Ping an Internet Server

Each domain name you enter into your web browser is hosted by a server. You can ping an Internet address to receive the IP address of the server. This is accomplished in the Windows command line utility. The command line allows you to enter commands and view a response in plain text. The "ping" command is beneficial for network administrators who troubleshoot connectivity issues with external web host servers.


Instructions

1. Click the Windows "Start" button. In the Start menu's text box, enter "cmd" and press the "Enter" key. This opens your Windows command line utility.
   
2. Enter "ping /?" into the command line. This displays a list of options for the ping command as well as the correct syntax.
   
3. Enter the following text into the command line and press "Enter":
   ping Internet_Domain
   Replace "Internet_Domain" with the name of the domain.
   
4. Review the results. If the server is up and running, the ping command responds with the Internet server's IP address. If the server is down, the ping command returns a time out and notifies you that the server is unreachable.