ping is a layer 3 utility. normally you use ping to test whether or not a computer or node can reach another computer or node in a network. most commonly, ping is used to test layer 3 connectivity from one node to another node.

i use ping the most to see if a website is reachable or not. sometimes, a customer will call to report their website is down. the fastest way to find out if the web server is working is to ping the domain name or the ip address, if you get timeouts, its most likely your web server crashed.

in my example above, if my web server crashed, i will get time outs on my ping command. therefore, you will have to troubleshoot.

to troubleshoot, you will have to start at the bottom of the OSI layer. the first layer is the physical layer. these are some physical layers you can check

is the server powered off?
is the cable connected properly?
if the server is powered up, do you see a link light on the server? if the link light is off, this is a good indication that your network is down.

if your network is down, you can troubleshoot the next layer. the mac layer.

is you NIC card working?
is you NIC card driver working properly, this will usually be a result of an update on your server. if you have not updated anything on your server, its possible you may have automatic updates enabled.

the most ping website on the internet is yahoo.com

C:\Users\toshiba>ping yahoo.com

Pinging yahoo.com [98.138.253.109] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 98.138.253.109: bytes=32 time=133ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.138.253.109: bytes=32 time=98ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.138.253.109: bytes=32 time=150ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.138.253.109: bytes=32 time=147ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 98.138.253.109:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 98ms, Maximum = 150ms, Average = 132ms


alright, so the answer to everyone question is can you ping a mac address. the simple straight forward answer is no.

you cannot ping a mac address because a mac address is in layer two, while ping or echo in layer 3.

however, there is a command to check the mac address in your computer. that command is arp

this this command:

arp -a


you will see a list of mac addresses assocated with each ip address. once you can match the mac address to the ip addres, you can just ping the ip address associated with the mac address you want to ping.