Ping is a command that allows you to verify a connection.
Ping is an acronym derived from the English expression packet internet groper , which can be translated into Spanish as “network packet finder” . In the IT field, the concept of ping is considered a command or diagnostic tool that allows verification of the status of a specific connection of a local host with at least one remote computer included in a TCP/IP type network.
With regard to the aforementioned data verification, it is surprising how useful ping is since it can be used for the well-known TCP/IP protocols, the local network, the network adapter, DNS (Domain Name System) type servers and the Internet connection.
The ping command
From the ping command, a series of information is sent to another remote computer and the response is awaited. In short, ping shows statistics for your job, indicating how many packets were responded to and how long the response took.
Ping, therefore, provides the possibility of knowing the condition, speed and quality of a network . This tool, which can be run from multiple operating systems , is included within the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) .
Specifically, we can establish that ping is used especially on Windows system devices and also on GNU Linux devices.
Its usefulness
Computer experts say that when you execute a ping request, a process begins with the local host sending an ICMP-type message included in an IP packet . This request request will also consist of an identification number and a series of 32-bit digits that must match the ICMP legend obtained in response.
Typically, the usefulness of ping is knowing the response speed or how long it takes to exchange packets. That is why the concept of ping is often used synonymously with the delay in a network connection.
Ping allows you to get the IP address of a host, know if a host exists or is responding, and find out how long it takes a host to respond to a request (which can diagnose a user connection problem or network congestion).
In different networks, ping is used as a diagnostic tool.
Ping of death
In addition to the above, we must highlight the existence of other terms that borrow the word ping. This would be the case, for example, of the so-called ping of death , which is an attack that is sent to a computer. An attack that consists of sending a large number of large ICMP-type packets to the latter with the clear objective of causing the latter's system to collapse.
Routers, printers or a large number of operating systems are those that, since 1996 , have been affected by this type of attack.
However, he is not the only one. There is also what is known as ping flood which is based on the same action, the sending of large ICMP packets, but in this specific case to a communication line in order to saturate it. This is an action that cannot be carried out by just anyone and is that you must have a large amount of computer knowledge and notions to be able to carry it out with total effectiveness.