Collecting Ping Results

Ping is a useful tool you can use to check to see if your domain/website is reachable from your location. Some support requests require that you collect ping results and submit them along with your ticket.

How to ping your domain
We'll use DreamHost.com as an example:

$ping DreamHost.com PING DreamHost.com (66.33.201.141) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=1.74 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=2.75 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=3 ttl=63 time=2.37 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=4 ttl=63 time=3.06 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=5 ttl=63 time=4.00 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=6 ttl=63 time=1.90 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=7 ttl=63 time=2.53 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=8 ttl=63 time=2.52 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=9 ttl=63 time=2.75 ms 64 bytes from dreamhost.com (66.33.201.141): icmp_seq=10 ttl=63 time=0.554 ms --- DreamHost.com ping statistics --- 10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9093ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.554/2.421/4.007/0.861 ms

In windows you will run this from your DOS prompt. You can access the DOS prompt by clicking Start -> Run..., then typing "cmd" (for Win2k, WinXP, Vista) or "command" (for any version).

In Mac OS X you can run ping from the application called Terminal. We won't insult the UNIX/Linux crowd here with instructions on how to run ping.

Syntax is the same for all systems. Just type:

ping yourdomain.com

To ping just 10 times, format is:

ping -c 10 yourdomain.com

Of course replace yourdomain.com with the domain you are having trouble with.

Note that on *nix systems as well as MacOS X, your system will continue pinging your website until stopped. Use the second command syntax noted above, or simply press control-C (may be command-C on Mac) to stop. On DOS, the first command is equivalent to "ping -c 4 yourdomain.com".

About Pathping
Windows also has command you can run called 'pathping'. This tool is usefull as it basically combines Traceroute and ping together. Pathping runs the same as ping syntax, just add 'pathping' instead of just 'ping'. Note that Pathping will take longer to complete than running these two commands separately.

Ping along with Traceroute are helpful tools to assist you in determining the cause of connection problems. If these tools fail, comparing results between your site and a reliable site (such as Google) can be extremely valuable in determining whether the problem is your computer, your ISP, or your site.