What does "ping" mean....

As I grok it, ping is an older internet term originating in early online chat forums like IRC, and on the usenet way back when people would actually use it for chat. Any internet function where communication passes from the source through several servers before it reaches the recipient makes use of the ping. Pretty much everything these days. A ping was (and still is though not in common forum sprach) one computer passing notes to another and timing how long it takes the note to get there. This is very important to know in real time communication. If you are talking to someone and they suddenly become non-responsive, you might ping them. Odds are you will find it is taking an inordinately long time for communication to get from your computer to theirs, a sign that your or their connectivity to the interface in use is wobbly. Or it could just be that the person you are talking to has had to make a mad dash to another room because children and kittens are conspireing to paint the house with kool-aid, or they fell asleep at the keyboard, or any of a number of things. In that case they will usually see that you pinged them and get back to you. This has given rise to the use of the term as a "hey! I want your attention!" notice addressed to specific people.

Most programs that connect to the net these days will send out a ping automatically as needed. I am less than enchanted with this function myself, but then I am seriously considering a jump to linux for the online computer because I kind of miss command line functions.

NightMist

I use the command line command 'ping' in linux all the time - to see if it is my connection that is down, or something further afield. Ping is definitely my friend :-)

Hanne in DK Linux/unix user of 16+ years

And I'd be willing to bet that the word itself -- "ping" -- was used because of the similarity to sonar. When a sonar signal is sent out and then returns it's called a "ping" because that's the actual sound the signal makes. We've all heard it when watching movies or programs on the telly -- that suspenseful ping, ping, ping when the submarine guys are trying to find the undersea monsters :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

I believe it's just a term used on Usenet newsgroups to draw a specific person's attention to a post. It could be that the person's email address isn't known or perhaps the post might be of interest to the group but is definitely of interest to the "pinged" person. Is that what you were wondering?

I always thought it was short for "paging". You know "Paging Laurie G, Paging Laurie G".

Much simpler than the techie explanation :-)

~~~~~~~ Laurie G. >> And how do you do it, exactly?

Yep, you got it in one!

(How odd that my two favorite submarine movies are Up Periscope and Down Periscope----and those are two very **different** movies. :)

--pig

Yes! And thanks. Not sure how it happens though...whether there is some sort of `ping` function or whether you just type it into the message header.

Lynne

That exactly how I have always used the term too, Laurie!

Marco

PAT

Marco

PAT

Polo, polas, Polly

"Pat in Virginia" <

On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:32:16 -0500, Pat in Virginia wrote (in article ):

Polo.

Maureen