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Ping Gateway

Ping is used to check for a network path to a specific host. In this case the script will ping from webreference.com to the host you provide. Ping should be the first TCP/IP diagnostic tool you use when tracking down a network problem. Ping uses a series of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP, often-pronounced eye-comp) messages, that produces an Echo message to which every host responds. When Ping uses the ICMP messages and replies, it can determine whether the other system is alive, and also compute the round-trip delay in communicating with that system. So Ping can show you how fast the connection is between two ip addresses or domains. Example:

% ping -s cnet.com 64 5
PING cnet.com (204.162.80.181): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 204.162.80.181: icmp_seq=0 ttl=248 time=14.911 ms
64 bytes from 204.162.80.181: icmp_seq=1 ttl=248 time=11.018 ms
64 bytes from 204.162.80.181: icmp_seq=2 ttl=248 time=10.966 ms
64 bytes from 204.162.80.181: icmp_seq=3 ttl=248 time=10.563 ms

--- cnet.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 20% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 10.563/11.864/14.911 ms

Note that for a typical dial-up TCP/IP connection, the round-trip travel time is in hundreds of milliseconds. You do not have to have an account on a system to ping its IP address. Although a system may disable the automatic response to ICMP messages, most systems respond to ping. Example:

% ping -s 152.160.99.25 64 5
PING 152.160.99.25 (152.160.99.25): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 152.160.99.25: icmp_seq=0 ttl=50 time=291.041 ms
64 bytes from 152.160.99.25: icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=248.632 ms
64 bytes from 152.160.99.25: icmp_seq=3 ttl=50 time=240.863 ms
64 bytes from 152.160.99.25: icmp_seq=4 ttl=50 time=265.852 ms

--- 152.160.99.25 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 20% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 240.863/261.596/291.041 ms

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Script revised: June 16, 1999