Glossary · Types of monitoring
Ping is a network test that sends ICMP echo request packets to a host and measures whether, and how fast, echo replies come back. It shows that the host is reachable and the round-trip time to it.
Ping uses ICMP, defined in RFC 792 for IPv4 and RFC 4443 for IPv6, not TCP or HTTP, so it tests only the network path and the host’s network stack. A server can answer ping while its web server or database is down.
Many firewalls and cloud providers block ICMP by default, so a host that doesn’t answer ping isn’t necessarily down. Check that the target is meant to answer before you monitor it this way.
Ping suits routers, VPN endpoints, network devices and hosts without an open port to check, and gives a baseline for latency.
PING example.com: 3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 11.2/11.8/12.6 msUptimecheck ping monitors send three ICMP echo requests 200 ms apart, as often as every minute, and count the host as up when any reply arrives within the timeout, 5 seconds by default. The response time is the median round trip.
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ReadICMP is blocked by a firewall or the hosting provider, while HTTP is allowed. Use an HTTP or port monitor for that host.
The share of echo requests that got no reply. A little loss on a busy link is common; steady loss points at a congested or failing path.
No. It says the host is reachable, not that the site works. Use an HTTP check for websites, and ping for devices that have nothing else to check.
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