Ping is one of the basic network commands that we have to check the connectivity between two computers. On some occasions we may find that we cannot access a computer on our network, a web page, a resource on the network and more. To find out where the problem is, we use a very useful tool and it is none other than the famous ping that almost everyone will have heard of sometime. Generally, all operating systems usually come with a tool that allows us to ping, although there are also more complete programs that allow us to do so. In this tutorial we are going to explain how to ping an IP in Windows and in other operating systems such as Linux, macOS, Android and also in Apple‘s iOS. Both through the system’s own tool and through programs.
We are going to start by explaining what ping is and what it is for. Then we will explain how to ping different operating systems. Next, we will mention programs for Windows and for Android that allow us to ping more than one IP simultaneously.
What is a ping and what is it for?
Ping can be considered a utility for network diagnosis, this utility allows us to check the status of communication between the local computer and one or more destination computers, all of them using the IP protocol. Pinging an IP sends an ICMP Echo Request message to the destination host, and when the destination host receives it, it responds to it. The reply is made with an ICMP Echo Reply message.
Based on that response, the minimum, average, and maximum time it takes to respond is then calculated. In case of not obtaining a response in a predetermined time, a message will appear indicating that there is no connection with the host, the network is unreachable or that the route to the host is not found, among other errors that the ICMP protocol itself will return.
The ping will help us to know if we have a connection problem with a website or device on our network. For example, let’s say we can’t print with our network printer. If we ping the printer and it responds, that could mean we have a driver problem or something wrong configured. On the other hand, if it does not respond to the ping, it means that we have a problem related to the network, such as, for example, that an IP has not been assigned or we have an IP conflict. It could also be something physical affecting the router, network cabling, or devices.
How to ping an IP in Windows
To use ping in Windows we have to open a command line window. Those who have used MS-DOS will know many of the commands that can be used here. If we want to open a window to put our commands we will go to:
- Windows start menu.
- We write run and give “enter”.
- There we type CMD and a window will appear to enter commands.
Then, if we type ping and press “enter” it will give us this information.
Here he explains the syntax of the ping command and the options it allows. Now, let’s start with a simple example. Suppose we want to ping the IP of our router. If we do not know what it is, we must have previously used the command ipconfig / all where the default gateway is the IP of our router.
In this case, it would be to type ping 192.168.1.1 and press “enter”, and it would give these results:
The information that it shows us when we ping our equipment is the following:
- Bytes : is the size of the data packet sent.
- Time : This is the time it took to send and receive response from the destination host.
- TTL : it is the time of life, this is done like this so that the packet is not crossing the network infinitely.
- Packages : shows the information on the number of packages sent, received and lost.
- Approximate round trip time in milliseconds : thanks to this, we can know how long it took on average for the four ping requests it has made.
Instead, this is what would happen if we ping an address where there is no team or is not available at the time.
Here it is indicating that from our source IP, which is 192.168.1.2, the destination Host is inaccessible at that time. On the other hand, on some occasions it shows us that the waiting time has expired and the 4 packages sent have been lost.
Additional parameters in the Windows ping command
In the previous section, by just typing the command and pressing «enter» we could see the options it offered. Then we saw how pinging more the destination IP offered us valuable information. Now it is time to put a couple of examples with the parameters that we can use to ping an IP and customize how we want the command to act. His way of working would be putting Ping + parameter + IP.
For example, with the -t option we could make an unlimited number of pings to the destination host.
So in this way I would be doing Ping until we close the window.
Another widely used parameter would be -n, which is used to specify the number of ping requests we want to make to a host. This would be an example with 8 requests.
Instead of the 4 that come by default, it has made 8.
GUI ping: ping multiple IPs in Windows
Ping GUI is a free and open source program that will allow us to make several pings at the same time to different IP addresses and domains from the same interface. This, for example, would save us from having to open multiple command prompt windows. If you want to try it, you can download it from the following link . The program is a portable version, so once downloaded we can run it and a screen like this will appear.
To use it, what we have to do is put the IP addresses or domains in the upper part of the window. Once they are set, the next step we have to take is to check the Ping continuously option. To begin, we will simply have to press the Ping button and it will offer us results like these.
How to ping an IP on any Linux system
Linux also allows the use of the Ping command. Among its most outstanding parameters or options we have:
- -c : to set the number of packets to ping.
- -i : to determine the time interval between each packet. The default interval is one second.
- -s : to delimit the size of the packets.
This would be an example where you can see the ping syntax on Linux with various options.
Here you can see that the time interval that has been set is two seconds.
Angry IP Scanner program to ping an IP on Windows, Linux and MAC
Angry IP Scanner can be defined as a very fast port and IP address scanner. In that sense, it can scan IP addresses in any range, as well as any of its ports. It is multi-platform, lightweight, and requires no installation. This is the initial screen of this tool for Linux with Ubuntu:
It works by pinging each IP address to check if it is active, then optionally you can resolve its hostname, determine MAC address, scan ports, and more. You can download it from here for Windows , Linux and Mac OS .
Pinging an IP from an Android or IOS mobile
On smartphones we can also ping, the only thing we will have to do through apps. For example, on Android you could ping with Fing:
You can download it from the Play Store from here:
Two other Android applications that we could also use are He.net Network Tools and NetX Network Tools:
In all of them the operation is the same, we select the “ping” utility and proceed to enter the IP address or domain.
As for Apple’s iOS, we can use Network Ping Lite and also iNetTools – Ping, DNS, Port Scan .
As you can see, you can ping an IP in different ways and using different operating systems, and all this very easily and quickly.