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Ping (Packet Internet Groper) is a
very useful utility that is part of the basic TCP/IP protocols package
and is standard with every UNIX system. A computer that is running the
TCP/IP protocol stack can make use of the ping
command.
Ping is a good low-level
troubleshooting tool. The ping
command tests basic connectivity between TCP/IP hosts by sending an
ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) echo request to another
computer or "host" on a TCP/IP network. If there is a reply
from the destination host, then there is a good connection between
them. Ping uses IP datagrams to pass connection information, so a ping
will test from the physical layer (layer 1) of the OSI model up
through the network layer (layer 3). If you are unable to run an
application on a remote host, you can ping it as a basic connectivity
test. If you do not get a response, the problem may not be with the
application, but instead, the host may be down or the network link may
be down.
Note: In order to use the ping
command in Solaris, you may need to specify the full pathname
of: /usr/sbin/ping
Any network operating system that is
running the TCP/IP protocol can send and respond to ping. You
can ping the name of a host computer if you have a naming
service running such as Domain Name Service (DNS) or if you have
entered the host name and IP address in your /etc/inet/hosts file. If
not, you can directly ping the IP address of the host, which is
preferred since it is a more basic test of connectivity. Figure
shows an example using the
ping
command.
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