How to Constantly Ping in a CMD Prompt

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Using the "Ping" command in a command prompt, you can test the communications path from your computer to another device. Running a ping command constantly, rather than the default four packets, may help with troubleshooting connectivity issues. For intermittent issues and troubleshooting, you may wish to increase the number of packets sent, which can be done by passing in a parameter at the command line.

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Step 1

Open the Windows Run box by pressing the Windows key and the letter R.

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Step 2

Type CMD and press enter to open the command prompt.

Step 3

Type "ping " followed by the IP address to ping. The IP address can be on your home network or a valid IP on any network you have access to. IP Addresses are in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. Valid numbers in each octet are 0-255, except in the first octet, which can not have a 0 value.

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Step 4

Type "-t" after the IP address to run the ping continuously or " -n x", replacing x with the desired number of packets to be sent. Press Enter to begin the Ping. After each packet, you will see the ping result for the packet, which will either time out or display a response showing the packet size and time, in milliseconds, to reach the destination.

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Step 5

Press Control and the "C" key at the same time to stop the ping and see the summary statistics. Do this to end a continuous ping or stop a ping command before completing the specified number of packets.

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