How to troubleshoot network connectivity with ping Print

TESTING NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

Many scenarios require you to test things locally on your computer using the command line. For example, if you are trying to test the connection between your computer and a remote host, a web-based tool cannot provide this information. It only tests the connection from its own server to the remote host.

The exact steps to use the ping and traceroute tools from the command line depend on your computer's operating system. Follow the appropriate procedures below for your operating system.

Testing host availability with ping

The basic ping test is one of the easiest things you can do to verify connectivity between your computer and a remote host. This test is easy to run from the command line.

USING PING ON MICROSOFT WINDOWS

To use the ping program on Microsoft Windows, follow these steps:

1. Open a DOS command window. To do this, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press Enter.
2. At the command prompt, type the following command. Replace example.com with the domain that you want to test:

   ping example.com
   

3. Interpret the output from ping:

   • If the remote host is active and configured to respond to ping requests, responses appear. For example, the following output shows ping responses from an thobson Hosting server:

     C:\Users\Thobson-Support>ping thobson.com
     
     Pinging thobson.com [72.52.178.67] with 32 bytes of data:
     Reply from 72.52.178.67: bytes=32 time=252ms TTL=48
     Reply from 72.52.178.67: bytes=32 time=267ms TTL=48
     Reply from 72.52.178.67: bytes=32 time=266ms TTL=48
     Reply from 72.52.178.67: bytes=32 time=255ms TTL=48
     
     Ping statistics for 72.52.178.67:
         Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
     Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
         Minimum = 252ms, Maximum = 267ms, Average = 260ms