network enabled verified low v1.0.0

ping

Network utility for testing reachability and measuring round-trip latency to a remote host.

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ping {flag-3} {flag-a} {flag-c} {flag-d} {flag-e}
📎 flag-3 📎 flag-a 📎 flag-c 📎 flag-d 📎 flag-e 
ping {flag-3} {flag-a} {flag-c} {flag-d} {flag-e}

Sandbox: execFile · Timeout: 60s

Capabilities

network.diagnostic.reachability
network.diagnostic.latency
network.diagnostic.packetloss
network.discovery.host

Parameters

Name Type Required Default Description Aliases
flag-3 string No - RTT precision (do not round up the result time) -3
flag-a string No - use audible ping -a
flag-c string No - stop after <count> replies -c
flag-d string No - use SO_DEBUG socket option -d
flag-e string No - define identifier for ping session, default is random for -e
flag-f string No - flood ping -f
flag-h string No - print help and exit -h
flag-I string No - either interface name or address -I
flag-i number No - seconds between sending each packet -i
flag-l integer No - send <preload> number of packages while waiting replies -l
flag-m string No - tag the packets going out -m
flag-M string No - define path MTU discovery, can be one of <do|dont|want|probe> -M
flag-n string No - no reverse DNS name resolution, override -H -n
flag-p string No - contents of padding byte -p
flag-q string No - quiet output -q
flag-Q string No - use quality of service <tclass> bits -Q
flag-s integer No - use <size> as number of data bytes to be sent -s
flag-S string No - use <size> as SO_SNDBUF socket option value -S
flag-t string No - define time to live -t
flag-v string No - verbose output -v
flag-w number No - reply wait <deadline> in seconds -w
flag-W string No - time to wait for response -W
flag-4 string No - use IPv4 -4
flag-b string No - allow pinging broadcast -b
flag-T string No - define timestamp, can be one of <tsonly|tsandaddr|tsprespec> -T
flag-6 string No - use IPv6 -6
flag-F string No - define flow label, default is random -F
flag-N string No - Set the flag-N parameter -N
O boolean No - report outstanding replies -O
R boolean No - record route -R
U boolean No - latency -U, -to-user

Artifacts

TypeDescriptionMIMESchemaTrust
network.diagnostic.ping.resultPing statistics and round-trip timestext/plain-verified

Contract

Inputs

network.target.host

Target hostname or IP address to ping

Outputs

network.diagnostic.ping.result

Ping response statistics including min/avg/max RTT and packet loss

Side effects: network_traffic

Workflow Edges

Produces

network.diagnostic.ping.result

Consumes

network.target.host

Resource Profile

ResourceValue
CPUlow
Memory8 MB
Networklow
Disk I/Onone

Examples

Standard connectivity test with 4 pings

ping -c 4 google.com

Continuous ping with timestamp

ping -D google.com

Flood ping for network stress testing

sudo ping -f -c 1000 localhost

Custom packet size test

ping -s 1472 -c 10 google.com

Basic usage of ping to check connectivity to a host

ping hostname_or_IP_address

Specify the number of echo requests to send

ping -c 4 hostname_or_IP_address

Set the interval between sending each packet in seconds

ping -i 2 hostname_or_IP_address

Flood ping, sending requests as fast as possible (requires root)

ping -f hostname_or_IP_address

Ping with a specified packet size in bytes

ping -s 100 hostname_or_IP_address

Set time to live to control the number of hops

ping -t 64 hostname_or_IP_address

Use IPv4 explicitly (equivalent to ping)

ping -4 hostname_or_IP_address

Use IPv6 explicitly

ping -6 ipv6_address

Display the version of the ping command

ping -V

Documentation

ping — Network Reachability Testing

Ping is one of the most fundamental network diagnostic tools. It sends ICMP Echo Request packets and measures the time taken for Echo Reply responses, providing immediate feedback on network connectivity, latency, and packet loss.

Interpreting Results

PING google.com (142.250.80.14): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 142.250.80.14: icmp_seq=0 ttl=118 time=12.345 ms
64 bytes from 142.250.80.14: icmp_seq=1 ttl=118 time=11.892 ms
--- google.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 11.892/12.119/12.345/0.227 ms

Key Metrics

Metric Interpretation
time Round-trip latency in milliseconds
packet loss Percentage of packets not returned (should be 0%)
ttl Time To Live — decremented by each router hop
stddev Jitter — variance in round-trip time

Common Diagnoses

Symptom Possible Cause
100% packet loss Host down, firewall blocking ICMP, network disconnected
High latency (>200ms) Geographic distance, satellite link, congestion
Increasing latency Network congestion, throttling, route flapping
Variable latency (jitter) Wireless interference, bufferbloat, QoS issues
TTL expired in transit Routing loop or hop count exceeded

Security Note

  • Many hosts disable ICMP echo responses for security/privacy
  • Packet loss may indicate firewalls rather than actual connectivity issues
  • Flood ping can be considered a denial-of-service attack — use responsibly

Related Tools

  • mtr — Combines ping and traceroute for continuous path analysis
  • traceroute — Path discovery to target host
  • hping3 — Advanced packet crafting and testing

Related Tools

fpinghping3mtrtraceroute

References