ping networking, tool

(ping, originally contrived to match submariners' term for the

sound of a returned sonar pulse) A program written in 1983 by
Mike Muuss (who also wrote TTCP) used to test reachability of
destinations by sending them one, or repeated, ICMP echo
requests and waiting for replies. Since ping works at the IP level
its server-side is often implemented entirely within the operating
system kernel and is thus the lowest level test of whether a
remote host is alive. Ping will often respond even when higher
level, TCP-based services cannot.
Sadly, Mike Muuss was killed in a road accident on 2000-11-20.
The term is also used as a verb: "Ping host X to see if it is up."
The Unix command "ping" can be used to do this and to measure
round-trip delays.
The funniest use of "ping" was described in January 1991 by Steve
Hayman on the Usenet group comp.sys.next. He was trying to
isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to a
NeXT machine. Using the sound recording feature on the NeXT, he
wrote a script that repeatedly invoked ping, listened for an echo,
and played back the recording on each returned packet. This
caused the machine to repeat, over and over, "Ping ... ping ... ping
..." as long as the network was up. He turned the volume to
maximum, ferreted through the building with one ear cocked, and
found a faulty tee connector in no time.
Ping did not stand for "Packet InterNet Groper", Dave Mills offered
this backronym expansion some time later.
See also ACK, ENQ, traceroute, spray.
The Story of the Ping Program.
Unix manual page: ping(8).
(2005-06-22)
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