Description:

Executed from the DOS command prompt.



Many people mistakenly think of 'ping' as just a destructive tool. This is not
the case. Although the TCP/IP ping utility can be abused in a way that is commonly
termed 'Ping Of Death' or an 'ICMP Flood', it's original and most commonly used
purpose is as a verification tool.

The ping command verifies connections to remote computer or computers, by sending
ICMP echo packets to the computer and listening for echo reply packets. Ping
waits for up to 1 second for each packet sent and prints the number of packets
transmitted and received. Each received packet is validated against the transmitted
message. By default, four echo packets containing 32 bytes of data (a periodic
upper case sequence of alphabetic characters) are transmitted.

You can use the ping utility to test both the computer name and the IP address
of the computer. If the IP address is verified but the computer name is not,
you may have a name resolution problem. In this case, be sure that the computer
name you are querying is in either the local HOSTS file or in the DNS database.

Parameters:

ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l length] [-f] [-i ttl] [-v tos] [-r count] [-s count] [[-j computer-list] | [-k computer-list]] [-w timeout] destination-list
	-t	Pings the specified computer until interrupted.
	-a	Resolve addresses to computer names.
	-n count	Sends the number of ECHO packets specified by count. The default is 4.
	-l length	Sends ECHO packets containing the amount of data specified by length. The default is 64 bytes; the maximum is 8192.
	-f	Sends a Do not Fragment flag in the packet. The packet will not be fragmented by gateways on the route.
	-ittl	Sets the Time To Live field to the value specified by ttl.
	-v tos	Sets the Type Of Service field to the value specified by tos
	-r count	Records the route of the outgoing packet and the returning packet in the Record Route field. A minimum of 1 and a maximum of 9 computers may be specified by count.
	-s count	Specifies the time stamp for the number of hops specified by count.
	-j computer-list	Routes packets via the list of computers specified by computer-list. Consecutive computers may be separated by intermediate gateways (loose source routed). The maximum number allowed by IP is 9
	-k computer-list	Routes packets via the list of computers specified by computer-list. Consecutive computers may not be separated by intermediate gateways (strict source routed). The maximum number allowed by IP is 9.
	-w timeout	Specifies a timeout interval in milliseconds.
	destination-list	Specifies the remote computers to ping.

Example:

C:\\>ping -a 195.224.74.3   Pinging ns1.avnet.co.uk [195.224.74.3] with 32 bytes of data:   Reply from 195.224.74.3: bytes=32 time=190ms TTL=245   Reply from 195.224.74.3: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=245   Reply from 195.224.74.3: bytes=32 time=150ms TTL=245   Reply from 195.224.74.3: bytes=32 time=160ms TTL=245