How to look through the Ping

A simple way to test your internet connection is to use the Ping network command. When reporting a problem to your broadband provider you may be asked to use Ping to test your internet connection so it helps to know how to use it.

Using the "Ping" command in a command prompt, you can determine TCP/IP networks IP address as well as determine issues with the network and assists in resolving them. Running a ping command constantly, rather than the default four packets, may help with troubleshooting connectivity issues. See the ping definition for a full description. For intermittent issues and troubleshooting, you may wish to increase the number of packets sent, which can be done by passing in a parameter at the command line.

#1. Press the "Windows" key and the letter "R" Open the Windows Run box.

#2. Type "CMD" and press enter to open the command prompt.

#3. Type "ping" followed by the IP address to ping. The IP address can be on your home network or a valid IP on any network you have access to. IP Addresses are in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. Valid numbers in each octet are 0-255, except in the first octet, which can not have a 0 value.

#4. Type "-t" after the IP address to run the ping continuously or "-n x", replacing x with the desired number of packets to be sent. Press Enter to begin the Ping. After each packet, you will see the ping result for the packet, which will either time out or display a response showing the packet size and time, in milliseconds, to reach the destination.

#5. Press Control and the "C" key at the same time to stop the ping and see the summary statistics. Do this to end a continuous ping or stop a ping command before completing the specified number of packets.