3. Can you describe the purpose of the ping tool and how it is used for network debugging? Provide an example of the output from a ping command and explain its key components.
Ping is used for network debugging. It sends ICMP echo request packets to a host that asks a recipient host to return the packet of the sender. Here's example of the output:-
ping www.emblogic.com PING emblogic.com (128.199.210.88) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=1 ttl=45 time=87.7 ms 64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=2 ttl=45 time=76.4 ms 64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=3 ttl=45 time=76.3 ms 64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=4 ttl=45 time=77.4 ms 64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=5 ttl=45 time=79.2 ms 64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=6 ttl=45 time=77.2 ms 64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=7 ttl=45 time=79.0 ms ^C --- emblogic.com ping statistics --- 7 packets transmitted, 7 received, 0% packet loss, time 6008ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 76.286/79.033/87.675/3.685 ms
Here, rtt(time) is the round trip time which is the total time between the moment that requested packet leaves & the moment the response packet arrives.
icmp_seq: it is the sequence number of the packet.
ttl: It is the maximum number of IP routers that packet can go through before being thrown away.
Ping, a network diagnostic tool, sends ICMP request packets to a host and expects the host to respond by returning the packet. An example of the output from a ping command:
ping www.emblogic.com -c3
PING emblogic.com (128.199.210.88) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=84.9 ms
64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=84.9 ms
64 bytes from 128.199.210.88 (128.199.210.88): icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=84.1 ms
--- emblogic.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 94937ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 84.111/84.624/84.910/0.363 ms
In this output:
- rtt (time) is the round-trip time, indicating the total time between the moment the requested packet leaves and the moment the response packet arrives.
- icmp_seq is the sequence number of the packet.
- ttl is the maximum number of IP routers that the packet can go through before being discarded.
- mdev is the mean deviation, representing the average of the absolute differences between each round-trip time and the average round-trip time.
