What is ping and packet loss?
In: Technology
Your computer tries to reach another device sending a packet of data. It is a packet of type ICMP and is specifically designed for getting a reply from whom is pinged. Upon reception, the other device sends back an answer, sometimes referred to as a pong – that is also an ICMP message. Those packages cross the network and after some time, if everything goes right, the pong arrives back to your computer. Your computer usually shows the time that round trip took
However, packets may get lost. Reasons can be incorrectly configured network, incorrect routing, no connection to the network (not plugged in), bad quality of the connection – then the packet gets lost in noise, collisions with other packets (multiple devices send something at the same time resulting in not understanding anything), … Your pinging device waits for some time, and if it doesn’t receive that pong in time it is considered lost.
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