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pinging the ddsktop

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9 replies

by bfadero

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I was confronted with a scenario where if I were to ping a website address(www.hotmail.com) using DOS, the request usually times out, but if I where to use my browser to check the website, it opens. Can the reason for this be explained?

9 replies

by an_it_guy

If you are behind some firewall, theres a possibility to have "ping" function blocked for pinging out of LAN.

by kinetechs

an_it_guy has it dead-on.

Ping uses the ICMP protocol while web (HTTP) uses TCP...different protocols...different ports.

Cheers!
~Sean

by bchesmer

Another reason may be that the site you are trying to ping may have the it disabled (It won't answer a ping request).

by charles_j_smith

The answers above are all correct and good possibilities. If you can get to the web page and the response time appears normal (meaning the page loads as fast as other web pages on the internet ) then I would suggest that the pings you are sending out are most likely getting dropped by security on the destination network. Typically, you either can or can not ping, but there are some networks out there that allow X number of pings and then start dropping the pings (because they assume you are performing a denial of service attack).

Ex:
ping www.google.com (they allow ping)
ping www.microsoft.com (not allowed)
(So, in the example above you get responses back from google yet Microsoft chooses not to respond to any)

On the other hand, if the web site loads slower than most pages, then chances are you might be suffering performance issues and the pings are being dropped because there is something wrong in the path between you and the destination host. To troubleshoot it more, perform a traceroute to the host and see how far you make it before getting the drop. (Note: Traceroutes may or may not work depending on what network you are attached to and if the Administrators allow you to perform traceroutes).

I hope this answers your question in regard to pinging web sites on the internet. Email me if you have anything I did not answer.

Chuck

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