Some Network Troubleshooting Tips- Part: 1

• PING

PING is used to test network connectivity response between two computers on a
network.

You can think of a PING command like submarines and naval ships that send a
“ping” sound to determine the distance between objects based on the amount of
time it takes to receive a response.

PING sends a packet in the form of an Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP) packet.

The most important aspect of PING is the fact that it shows whether there is a
response from a target computer. In this way you can determine if network
communication is possible between two computers.

• This example shows a PING to the IP address 216.239.57.99 in which the
target computer responds.

H:\>ping 216.239.57.99
Pinging 216.239.57.99 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.239.57.99: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=46
Reply from 216.239.57.99: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=46
Reply from 216.239.57.99: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=46
Reply from 216.239.57.99: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=46
Ping statistics for 216.239.57.99:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 31ms, Average = 27ms

Some further information about the above example:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)

Packet loss is the loss of data that was sent during a ping. It is not uncommon to see a 25% loss in the case of only pinging four times. However a 75% loss indicates communication issues that are usually physical on the network such as cabling and switches.