[from the TCP/IP acronym 'Packet INternet Groper', prob.
originally contrived to match the submariners' term for a sonar
pulse]
1. n. Slang term for a small network message (ICMP ECHO)
sent by a computer to check for the presence and aliveness of
another. Occasionally used as a phone greeting.
See ACK, also ENQ.
2. vt. To verify the presence of.
3. vt. To get
the attention of. From the UNIX command 'ping(1)' that sends
an ICMP ECHO packet to another host.
4. vt. To send a message to
all members of a mailing list requesting an ACK (in order
to verify that everybody's addresses are reachable).
"We haven't
heard much of anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK
both times I pinged jargon-friends."
The funniest use of 'ping' to date was described in January 1991 by
Steve Hayman on the USENET group comp.sys.next. He was trying
to isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to
a NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back to his console
after each cabling tweak to see if the ping packets were getting
through. So he used the sound-recording feature on the NeXT, then
wrote a script that repeatedly invoked 'ping(8)', listened for
an echo, and played back the recording on each returned packet.
Result? A program that caused the machine to repeat, over and
over,
"Ping... ping... ping..."
as long as the network was up. He turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through
the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee connector
in no time.
