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What is the purpose of ping -a command?

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Question added by Muhammad Anzar , DevOps/DevSecOps Architect , Confidential
Date Posted: 2015/02/01
Anas Mujahed
by Anas Mujahed , IT Infrastructure Supervisor , BLOM Bank s.a.l

- check connectivity between devices 

- Check if your DNS resolving  probably 

Nassim Dhaher
by Nassim Dhaher , Dev Sec Ops Engineer , FSC

Check the availabilty of the device on the same or different network

Check the connection speed and the TTL (time to live) - Hop count, to the device.

Check if the IP address to be pinged will resolve to a name

Daneesh Viswanathan
by Daneesh Viswanathan , ICT Project Engineer , Salam Technology

Ping is a command utility to check the the connectivity of devices. Ping -a is used to resolve address to host name. In Linux -a stands for audible ie;  the system will generate beep sound while the peer is reached.

Rajesh Pant
by Rajesh Pant , System Engineer , Tech Mahindra Limited

ping -a command option generally we use to get HOSTNAME information

Ping with syntax -a command perform reverse name resolution on destination ip address. if success, it retrieve the corresponding host name. 

Biruk Hailemariam
by Biruk Hailemariam , System and Network Administrator , Yencomad Construction

ping  -a

- determines whether your computer can communicate with another computer

- check DNS Service is working and Will Resolve IP to Name 

- determine the connection latency (delay) between the two computers.

 

C:\\Users\\Userx>ping -a192.168.25.4

Pinging BDM-DB-2K8 [192.168.25.4] with32 bytes of data: // IP to Name Resolved  With ping -a

Reply from192.168.25.4: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=128

Reply from192.168.25.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from192.168.25.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from192.168.25.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for192.168.25.4:    Packets: Sent =4, Received =4, Lost =0 (0% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:    Minimum =0ms, Maximum =1ms, Average =0ms

C:\\Users\\Userx>ping192.168.25.4

Pinging 192.168.25.4 with32 bytes of data:         // No IP to Name Resolved Using just Ping

Reply from192.168.25.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from192.168.25.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from192.168.25.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from192.168.25.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for192.168.25.4:    Packets: Sent =4, Received =4, Lost =0 (0% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:    Minimum =0ms, Maximum =0ms, Average =0ms

 

Saqib Mehmood
by Saqib Mehmood , Technical Team Lead/Safety Supervisor , Xchange Technology Group

Ping works on Network layer of OSI models which uses ICMP protocol to check the connectivity between devices

Ragesh Vadakkedath Ramachandran
by Ragesh Vadakkedath Ramachandran , IT Administrator , Nippon Motor Corporation (P) Ltd

"Packet Internet Groper" - PING : Ping is a computer network administration software utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer.

Gift Shoko
by Gift Shoko , Network Engineer , Sizwe IT

A beep is produced when a peer is reachable.

Emaduddin Ali
by Emaduddin Ali , Technical Support Specialist , Al Jomaih Automotive Co.

Ping Command have a lot of options (-a) is one of them and its going to ping and resolve addresses to hostnames from DNS.

Muhammad Fahad Waseem
by Muhammad Fahad Waseem , Senior System and Network Engineer , Abtach

resolves address to host names.

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