNet Grouper, it’s a sonar analogy. However, I’ve heard second-hand that Dave Mills offered this expansion of the name, so perhaps we’re both right. ↩
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ping | Microsoft Learn
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(echo:: @ ᯤ)
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