What is ping

Now almost every computer is connected to the Internet. Millions of users every day go online: someone for work, and someone for entertainment. It would seem: the most important features of the functioning of the Network are known to everyone. However, the question "what is ping", often asked in the forums, allows us to question the sufficiency of knowledge.

If the average owner of the computer connected to the Internet is asked to choose the best provider from the list, then 90% will be indicated by the one who provides the highest speed. In part, this answer is correct, but in addition to speed there are a number of other characteristics that affect the convenience of working with the Network. One of them is ping. Without understanding what ping is, it is impossible to explain much in the work of the Network. Let's give an example from life: there are two computers connected to different providers (one - to wire, the other - through the radio channel). The declared speed corresponds to the actual speed. It would seem: the time spent downloading the same file should be equal. Even with a small margin of error. In practice, this equation is not respected. Who knows what ping is, will easily explain what is happening.

Experience shows that it is much easier to deliver something to a reader who is not familiar with the topic, if we use analogies. Therefore, let's do this by telling what ping is.

Imagine that there are two athletes, a runner. Their theoretical capabilities are the same: in the test races, both run through a hundred-meter per minute. Suppose that they are faced with the task of running from one end of the city to the other. Obviously, the shortest path is a straight line, and therefore they immediately run along a straight road. But after the first intersection everything changes: one always gets the green light of a traffic light, the road does not block the road, and if an obstacle does come across, it can be easily overcome, and the further way is laid along a clean asphalt road. Alas, the second athlete is unlucky: the laces will untie at the most inopportune moment, then the sand is accidentally scattered, and the road often overlaps, and one has to go to the goal by alleys.

Athletes are bits of information transmitted by a computer to the Internet. Intersections are servers, nodes that form a single network from communication lines. Roads are highways (twisted pair, fiber, radio frequency). Sand, shoelaces, traffic lights and other obstacles symbolize the influence of the hardware and software elements of the Network on the speed of the bits of information.

So, ping is the delay to which the transmitted signal is subjected. The less they are - the faster the work with the data on the Web. And the connection speed, as seen from the example, is the same. The conclusion is simple - the quality of the channel on the Internet is determined by both speed and ping.

For fans of online battles ping plays a more important role than other characteristics. After all, you need to react in time to the action on the screen, and this is impossible if everyone receives a server response, for example, in 1 second, and the unlucky user in 5 seconds.

How to learn ping? This can be done directly from the Windows environment. For this, there is a built-in ping command. Usually this is the way to check the ping site. This allows not only to select the site (server) with the least ping, but also to check its availability (to determine if the site is working).

For example, to check the ping to this site, press Win + R, type ping site (Enter). Delay is displayed in milliseconds. By the way, in order not to catch the moment when you press the Pause button, you can create a bat file of this content:

Ping fb.ru

Pause

To reduce ping, you need to: change provider, modem, tariff plan, install CFosSpeed program and enable ping optimization (controversial, but the function is declared). The effect of the delay can also be exerted by the firewall used.