To understand this, we must make clear what each term is. IP (Internet Protocol) is a communications protocol that is managed through the web. The IP address is that number that identifies you on the network, since each device is assigned a kind of numerical names as a registration. This is how the Internet differentiates who is who.
These are usually of two types: static or dynamic on a computer. Regardless of the type, in some cases you have to check that the computer or a web page is missing functioning correctly, and this is achieved through the execution of the ping.
If you want to learn how to ping an IP address or a URL to check if it is available, just read this article so you can do it. It’s extremely easy, so you don’t need to be a computer technician to do it.
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What is the purpose of doing PING to an IP address and what is its usefulness ?
PING or Internet packet tracking as it is also known as (Packet Internet Groper), is a command used to diagnose problems with a computer network. With this we can verify and thus know what inconvenience we have. Well, with this we will know the time it takes for a packet of information to reach the IP address and vice versa. This is how we will know if the network works, if it is down, etc.
Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to do so to make sure that the connection status of an IP address or URL is running correctly.
Mostly this procedure is carried out by network administrators or by users who have some knowledge in computer science, and use it to clear up doubts. But, as we mentioned, it’s not complicated at all, so with this guide you can easily do it.
It should be noted that all systems work similarly, the only thing that varies is the place where the access menu is located, which means that there is no special way to read an answer of this.
In case this error, it could mean many things, the main one would be that the site is down. To confirm that this is true, it would be convenient for you to ping from another computer. In the same way you could choose to try to do it with an IP address of an online service.
On the other hand, it could be that your device has connectivity problems, here you would only have to enter the browser and know if you have a stable connection, or ping other sites. We will notice all this if you throw a message like “Timeout” or if one of the packages was not completed or was lost in the process.
What methods to “ping” a website exist?
There are different ways to ping, any of them allows you to test the connection and speed between two nodes.
Next, we explain them here:
From the system terminal
You can run this from different operating systems, people who have basic knowledge know how to do a test of this type without the need to use a third-party tool.
All you have to do is go to the computer command and enter the word “ping” followed by the website. This will show the result and 4 packages that make up the data to the destination terminal at which are addressed through the IP address or by the domain name. How to do it we will see later.
Online
You can test the availability of a website from the “Site24x7.com” page, you just have to click where it says “Check the availability of the website.” With this you can monitor the performance it has, know the DNS resolution period, the connection time, the first and last byte time, as well as the response time.
From a mobile device
As we know, Android has no terminal, however, there is a way to ping these devices. To do this we must download and install an app called “Shell Terminal Emulator.” This is one of the most popular and is available in the Play Store. With it you can enter the Shell in Linux command line integrated into your system.
In iPhone the same thing happens, we have to use an external application to ping, in this case we will use “Network Ping Lite”. Particularly this is used for tests of software to debug network problems in a local area network. The results of this are shown in the form of colors, green means that everything works well, yellow is synonymous with a problem and red is that it is no longer in the network.
Tracert or Traceroute
This could be considered as a complementary method to the utilities offered by the ping command. Well, it practically fulfills the same function that we are mentioning in this article, but it provides data in a more detailed way.
It will give us information as the ping does when sending a package to the destination, but also including the route of these, the time it takes in each jump and the hosts you visit until you arrive at the place .
It is done as follows:
On Windows
Just go to “Start”> “Run”, write “cmd” and click “Accept”.
- In the command line enter the word tracert followed by a space and the domain name; ex: domain.com and then “Enter”.
- It will look like this: “tracert google.com” .
On MacOS
Go to accoun Applications ”>“ Utilities ”>“ Network Utility ”>“ Traceroute ”.
- Enter the domain or IP where it says “Please enter the address to perform Trace” and click on “Trace”.
On Linux
Go to “Applications”> “Accessories” and “Terminal”.
- Type traceroute -I domain.com. The -I option is essential for the traceroute to use ICMP.
- It will be as follows: “traceroute -I google.com.”
Steps to ping a web page to know its status
We can use this command to check the connectivity of a network or measure the slowness it has when communicating with two remote points. Also on the Internet to know the IP address used by a domain name, check the connectivity of a server and verify the connection of a computer.
In Windows
These steps are the same for any operating system, that is, Windows 10, 8 and 7.
- The first thing you should do is go to “Start” and look for the “Run” command, there you will type “cmd” in the corresponding field and click clearly Accept .
- This will open a system window. In this you will place example “ping” and you will press the space bar followed by the IP address or URL of the page. For example: «ping www.google.com»
- If you want to do it with your router, you must enter the corresponding number in this case. Example: “ping 192.168.1.1”. Then you must press enter.
If this is active you will receive the response from the server with information similar to this one where it will be displayed:
- Google’s IP address, which in this case would be “216.58.192.36”, and the number of Bytes sent.
- Then what you do is send 4 more packages where the above is specified, together with the time it took in milliseconds and the life time. The latter indicates the number of “jumps” he made from the computer to which the PING was made to the initial server).
- Finally, the complete information indicating the result is thrown. That 4 packets have been sent, all 4 have been received and therefore none were lost in the process.
It should be noted that the less time it takes to complete the process, the better. Since, the more milliseconds, the higher the slow state. Which means that there is a problem between the computer and the server to which the PING was performed.
Mac OS
In this case we will use the “Network Utility”.
- The first thing to do is open the “Spotlight”, this is displayed in a magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Then type in the search bar “Network Utility” and click on the icon. You can also find this in the “Applications” MacOS folder.
- Once it opens, click on “Ping” at the top of the window.
- Enter the URL you want and the one you want to ping in the blank text box. For example: google.com. If you want to do it with a computer you just have to do the same, but placing the IP address.
Next, you can configure to ping a specific number of times to the selected URL. For this do the following:
- Check the box for “Just send ___ ping.” There you will write the amount you want to use, then click the blue “Ping” button. It should be noted that this cannot be more than 10.
- This will show the evidence. Similar to those previously seen.
With this you will have an idea of the connection between your team and the address. If a test of these fails or fails, you must first solve the Internet link problems.
Linux
This process will be done through the “Terminal” window.
- The first thing to do is go to “Applications”> “Accessories” and “Terminal”. You can also use the “Ctrl + Alt + T” at the same time to access it directly.
- Once in the “Terminal” you will write “ping” followed by a space, and the website URL. For example: www.facebook.com.
- After pressing “enter” , the results of the ping will be thrown.
- As in previous cases, this will indicate the milliseconds it took for the destination computer to respond to your request for data and the rest of the information.