Articles

The «Ping» is one of the most important basic commands that we can use to diagnose problems in the network. It can help us find out if a computer is connected, check if a network resource is active or if a web page is down. In common operating systems, there is a tool to ping, although it must be recognized that there are more complete programs that offer more functionalities. Thus, when we have high ping on a computer, it can be a sign that something is not working well. In this tutorial we will explain why sometimes the ping of the connection is very high and how to check where the failure is.

The point where we focus our gaze on our connection usually speeds. However, there is also another very important element that can affect us. This is the ping or latency, in the case of having a high ping it can cause unsatisfactory Internet browsing. In addition, it can have a negative impact when we play online, in audio calls and also, of course, in video calls. We are going to start by explaining what ping is, how we can find out and the correct values ​​to have. We will also talk about the causes that cause us to have a very high connection ping.

What is ping and what is it used for

The ping can be defined as a command for diagnosing networks that will allow us to check the status of communication between the local computer and one or more destination computers for what is going to use the IP protocol. Its way of working is as follows, when pinging an IP, it sends an ICMP Echo Request message to the destination host, and when the destination host receives it, it replies. The reply is made with an ICMP Echo Reply message.

Based on that response, the minimum, average, and maximum time it takes to respond is calculated. If no response is obtained within a predetermined time, it will indicate that there is no connection to the host, that the network is unreachable, or other types of errors.

 

 

Nowadays it is increasingly common to have a printer connected to our local network by Wi-Fi or network cable. In the event that the printing fails, we can make a series of checks. If we ping the printer and it answers, that may be a sign that we have a driver problem or something is wrongly configured. On the other hand, in case of not responding to the ping, it is that the failure has to be related to the network because an IP is not assigned or we have an IP conflict. Another thing could be something physical that affects the router, network cabling or the printer itself.

Find out if the connection ping is high

The first thing we must explain is that we can use the ping command in two very different ways:

• At the level of our home network: to check the status of our equipment and network resources. An example could be the printer that we put in the previous section.

• Regarding our Internet connection: if it works normally, or if there is a fault that our ISP or Internet provider must fix.

In principle, we have to start by checking that our home or office network is working properly. The easiest way to do this would be by pinging the router. For this we need to know your IP, which in many cases we can find on a sticker that comes below. In the hypothetical case that it does not appear in Windows, we can do it using a Command Prompt window. You can find it in the Start Menu or by executing the CMD command.

Once in the Command Prompt window we have to enter this command:

ipconfig /all

These are the results that we would obtain where the gateway is the IP of our router.

 

 

Then, in the same window we write ping, add the IP of our router and press enter. Here is an example of pinging our router connected by a network cable.

 

 

The results show that we have sent 4 packages, we have received 4 back and we have not lost any. Regarding the response time, it was less than 1 millisecond.

As for when we can say that the ping of the connection is very high in our local network, it will depend on the way in which we connect. If it is via Ethernet cable it should be less than 1 millisecond and if we are connected by WiFi the maximum recommended ping would be 5-8 milliseconds.

Remember that the lower the ping, the better. In the case of the previous example, being less than 1 millisecond is a good result. On the other hand, if we don't get a response to the ping and all the packets are lost, the failure may be in:

1. The router: that is turned off, faulty or incorrectly configured.

2. Software level failure in the configuration of laptops and PCs. For example, lack of drivers or that we have incorrectly configured the TCP / IP of Windows.

3. Network card or Wi-Fi device hardware problems.

4. The network cable has been damaged, trying another if you have it can be a good solution.

Ping on Android and IOS

You can also check the ping on a smartphone or tablet. The difference with Windows is that to be able to do it, we are going to have to use applications. An example of an app that we can use is Fing. After the detection of the elements of our network, we click on our router in a sustained way, we touch ping and it will offer us results like these:

 

Here we have to look at the average ping. Remember that the connection ping is very high for Wifi when it exceeds 10 milliseconds. As I have obtained 3 ms the results are within limits and are very good.

Also two other Android apps that we could also use are He.net Network Tools and NetX Network Tools.

Regarding iOS for Apple devices, we can use Network Ping Lite and also iNetTools – Ping, DNS, Port Scan.

Causes of high ping

Now we are going to discuss the situations in which the connection ping is very high. Sometimes it should be noted that the cause is due to our Internet provider because, for example, it has a fault and they are not 100% operational. In these cases, the only thing that can be done is to report the fault or ask our ISP to review our connection in case it observes a fault that can be corrected or can make the modification of any parameter that benefits us. Also, changing DNS servers for different ones from providers can sometimes improve Internet browsing.

A fairly common cause is poor Wi-Fi coverage. If we are far from the router and we have a lot of interference with nearby WiFi networks or other devices, we can have problems. At the moment we have coverage with low signal, in addition to harming the connection speed, it also affects the ping. Therefore, architectural barriers such as walls, distance, and interference are the main enemies of Wi-Fi.

 

 

Another problem can be network saturation by other computers that use the network intensively. For example, when using P2P programs, uploading or downloading files from a server. This can cause latency to increase a lot and we have problems when playing online or making a video call.

It may also be the case that we have malware on our computers. This, in addition to causing security risks, increases the ping when our connection is used improperly. To end this section, a good policy would be to review the programs or applications that we have running in the background.

Solutions to apply when the connection ping is high

One of the possible solutions if our equipment allows it, would be to connect by Ethernet network cable. Some candidates to do so are the PC, the laptop, the Smart TV and some printers. We also need to look at the computers that are connected and what they are doing. Especially we must control that our equipment does not saturate the network and check if we have intruders.

Finally, we could also consider changing the router. If it offers us the characteristics we need, it may be an option. Sometimes the router performs well but there are areas of the house that have poor coverage. Then you can choose to buy an access point or Wi-Fi Mesh system.

 

 

As you have seen in this tutorial, if the ping of the connection is very high it can affect your experience on the Internet, you have also learned what the causes are and some possible solutions to minimize latency or also called ping.

 

Link: https://www.redeszone.net/tutoriales/redes-cable/ping-conexion-elevado-causas-soluciones/