I am running Windows XP Home and have a lot of experience in setting up networks. The PC with the problem on the network can access the internet with no problem. However, it cannot access the other PC's on the network using shared resources. It has a proper IP address. It can ping other PC's on the network with no problem. However, the problem PC cannot self ping. It has the proper workgroup and TCP/IP settings. I have checked out the network adapters, drivers and router and all are working properly and I have eliminated them from the problem. I have conducted extensive network diagnostics, repair and renewal and the only error that continues to reappear is the the PC cannot self ping. In reviewing the web, other users have run into this problem and I tried many of there suggestions with no luck. Any advice?

You don't use your own ip. You type PING localhost or PING 127.0.0.1. Let's see if the loopback can be reached.

Sorry for just butting in like this, but I have a network, it's just 2 computers and a cross over cable that I use to share internet and printers from the host computer.

But anyway, I just like exploring the things I can do on the network so just a quick question


What is ping and what would I use it for???


Sorry to bother you

Wormholer 693

Ping is a utility that allows you to test connectivity across a network. It's often used as the first step in diagnosing a problem with accessing a service (e.g. a web page, a file sharing service, etc.) across a network.

The basic form of the command is:

ping <IP address>

When you enter this command your computer will send a special data packet to the computer at the specified IP address, asking that computer to send back an acknowledgement.

If the acknowledgement comes back okay then you know that:-
(a) your computer is connected to the network and can send and receive basic data packets,
(b) the target computer is connected to the network and can send and receive basic data packets, and
© there is a viable network path between the two computers.

This is very useful information when you're trying to diagnose a problem.

You can also ping a hostname (such as www.whitehouse.gov) rather than an IP address. The comand is

ping <hostname>

If you can ping a computer by its IP address but not by its hostname then there's probably something wrong with your computer's name resolution process; i.e. the mechanism by which it converts hostnames into IP addresses. For example, it might not have access to its DNS server(s).

Again, this is useful information when you're trying to diagnose a problem.

In the case of your two-computer network, if you find that you can't print from your second computer then one of your first steps should be to ping your main computer from the second computer. (You can check the IP address of the main computer by using the ipconfig or winipcfg command.) If the ping doesn't work then you know that it's a basic connectivity problem.

You can get a computer to ping itself. This is called loopback pinging. It's not as daft as it may sound, because loopback pinging tests the basic message sending and receiving processes on the computer. (Technically, it checks the lower layers of the TCP/IP protocol stack.) It's a good idea to start with a loopback ping check before crawling around your network looking for loose connections, etc.

As has been mentioned in another message in this thread, you do a loopback ping using either the special loopback IP address:

ping 127.0.0.1

or by using the hostname of the local computer's network adapter

ping localhost

I hope that this helps.

Alastair_M