Do a ping test on Windows

Internet connections can be finicky at times and it can be difficult to figure out if the problem is on your end or if there is something wrong with the connection itself. In such situations, ping tests can help determine whether you are connected to the Internet and how stable your connection is. Here’s how to do a ping test in Windows.

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What is a ping test?

Ping is a measure of latency in a network. Measured in milliseconds, this is the time it takes a piece of data, usually 32 or 64 bytes, to move from one computer to another and back. A ping test is a test to ping a computer at the address using its IP address or domain name. A ping test can be a quick and easy way to check connectivity and connection stability.

In Windows, a ping test also returns additional information about the connection, such as packet loss, minimum, maximum, and average ping time. These stats can also help provide a little more context as to why you might be experiencing network issues.

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Do a ping test on Windows

Follow these steps to run a ping test on Windows.

• Open Command Prompt from Windows Search by typing command prompt or cmdand click on the top result.
• In the command prompt, type ping <IP address or website you want to ping> and press Enter† For example, ping 8.8.8.8 or ping google.com†
• Windows will run the ping test and you can see it in progress, the result and some associated stats when done.

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Read Ping Test Results

A ping test in Windows will return the results along with some statistics. Here are the main parts of the output.

• Size of data: The ping test indicates how much data is pinged, usually 32 bytes.
• Time: This figure refers to the ping itself, measured in milliseconds, say 13 ms, as seen in the screenshot above.
• TTL: This is the Time To Live, which follows the route of the data packet as you ping it. It reports how many hops it can do before being discarded. The maximum value is 128. The value that CMD displays is the number of hops remaining.
• Packages sent and received: This is how often the data is pinged, usually four times, referred to as Packets sent and received. The numbers for both must be the same for a successful test, and a lower number received indicates connection problems, where zero means a loss of connection. Loss represents the number of packets lost, along with a percentage.
• Ping stats† Minimum shows the best ping figure, Maximum shows the worst ping number, and Average shows the average ping rating, which we generally consider to be the most important result of the ping test.

A sending failed, or Request timeout message indicates a failed ping test. This may mean that your connection is having problems or that the address you are trying to ping is not available.

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Frequently Asked Questions