Technical Briefs

ROHAN help Files

ping

The ping command is used to determine whether or not a computer is actually connected to the Internet. This is especially useful if you are trying to contact a particular computer and are getting no response. The ping command allows you to check and see if the machine is in fact "alive". For example, if you wanted to know if the computer sundown in the domain of sdsu.edu is active, you would type:

rohan% ping  sundown.sdsu.edu

After you type this command, you will get one of three responses:

sundown.sdsu.edu is alive - the computer is on the Internet and is responding

no answer from sundown.sdsu.edu - the computer is on the Internet, but is not responding

ping: unknown host sundown.sdsu.edu - the computer is not connected to the Internet