ping Hear it!

ping definition - telecom
  1. A utility used to test a path from one host computer to another across an IP-based network in what is essentially a command to echo the packet from the remote host back to the originating host. Ping is an application of the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). Ping was invented by Mike Muuss of the Army Research Laboratory in 1983 to diagnose an IP network problem. Muuss had done a considerable amount of work in college on sonar and radar modeling and was inspired by the principle of echo location. He named the utility after the sound that sonar makes when a signal returns.A lot of people think that ping is an acronym for Packet INternet Groper. According to Muuss, "packet internet groper" is a backronym reverse-engineered by Dr. David L. Mills. Note: Mills warns people that the clock on his wall runs backwards. I guess that explains it. See also acronym, backronym, host, ICMP, IP, radar, sonar, and utility.
  2. Slang for bouncing something off someone, i.e., asking someone a question, as in "Hold on just a minute while I ping Margaret and see if she'd like to join us."

Webster's New World Telecom Dictionary Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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