Pinging

Ping \Ping\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Pinged}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Pinging}.]
   To make the sound called ping.
   [1913 Webster]
    

ping
Packet InterNet Groper
ping command
pinging

   <networking, tool> (ping, originally contrived to match
   submariners' term for the sound of a returned sonar pulse) A
   program written in 1983 by Mike Muuss (who also wrote {TTCP})
   used to test reachability of destinations by sending them one,
   or repeated, {ICMP} echo requests and waiting for replies.
   Since ping works at the {IP} level its server-side is often
   implemented entirely within the {operating system} {kernel}
   and is thus the lowest level test of whether a remote host is
   alive.  Ping will often respond even when higher level,
   {TCP}-based services cannot.

   Sadly, Mike Muuss was killed in a road accident on 2000-11-20.

   The term is also used as a verb: "Ping host X to see if it is
   up."

   The {Unix} command "ping" can be used to do this and to
   measure round-trip delays.

   The funniest use of "ping" was described in January 1991 by
   Steve Hayman on the {Usenet} group comp.sys.next.  He was
   trying to isolate a faulty cable segment on a {TCP/IP}
   {Ethernet} hooked up to a {NeXT} machine.  Using the sound
   recording feature on the NeXT, he wrote a {script} that
   repeatedly invoked ping, listened for an echo, and played back
   the recording on each returned {packet}.  This caused the
   machine to repeat, over and over, "Ping ... ping ... ping ..."
   as long as the network was up.  He turned the volume to
   maximum, ferreted through the building with one ear cocked,
   and found a faulty tee connector in no time.

   Ping did not stand for "Packet InterNet Groper", Dave Mills
   offered this {backronym} expansion some time later.

   See also {ACK}, {ENQ}, {traceroute}, {spray}.

   The Story of the Ping Program
   (http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/ping.html).

   {Unix manual page}: ping(8).

   (2005-06-22)