5 Reasons to Use Ping to Return the Host Name of a Computer
Ping, the standard tool used to verify that another computer can be reached on the network and that it’s functioning correctly, has a hidden feature that many people don’t know about — it can also return the hostname of the computer you’re pinging! There are five really good reasons why you might want to do this, even if you have another way of getting the hostname of the computer you’re looking at. This tech tip will show you how to use ping to return the host name of any computer on your network!
While waiting for Windows to boot
Ping is an oft-overlooked command with many uses. Check out these five different ways you can use ping for more than just diagnosing network issues.
1) Find if your host is responding by pinging it.
2) Determine if a computer on your network is still online by pinging it from another computer.
When scoping out networks
Ping is an essential tool for information gathering. In this tutorial, we will show you how it can be used with other tools and techniques to more accurately identify different host types.
Ping lets you know if there are any live hosts on the network by timing how long it takes for packets sent from your computer to reach their destination. If no one is home, then it might take 15 seconds or so. But if someone’s at home and connected to the internet, then it should only take 1-2 seconds. Ping isn’t a perfect way to determine who exactly is connected to a particular IP address but in many cases, it’s all you need.
To figure out which computers are members of a domain
We’ve put together 5 reasons why you might need to know the hostname or IP address of a computer. You may have done some preliminary research and decided you don’t want to bother going through with your idea, or maybe you already own this computer but want to learn its host name so that you can turn on Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) so that you can control it remotely. Alternatively, you may be trying to figure out which computers are members of a domain in order to delegate administrative privileges. If you find yourself in any of these situations, here’s how to find out the host name of a computer.
To find out how many IP addresses your Windows PC has
For those using Windows, you can use the ping command with an IP address to see how many IP addresses your computer has. This may come in handy if you ever want to find out how many IP addresses your home router has or which wireless devices are connected. It’s also useful for testing different network setups without changing network settings on each device.
1) Open Command Prompt by typing CMD into Start Menu or by pressing the Windows key + R then type CMD in Run box that appears.
To figure out how much time Windows is spending on updates
To figure out how much time Windows is spending on updates, open up Command Prompt and type: ping localhost -t . This will return how long it takes for your computer to send an echo request to itself. For example, I timed mine at 0.046 seconds. If you’re getting an average of more than 0.2 seconds, you may want to adjust your update settings in Windows Update.
