| A Ping is a basic Internet program that allows for | | | | independent Ping relay service left with the purchase |
| verification of the existence of a particular IP address. | | | | of by Verisign. The purchase has been received by |
| This is used to ensure that the host computer intended | | | | some quarters with skepticism due to Verisign's |
| to be reached is actually operating. Recent | | | | supposedly checkered history in the blogosphere. All |
| developments have caused people to abandon their | | | | major content producers and companies relying on this |
| existing Ping community and standards which threaten | | | | specific Ping stream are considerably wary of this |
| to alter the positive outlook for Ping. | | | | move. |
| What is Ping All About? | | | | was widely perceived to be a service that has |
| In December 1983, Mike Muuss wrote a program used | | | | stagnated and a business that has declined. It is |
| as a tool to troubleshoot peculiar behavior on an IP | | | | believed to have attempted to monetize what should |
| network. He named it "ping" after the pulses of sound | | | | otherwise be a public service. Users who got |
| made by a sonar. Its operation is considered analogous | | | | frustrated with the situation have chosen to abandon |
| to active sonar in submarines wherein an operator | | | | their existing Ping community and opted to produce |
| issues a pulse of energy at the target which would | | | | their own feeds. There is a need to get competing |
| then bounce back and be received by the operator. | | | | services to work together so that no one gets to |
| An acronym was provided by David Mills to mean | | | | successfully exploit the situation. |
| "Packet Internet Grouper" and by other people as | | | | There are those that believe that under Verisign may |
| "Packed Internet Gopher". | | | | not be the solution to the existing problem in the Ping |
| Its usefulness in terms of assisting the diagnosis of | | | | community but views it as a start of better things to |
| connectivity issue in the Internet was undermined when | | | | come. However, there should be an entity having the |
| several Internet service providers filtered out echo | | | | resources and the ability to command respect among |
| request messages at their network boundaries. The | | | | the tech companies being served that would run it. The |
| use of Ping for target reconnaissance by Internet | | | | cooperation of those that have extensive experience |
| worms in locating new hosts to infect is partly to be | | | | with it can only work to benefit the community as a |
| blamed. Another factor that might have contributed to | | | | whole. |
| the situation is the resulting over all load on networks | | | | The bleak outlook of Ping persisting at this time can be |
| due to the wide availability of Ping responses. | | | | attributed to the fact that it is impossible to leave doors |
| The Ping utility has its unique use being essentially a | | | | open on the web and not have it abused. The traffic |
| system administrator's tool to determine if a computer | | | | gained by blog searches can all expect the same |
| is working or if network connections are intact. Ping | | | | spam problems being experienced by other areas of |
| uses the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) | | | | the web. The problem will only worsen unless some |
| Echo function to send a small packet through the | | | | barriers are put into place. It is also very difficult to |
| network to a particular IP address. The computer that | | | | come up with an algorithmic way to stop Ping spam. |
| sent the packet waits for a return packet. A good | | | | Clearly, the problem is not only about one entity |
| return packet will be received if the connections are | | | | purchasing a particular service. |
| good and the target computer is up. However, it is | | | | Major search players such as Google and Yahoo! are |
| indicative of a problem with the matching of the name | | | | expected to move to a combination of rapid crawling, |
| and the IP address when a packet bounces back. An | | | | trusted Pings and open Pings as a back up. Since they |
| extended period of time used up for the round trip is | | | | are able to get news content very fast, they can |
| likewise indicative of a problem. Ping can also | | | | concentrate on spidering and hammering their trusted |
| determine the number of hops that lie between two | | | | sites. They know the major blogs that really matter |
| computers and the amount of time it takes for a | | | | and be able to discover links from blogs as quickly as |
| packet to make a complete trip. | | | | possible. |
| There are some things that Ping cannot tell. Ping may | | | | Another way is to have people enroll to come up with |
| not be able to always provide the reasons why | | | | trusted Pings. Proper identification through signing up |
| packets go unanswered. Neither can it tell why or | | | | can be used to determine whose Pings are to be |
| where a packet was damaged, delayed or duplicated. | | | | taken in and penalize those who abuse it. A |
| A detailed description of every host that handled the | | | | redistribution of trusted Ping feeds by major players |
| packet and the details that happened along the way | | | | would be ideal but is almost next to impossible since |
| cannot be provided by Ping. | | | | they don't share web crawling data. Major blog |
| Dropped packets are usually detected through a skip | | | | services will most probably continue to be trusted while |
| in the sequence numbers and such number does not | | | | others might take Pings for third party servers. |
| appear again. The probable causes for this are a | | | | Some aver that the real surprise is seeing how open |
| queue that grew too large and link-level failures. | | | | pinging has managed to survive this long. There are |
| Fluctuating round trip times are caused by the same | | | | ways to be done to tackle spam such as through the |
| things responsible for packet loss. Connectivity that | | | | machine learning algorithm and the like. It would |
| comes and goes may be caused by problems in the | | | | probably be best to open the Pings up to the |
| router. | | | | community and let them fix it. |
| The negative creation of the Ping is the so-called Ping | | | | Technorati, Bloglines and Feedster are all closed |
| of Death that essentially crashes a system by sending | | | | systems and Pings sent to them are only available to |
| a Ping packet larger than 65,536 bytes. An IP | | | | their service. Some are hoping to see an open system |
| datagram of this size usually cannot be sent but | | | | of notification and proposes Feedmaster to achieve it. |
| perpetrators apparently chop the packet into small | | | | It hopes to allow a wide variety of new services to be |
| pieces when it is sent down the line and have it rebuilt | | | | able to focus on getting into the stream of updates. At |
| at its destination. The sheer size of the packet causes | | | | present, the various players are still actively |
| the buffer to overflow and results to a reboot or a | | | | participating but whether or not there is indeed a future |
| hang among others. | | | | for Ping would depend on how they act individually as |
| The Ping Outlook | | | | competitors and as common participants in one |
| Ping-O-Matic is the only remaining large-scale and | | | | community. |