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Ping means Packet Internet Groper. It is used to send an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request and echo reply to verify the availability of a local or remote machine. You can think of Ping as a utility that sends a message to another machine asking: “Are you still there?” By default, in Windows Server 2008 R2, Ping sends out four ICMP packages and waits for responses back in one second. However, the number of packages sent or time to wait for responses can be changed through the options available for Ping.

Besides verifying the availability of a remote machine, Ping can help determine a name resolution problem.

To use Ping, go to a command prompt and type Ping Targetname. Different parameters can be used with Ping. To display them, type Ping /? or Ping (without parameters).

The parameters for the Ping command are as follows:

. -4—Specifies that IPv4 is used to ping. This parameter is not required to identify the target host with an IPv4 address. It is required only to identify the target host by name.

. -6—Specifies that IPv6 is used to ping. Just like –4, this parameter is not required to
identify the target host with an IPv6 address. It is required only to identify the target host by name.

. -a—Resolves the IP address to the hostname. The hostname of the target machine is
displayed if this command is successful.

. -f—Requests that echo back messages are sent with the Don’t Fragment flag in packets. This parameter is available only in IPv4.

. -i ttl—Increases the timeout on slow connections. The parameter also sets the value of the Time to Live (TTL). The maximum value is 255.

. -j HostList—Routes packets using the host list, which is a series of IP addresses separated by spaces. The host can be separated by intermediate gateways (loose source route).

. -k HostList—Similar to –j but hosts cannot be separated by intermediate gateways (strict source route).

. -l size—Specifies the length of packets in bytes. The default is 32. The maximum size is 65,527.

. -n count—Specifies the number of packets sent. The default is 4.

. -r count—Specifies the route of outgoing and incoming packets. It is possible to specify a count that is equal to or greater than the number of hops between the source and destination. The count can be between 1 and 9 only.

. -R—Specifies that the round-trip path is traced (available on IPv6 only).

. -s count—Sets the time stamp for the number of hops specified by count. The count must be between 1 and 4.

. -S SrcAddr—Specifies the source address to use (available on IPv6 only).

. -t—Specifies that Ping should continue sending packets to the destination until interrupted. To stop and display statistics, press Ctrl+Break. To stop and quit PING, press Ctrl+C.

. -v TOS—Specifies the value of the type of service in the packet sent. The default is zero. TOS is specified as a decimal value between 0 and 255.

. -w timeout—Specifies the time in milliseconds for packet timeout. If a reply is not received within the timeout, the Request Timed Out error message is displayed. The default timeout is four seconds.

. TargetName—Specifies the hostname or IP address of the destination to ping.

Source of Information : Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed (2010)