Ping
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Ping is the simplest network test — you shout at a server ('hello?') and measure how long it takes to shout back ('yo!'). The result in milliseconds tells you the round-trip latency. Low ping = good. Also the name of a command you can run in your terminal.
Real Talk
Ping is a network utility that uses ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) Echo Request/Reply messages to measure the round-trip time (RTT) between a host and a destination. It's also used to test basic reachability of a host.
Show Me The Code
# Basic ping
ping google.com
# Ping with count limit
ping -c 4 8.8.8.8
# Ping with interval
ping -i 0.5 example.com
# Results:
# rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 8.2/12.4/18.6/3.1 ms
When You'll Hear This
"Ping the server to see if it's reachable." / "My ping to the game server is over 200ms — unplayable."
Related Terms
IP Address
An IP address is your device's home address on the internet.
Latency
Latency is the delay before data starts moving — the time it takes for a request to go from your device to the server and back.
Traceroute
Traceroute is like ping but it shows you every stop along the way. When your data travels from your computer to a server, it hops through many routers.