PING - Packet InterNet Grouper
First appearing in Berkley UNIX, ping uses timed IP/ICMP ECHO_REQUEST and ECHO_REPLY packets to probe the "distance" to the target machine.
- ping uses ICMP Type 8 (echo request)
- Both MSDOS and UNIX ping are type 8 code 0
- Ping works basically the same between the two operating systems.
- Traceroute is different between MSDOS and UNIX.
- Windows uses ICMP traceroute, while UNIX uses UDP.
PING in Visual BASIC
If you're having a hard time finding information about Microsoft's Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) API, get in line! Microsoft does not support or even encourage use of the API, which must be used with a Microsoft Winsock version 1.1 stack if you want to run a true ICMP ping or traceroute utility. This is because the Microsoft Winsock version 1.1 doesn't support raw sockets (Winsock v. 2.0 and later does), which are required to run these utilities.