How to use the ping command

How to use the ping command

Ping checks whether a server responds and how long the reply takes.

Open Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (macOS/Linux) and type:

ping yourdomain.co.uk

On macOS and Linux, press Ctrl+C to stop. Windows sends four pings and stops by itself.

Reading the results

  • Reply from / bytes from – the server responded
  • time= – how long it took, in milliseconds. Under 50ms is excellent in the UK; under 100ms is good.
  • Request timed out / packet loss – replies didn't arrive. Occasional loss is normal; consistent loss above a few percent points to a network problem.

Ping also shows which IP address your domain currently resolves to, which is a quick way to check whether DNS changes have reached you.

Some servers and firewalls ignore ping, so no reply doesn't always mean the site is down.

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