ping

Revised on: January 16^th, 2026

(Presented as a public service of the China–Resources.net Web–Site.)

This computer–related article is presented to the members of the Denver Mining Club. "Pinging" is a method that can lead to the identification of criminal self–styled hacktivists and eco–terrorists who have vandalized many of our computers. Such criminals deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

To submit an article for consideration, contact Lindsey V. Maness, Jr., following:

Lindsey V. Maness, Jr.
Consulting Geologist
12875 West 15^th Drive
Golden, CO 80401–3501
Tel: 303–717–1020
E–Mail: LVManess@GMail.com

Information about the PING command and its application for this article was personally demonstrated by DMC member, Lee Rice. Lindsey V. Maness, Jr. wrote this article using both information supplied by Lee Rice and already known by Maness. Lee's competence with computers and software is legendary among DMC members, many of whom he has personally helped, gratis, with computer problems.

PING

PING is a fairly primitive MS–DOS (MicroSoft Disk Operating System) Command. As such, it is supported by all except the most modern of MicroSoft Windows software. Several sets of commercial software exist that do the same things as PING, but PING is free (already included on MS–DOS systems), and does not require, as some do, users to let others load "Cookies" onto their computers, etc. One of the better–known of the commercial (ShareWare) products is called Ping Scanner, sold by Digilex, with Web–Site http://www.fantastica.com. It is an individual choice whether one prefers to use MS–DOS or a commercial product.

Different computers utilize differing methods for accessing the MS–DOS prompt. On this specific computer, MS–DOS is made available via the "Accessories" file. Others of my computers use other means. If you don't know how to access MS–DOS, click on "Start," then on "FIND," and type "DOS" in the appropriate box. The computer will state the folders that contain the acronym DOS in the title. Go from there, until you get into MS–DOS. Your screen will change dramatically, and you will observe some instructions followed by a C: and, perhaps, that will be followed by a \WINDOWS, etc.

At this point, it is necessary to become connected to the internet. When you are on–line and have an MS–DOS prompt, you can try to type any of the following commands, or variations. If you want to know how long it takes for a message to get from your computer to another on the internet, just type "ping" (without the quotes), and hit "ENTER." For example, to define how many pings to send for statistical purposes, you would type "ping \n#," where # is the number of pings to send, etc. The following commands are what you would add to the basic ping command to derive the listed results.

PING Commands

t Ping until stopped. To see statistics and continue, type Control-Break. To stop, type Control-C.
a Resolve addresses to host names.
n n count=Number of echo requests to send.
– Size
f Set Don't Fragment flag in packet.
i TTL Time To Live.
v TOS Type of Service.
r count Record route for count hops.
s count Timestamp for count hops.
j host–list Loose source route along host list.
k host–list Strict source route along host list.
w timeout Timeout in milliseconds to wait for each reply.
l size Send buffer size.

Note that there are probably additional PING commands. These are all that are known to me at this time.

Also note that it is very desirable to list information as acquired in a systematic, meaningful format. One of the advantages of commercial products is that, in some of them, such lists are recorded with time stamps, which can be useful in the event of litigation or of requesting prosecution of criminals found through application of such computer technology.

Such information should certainly include the following, if known (preferably filling–in blanks on a form -- examples given are for the commercial "PING" company, Digilex.):

IP Internet Address = 217.115.202.5

Web Address = www.fantastica.com

Physical Address = 20–53–52–43–00–00

Interface = ##.#.##.### on Interface #x# (Where # = a number). The interface is your personal connection at the time the PING was run: it refers to your end of the computer communications.

Type = Dynamic. (Other types exist, but most are of type "Dynamic".

Comments = Why you are interested in tracking this particular web entity, etc.

VeriSign is a corporation that assigns names and numbers of web–sites. Much information can be acquired from the VeriSign web–site, but it is a very confusing and often frustrating maze to work through and users are bombarded with hard–sell efforts. To find VeriSign's web–site, go to the search engine, GOOGLE and follow instructions there.

END