ping

Run from the command prompt, Ping is a quick and easy way to check that the server you are trying access is available and that you have network connectivity to it.

Ping is available on most operating systems, this tutorial shows how to use it from Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Unix / Linux.

Microsoft Windows

Launch the Command Prompt and type the following;

ping www.exampledomain.com

Example results from the ping command are shown further down this page.

Apple Mac (OS X)

Launch Network Utility (OS X), select the Ping tab, enter the URL and click the Ping button:

Gotta love Apple - so easy to use!

Unix/Linux

At the command prompt type the following;

ping -c 3 www.exampledomain.com

An example of the output is shown further down this page.

Example Output

The examples below show what the output of the ping command looks like on various operating systems.

Windows

C:\>ping www.adaptavist.com

Pinging adaptavist-ssl.adaptavist.com [89.21.10.203] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 89.21.10.203: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=55
Reply from 89.21.10.203: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=55
Reply from 89.21.10.203: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=55
Reply from 89.21.10.203: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 89.21.10.203:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 11ms, Maximum = 14ms, Average = 12ms

C:\>

Unix / Linux

$ ping -c 3 www.adaptavist.com
PING adaptavist-ssl.adaptavist.com (89.21.10.203) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from company.internal.adaptavist.net (89.21.10.203): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=12.4 ms
64 bytes from company.internal.adaptavist.net (89.21.10.203): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=14.0 ms
64 bytes from company.internal.adaptavist.net (89.21.10.203): icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=13.2 ms

--- adaptavist-ssl.adaptavist.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2022ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 12.462/13.248/14.021/0.636 ms
$

Example Problems

If there's a problem reaching the server, the output will look something like this:

C:\>ping www.problemhost.com

Pinging www.problemhost.com [192.168.1.200] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.200:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\>

Sometimes ping will be able to reach the server, but the connection may be a bit flakey - the statistics shown at the end of the ping output indicate if there is any "packet loss" which is a common indication of a faulty internet connection.

Diagnosing Problems

If ping fails to reach the site, there will likely be a "break" in the internet between your computer and our server. You can use tracert (Microsoft Windows), the Traceroute tab in Network Utility (OS X) or traceroute (Unix/Linux) to find out exactly where the problem lies.