I see this term used in video games when checking on the internet connection, but I dont understand completely. Can someone explain?
In: Technology
Ping is equivalent to playing Marco Polo in a pool. Your computer sends out a packet (Marco) and you get a reply back (Polo). Your success at the game is dependent on your ability to quickly get a reply back. If you have to wait 10-15 seconds to hear a “Polo” response, you aren’t going to be nearly as effective and a lot can change in that time.
Ping is a tool that comes on many computers. It measures the time it takes for data to get from that computer to another across the network (like internet). It’s typically measured in milliseconds. It gets its name from Sonar where subs “ping” to determine how far away another sub is. The name of the tool has become synonymous with the measurement (ping of 1ms, for example).
It’s basically a simple measure of latency across the network. The smaller the better, especially for things like games, video, and similar.
Non-ELI5: ping uses ICMP as the underlying protocol. This is a rather small packet so the latency may not be accurate for every use, like if you’re sending larger packets. Some applications implement their own version that basically does the same thing but within their app and using more representative payload sizes.
Its basically just sending a small inconsequential message to the other end to make sure it works. Your ping rate is how fast you can reach out and touch the other side and come back.
Ping is how long it takes for a signal to go from your computer to a server and back to you. A higher ping means that it takes more time to send and receive data; at higher pings, you will most likely experience lag/latency since it takes longer for your information to travel to the server and back. This is SUPER critical in video games where real-time actions are needed, like shooters, RTS games, and MOBAs, since your data needs to get to the server, then be distributed to the other players (and vice versa). A player with lower ping can effectively react faster than a player with higher ping since the lower ping player sends their commands/inputs faster to the server AND receives updates about the current status of the game faster than a higher ping player.
It’s pretty simple. You send a packet out to some destination, be it a router or a server. That server gets the packet and sends a reply. You know when you sent it and when you got the reply back, so now you know how long your packet takes to get there, get processed, and return. Packets are also numbered, so if you send out “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10” and only get “1,5,8,10” back, you know packets are getting lost.
Shows if there are any issues with speed or packet loss along the way.
you send a data packet to a remote computer and see how long it takes them to respond. specifically how long till you get the very first byte of the response back. this tells you what the lag time will be like. this is something inherent in the network connectivity and the only way to reduce it is by connecting to a server that is closer to where you are.
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