Utility Ping: What is PING?
Ping is one of the most useful network debugging tools available. It is used to determine the speed of a Network Connection and also used in many other networking utilities.
Actually, Ping has taken on several distinct meanings. One is that Ping is actually an acronym for the words 'Packet Internet Groper'. Another is that it is in fact not an acronym at all, but a noun that was adopted from a verb the US Navy uses to describe what its submarines do when looking for objects under the sea. Their subs send out sonar waves and then wait for a return wave when it bounces off something, such as another sub, whale, ocean floor etc. This, in turn, was adopted from bats and dolphins, who navigate in roughly the same way. This is what a system administrator does when Ping is used. So Ping has evolved into a verb in the computer industry, and it is used in somewhat the same manner of the Navy.
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