Pings are commands which use an IP address to send out a set of packets of the Internet or network to a specific computer so that the computer acknowledges that the packet was received. Pinging was originally made to verify the network connectivity between computers, but now it is no longer a reliable source for verifying connectivity because many Internet Service Providers began to filter out pings from their networks.

The technical definition of a ping is an administration utility which is used to test whether or not a host can be reached over an IP network. It also measures the amount of time it takes for the packets to be sent to the destination computer from the host computer. A ping can have various options depending on what uses need to be implemented. Some of ping uses are time stamping options, automated repeating operation for a specified number of probes, estimating packet size of a probe, and performing a ping flood. A ping flood is an option which is easily abused because attackers can overwhelm the victim’s computer with ICMP request packets.

One of the most well known terms for pinging is in regards to blogs. Often you will see inexperienced bloggers asking “what are pings?” because it is such a popular phrase to hear around blogging. These kinds of pings notify website ranking services and search engines like Technorati and Google that you have updated your website so they can assess it and index your updates. All public websites should have pinging enabled so the latest updates can be visible on search engines. Some web services like Pingomatic provide a program that will automatically ping your website. If you have a private site that you do not want the public to know about, then you should disable all pinging options.