PINGING

When computers are setup on a network (either locally or on the internet) they must have a clear connection to "talk" to each other through. A way to test this is to "ping" another computer on a network. It sends a small message out to a computer you specify and if the other computer receives the message, will send it back to your computer.

To ping another computer click "Start" and select "Run...". Type "command" (95/98/ME) or "cmd" (2000/XP) in the box that appears and press Enter. A black screen will appear.

Simply type "ping", a space, and then type either the name or IP address (find out about IP addresses here) of the computer you would like to test.

It will try to send the small message to that computer 4 times. After it sends the first message, it will either display an error that it could not connect, or display something similar to the image above. If it connects successfully it will display the time taken for the message to be sent and received each time.

The ping feature can be a very handy tool for diagnosing any network problems.