Computer question!

[ArtyLady]

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[Spiderman]

you know how a radar "pings" back things it finds? Well a computer ping is a similar idea.

[5hort5]

Think of a submarine in a war film, they send out pings to locate things, a ping in computer terms is much the same, your computer sends a ping to another computer to see if it is there and it expects an echo back. some program is probably using this method to check for connection to the net so if it didn't receive an echo it things it's dead. blocking pings on the firewall would have that result.

[5hort5]

Faster than me lol

[Spiderman]

So when I go on any website it sends a Ping first?

I think so. Unless you been on it before and you have cookies from it.

But some things ping you too, outside of your control of course.

[TSM]

I think so. Unless you been on it before and you have cookies from it.

But some things ping you too, outside of your control of course.

No a ping is not done when you connect to a device.

Many devices do not respond to pings for security reasons etc.

Ping is a realy a diagnostic tool, like a 'hey are you alive...yes i am', it reports round trip times etc. so ping a computer in NY and it will report abt 90ms etcc round trip ie the time it takes for the ping to get to the computer and come back to you.

there are diffrent types of ping, TCP and ICMP
one is a guranteed ping test while the other is a best effort type
but even if you get no reply, does not mean the computer is off, it could just be set to not respond

[Spiderman]

TSM knows waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more about this stuff than me Lorna so whatever he says is right.

[TSM]

So it's not trying to hack into my computer then? :-s

Its used as a scouting process for many virusus and trojans, check and see if computer is on, if ping is allowed then they go for a scan for services to exploit.
Its ok to block all incomming pings.

There are genuine uses for ping but not usualy unwanted.

[TSM]

TSM knows waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more about this stuff than me Lorna so whatever he says is right.
not always, sudoxe and others are better than me at this suff

[TSM]

Hi TSM I did block them and then I couldn't get on here :( but they weren't from here that is the puzzling thing! :confused:
You prob blocked DNS responses then.

[timwilky]

As others have said, ping is a tool that reports round trip time for one computer to see a second. It is basically the same tool as traceroute (tracert for you windws types) whereby a number of "hops" is specified and the ping message sent out with an increasing hop count in the packet.

Many bastion firewalls will not respond to ping etc for the reasons specified by TSM

DNS is the domain name service that translates names such as forums.sv650.org into an ipaddress.

At a command window type "nslookup forums.sv650.org" for an example

[Dicky Ticker]

To put it all politely Arty is more used to Soap giving her knicker elastic a "Ping":)
That bit she knows what happens

L--Glad you is back,Fizz checked it out and it wasn't at the Org end

[timwilky]

I do apologise for my rash assumption that everyone who used the internet knew a little bit about computers/networking etc.

So, every device on the internet has an address. This is called the IPAddress and is in the form of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, where each xxx is a number between 1 and 254. the range of numbers indicates a class and each network provider has been allocated one or more networks and the right to then allocated sub numbers on that network to their users.

The ipaddress is not easily usable for humans. So we use URLs (network names). They are structured so that their resolution to an address is easy/quick. This resolution is performed by Domain Network Services or DNS.

forums.sv650.org resolves to 79.123.35.161. Which would you rather remember?


Ping indicates how quickly the internet can be navigated for one computer to talk to the next. However, you may want to know (Particularly when you are experiencing problems) how quick each network segment is that you are using.
So for my home PCE:\Documents and Settings\tjw>tracert forums.sv650.org

Tracing route to forums.sv650.org [79.123.35.161]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms firewall [10.34.220.81]
2 6 ms 7 ms 7 ms cpc1-pres13-2-0-gw.pres.cable.virginmedia.com [94.170.232.1]
3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms osr01pres-ge327.network.virginmedia.net [80.0.161.29]
4 5 ms 7 ms 7 ms pres-core1a-ge010-0.network.virginmedia.net [80.0.160.69]
5 8 ms 7 ms 7 ms lee-bbaxe-603-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.105.175.173]
6 39 ms 127 ms 10 ms nth-bb-b-as2-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.185.101]
7 12 ms 15 ms 16 ms tele-ic1as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.184.2]
8 13 ms 15 ms 15 ms g1-1-8-t40-br3.router.uk.clara.net [212.43.163.94]
9 16 ms 15 ms 15 ms ten1-0-0-t40-cr2.router.uk.clara.net [195.8.86.141]
10 13 ms 18 ms 15 ms ten0-0-0tcl2-cr1.router.uk.clara.net [195.157.6.22]
11 13 ms 15 ms 16 ms g8-1-tcl2-ar1.router.uk.clara.net [195.8.68.18]
12 13 ms 23 ms 17 ms du-053-0050.access.clara.net [80.168.47.50]
13 18 ms 16 ms 15 ms mail.wenn.com [79.123.35.161]

Trace complete.

The above timings are taken by the tracert command pinging each intermediate device. However, you may have noticed that the last node is not forums.sv50.org. That is because the this url is virtual, as in it is one of many names hosted on this server and it is the job of the web server to send you to the right web base based on information contained in the request.

Command windows vary depending upon what operating system you are using. On a windows box use start ->run and enter cmd. You will then get a black box in which you can enter quaint old commands like people used to do before graphical user interfaces became available.

out of interest, do the above and enter "ipconfig" without the quotes.

This will show you that your pc has an ipaddress assigned by your network provider.

Whilst there type "ping forums.sv650.org" and that should indicate how quickly you can navigate the network to the org.

[-Ralph-]

Thank you Tim for assuming that I have a clue what you are talking about! I am mere granny type mortal you know! ;) :D

I don't know what trcert is, I don't don't what hops are, I don't know what a command window type is, or an ipaddress :confused: :(

You shout into a deep cave, your voice bounces of the walls, hits the back of the cave, and comes back to you as an echo.

You are one computer, the back wall of the cave is the other computer.

You are in one location, the back wall of the cave is in another, these are your IP Addresses.

Your voice is the "ping"

Each wall your voice bounces off on it's way to the back of the cave is a "hop"

The list of which walls your voice bounced off on it's way to the back of the cave is the "Trace Route" (tracert)

The "command window" is your voice box, taking instructions from your brain to make a noise.

Clear as mud? ;)

[TSM]

I just never changed the RDNS on that IP :)
ping mail.wenn.com, you will see its actualy diffrent IP anyway

The forums are most definatly a seperate system of its own, but virtulised.

Gives away who i work for :)

Should not show a ping on the last hop, i think i forgot and left ping turned on to that IP
mmm i should turn it off me think

[Sudoxe]

Thank you so much Tim that made much more sense :D

this what came up on my log -

mail.wenn.com [79.123.35.161]

which you'd listed as being the Org no. what I don't understand is when I looked up that website it was one I'd never been on before (celebrities or something!) so that was why I blocked it! so still a bit of a mystery to me in all honesty!

(I knew I shoulda done more studies in computing :( ;))


Also many companies host 100's, if not 1000's of websites on one IP address. So a machine could say it is server.internetcompany.com but also be www.sv650.org, www.ilovekawasakis.com and www.hondalover.com

You can safely ignore pings. To be honest, I'm surprised you are seeing them on your computer. Most setups nowadays (routers running nat) also have a firewall module and will either reply or block them it's self and not pass it onto the computer unless specifically told to.

Dan