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How to ping a server?

Published in Network Troubleshooting 3 mins read

To ping a server, you can use the command prompt (or terminal) on your computer to send a signal and see if the server responds. Here's how:

Steps to Ping a Server

  1. Open the Command Prompt: The method for doing this depends on your operating system.

    • Windows: Search for "Command Prompt" in the Start Menu.
    • macOS: Open "Terminal" from Applications/Utilities.
    • Linux: Open your distribution's terminal application.

  2. Type the "ping" command: In the command prompt window (the "black box"), type ping followed by a space.

  3. Enter the IP address or domain name: After the space, type the IP address (e.g., 192.XXX.X.X as provided in the reference) or the domain name (e.g., google.com) of the server you want to ping. For example: ping 192.168.1.1 or ping google.com.

  4. Press Enter: This executes the ping command.

  5. Review the ping results displayed: The command prompt will display the results of the ping. These results show if the server is reachable and how long it takes for the signal to travel to the server and back (the round-trip time).

Interpreting Ping Results

The output of the ping command usually includes the following information:

  • Reply from [IP address]: This indicates that the server responded to your ping.
  • Time: This shows the round-trip time in milliseconds (ms). A lower time indicates a faster connection.
  • TTL (Time To Live): This value indicates how many "hops" the packet can take before it's discarded to prevent infinite loops.
  • Request timed out: This indicates that the server did not respond within the default time frame. This could mean the server is down, unreachable, or blocking ping requests.

Example

Here's an example of what you might see in the command prompt:

ping google.com

Pinging google.com [142.250.184.142] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 142.250.184.142: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=116
Reply from 142.250.184.142: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=116
Reply from 142.250.184.142: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=116
Reply from 142.250.184.142: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=116

Ping statistics for 142.250.184.142:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 9ms, Maximum = 11ms, Average = 10ms

In this example, google.com responded to all four ping requests, with an average round-trip time of 10ms.

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